The Best Surprise Guest Appearances In Classic Rock Concert History

Going to a concert to see your favorite band or artist is really a celebratory event, because instead of having a solitary music experience, you get to enjoy songs in a party-like setting with other passionate fans. What's even better is when an unannounced artist walks onstage to perform. Occasionally, concert-goers have been fortunate enough to catch some of the biggest surprise guests in classic rock history, and we've compiled a look at those unexpected performances.

These guest appearances made our list for different reasons, whether it's the interesting backstory that led to them showing up, the sheer magic the guest and the main artist created when performing together, or just how the crowd reacted. But one thing all of these surprise performances have in common is they're still being talked about all of these years later, and they've become important parts of music history. From Elton John bringing out a fellow music legend to Tina Turner doing the same, all of these surprise appearances should brighten your day at the very least.

A friendly wager between two music icons created one of the most talked about surprise stage visits in music history. The bet was between Elton John and John Lennon while Lennon was working on the song "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night." John was tapped to sing and play piano on the record, and he agreed to do it under one condition: That the Beatles member would join him on stage at Madison Square Garden if the song went No. 1 on the charts.

Well, it did, on November 16, 1974, so making good on his promise, Lennon joined the "Tiny Dancer" singer at the New York venue later that month on Thanksgiving night, and the crowd had no idea that he was coming on stage. "Seeing as it's Thanksgiving, we thought we'd make tonight a bit of a joyous occasion by inviting someone up with us onto stage," John teased.
"And ah, I'm sure he will be no stranger to anybody in the audience when I say it's our great privilege and your great privilege to see and hear Mr. John Lennon!"

The cheers and screams seemed to shake the arena while Lennon came to the stage with guitar in hand, and then he and John launched into "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night." They also played "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," as well as "I Saw Her Standing There," a 1963 Beatles release. Sadly, it would be Lennon's final stage show before he was killed in 1980, but the memories and live recordings of the songs will live on forever.

So, imagine this: One night you decide to head to Buddy Guy's club in Chicago, the Checkerboard Lounge, to see blues legend Muddy Waters, which is exciting enough. Then, during the show, you peer over and see the members of the Rolling Stones sitting in the audience, and Waters calls them to the stage as he's performing. All of that really happened on November 22, 1981, with Mick Jagger being called to the stage first and helping Waters sing "Baby Please Don't Go."

"What about Keith?," Waters says later, referring to Keith Richards, who walks on tables to get to the stage. Richards is then handed an electric guitar and proceeds to make it rip. Ronnie Wood came to the stage after that, and once he started playing, Jagger was in full Jagger mode, shimmying, spinning, and hopping the best he could for such a small stage. If anything, it further proved that there will never be another rock star like Mick Jagger. 

So, even though it was an epic night for the audience, it was probably more amazing for the Stones, seeing that they idolized Waters and famously got their band name from his 1950 song "Rollin' Stone." "You want to be a blues player, the next minute you f****** well are and you're stuck right amongst them, and there's Muddy Waters standing next to you," wrote Richards in his memoir "Life" (via Far Out Magazine). "It's one thing to play a Muddy Waters song. It's another thing to play with him." 

The year was 1969, and Bob Dylan hadn't played publicly for some time after having a motorcycle crash in 1966, so the last thing the crowd at the Mississippi River Festival probably expected was The Band to bring him to the stage for a performance, but they did just that.

So, in front of a crowd of roughly 4,000 people, Dylan and The Band ended up playing cover songs, such as Clarence Henry's "Ain't Got No Home," Little Richard's "Slippin' and Slidin' (Peepin' and Hidin')," and the folk song "In the Pines."

It could be said that festival-goers got a big bang for their buck in the literal sense since organizers only charged between $1 and $5.50 for tickets that year, a huge steal even for 1969. An even luckier part for the audience is that Dylan only played three shows that year, so they were among a very rare group of music fans.

In 1984, David Bowie and Tina Turner released a version of Iggy Pop's "Tonight" and gave a historic performance at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, England, the following year. Turner was on her "Private Dancer Tour" at the time, playing the first of two shows, and giving the audience a smorgasbord of music, such as covers, Ike & Tina Turner songs, and her own material. But no one knew that Bowie would be coming to the stage that first night since it wasn't marketed or mentioned to the public. 

Turner began "Tonight" by herself before Bowie came out of nowhere, standing behind her and singing the chorus. He, in a white tuxedo-like jacket; Turner sporting black leather, and both of them gave an impassioned performance, which the crowd ate up like dinner.

The two legends shared a dance at one point in the song as well and showed plenty of affection to each other. Then when the song was done, Turner was beaming like someone who was relieved to finally reveal the big secret. "Good surprise, huh?" she said to the crowd. Bowie followed that up by saying he was honored to share the stage with Turner after standing witness, and probably in awe, of her many shows over the years. The two then launched into Bowie's " "Let's Dance."