At 9:22 pm, Miley Cyrus joined Def Leppard onstage at the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert at the Kia Forum in L.A. for a performance of “Photograph” off Def Leppard’s 1983 album Pyromania (LA Times). Miley Cyrus has finally found her voice as she once again embraces her capacity for rock covers as she joins rock legend Def Leppard to celebrate Taylor Hawkins’ musical legacy in a song that captures the longevity of the late drummer’s presence both on the stage and to his fans and loved ones alike.
Def Leppard and Miley Cyrus join together to express how much Hawkins will be missed and how photographs are not, and will not, be enough to make up for Hawkins no longer being in their lives as they sing, “Look what you’ve done to this rock ‘n’ roll clown/Look what you’ve done/I gotta have you/Photograph/I don’t want your photograph/I wanna touch you.” Albeit a rock classic, the song’s words demonstrate a longing for the late drummer’s talents, humor, and personality that can now only live on in his music, his interviews, and in his photographs.
Miley Cyrus also once again comes through for The Foo Fighters, mourning the loss of her longtime friend through music. After Hawkins’ tragic death only a few hours ahead of the band’s scheduled appearance at the Festival Estereo Picnic in Bogota, Colombia, Cyrus gave an emotional performance in memory of him, dedicating her set at Lollapalooza Brazil, an event at which The Foo Fighters were also set to perform at, to Hawkins himself a few days later. When asked about how she was feeling about his death on March 27th, the young singer responded, “I would have done anything to hang out with him one more time,” in the midst of tears (ET Online).
Hawkins’ death will be hard to overcome, and the mass amount of performers who came together on September 27th to celebrate the late drummer’s life and legacy proves that the influence he had on so many people around him will last for a very long time.
When heading to an Asunciónico music festival on March 23rd, just days before Lollapalooza Brazil, Miley Cyrus’ plane was forced to make an emergency landing after the aircraft was struck by lightning. Terrified, Cyrus called Taylor Hawkins. Read more about the plane crash here and her phone call to Hawkins here.
In other news, read about Miley Cyrus’ debut performance of her new single “You” during a New Year’s Eve event here.