Miley Cyrus joins Def Leppard on stage at the Taylor Hawkins tribute concert
During the Taylor Hawkins tribute concert in Los Angeles, pop star Miley Cyrus took the stage with Def Leppard and the surviving members of Foo Fighters for a memorable performance of ‘Photograph’.
The Hannah Montana star sang the Def Leppard classic from 1983 in a duet with singer Joe Elliott. Before Cyrus hit the stage, Def Leppard were joined by Dave Grohl, Weezer drummer Pat Wilson and Foo Fighters guitarists Pat Smear and Chris Shiflett for a rendition of ‘Rock of Ages’, with Smear addressing the crowd: “I came here in 1983 to hear this band play this song.”
Cyrus was just one of a rolling cast of big names to pay tribute in performance during the concert. The line-up included Alanis Morissette, members of Motley Crue, Pink, Soundgarden’s Matt Cameron and Kim Thayil and Black Sabbath’s Geezer Butler.
One of the evening’s highlights came as Blink-182’s Travis Barker took Hawkins’ place as drummer for Foo Fighters, and Joan Jett emerged front and centre for renditions of ‘Cherry Bomb’ from 1984’s Glorious Results of a Misspent Youth and ‘Bad Reputation’ from her self-titled 1980 album.
Joan Jett has long been a friend of Foo Fighters and their late drummer. Back in March, the former Blackhearts frontwoman paid one of the earliest tributes to the fallen rock star, praising “one of the greatest drummers of our time” during a performance just hours after his death on March 25th.
A couple of months later, Jett remembered her late friend, Hawkins, during an interview with NME. The singer recalled the late Foo Fighter as “a fuckin’ wonderful guy” before adding: “[He] would light up a room. Kick-ass drummer.” She also recalled how she and her band, The Blackhearts, first met the Foos in 2010, when they “all really hit it off”.
Discussing their joint performance on Late Night With David Letterman in 2011, Jett concluded: “Just little things like that, they included me in. It was very, sort of, familial. We’re all sittin’ backstage, runnin’ through songs. I can see [Taylor] now on his drum pad, whacking away. He’s a wonderful guy.”
At this moment in time, official footage from the Taylor Hawkins tribute concert is yet to be released, but in the meantime, you can watch some crowd-shot footage of this supergroup performing Jett’s ‘Cherry Bomb’ below.
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