During this week’s emotional tribute concert to late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, Miley Cyrus performed the Def Leppard classic ‘Photograph’. It turns out that Hawkins himself once insisted she would kill a cover of the song. 

Cyrus shared a touching old voicemail she received from Hawkins in which he urged her to have a go at taking on ‘Photograph’.

“A personal request from the legend himself. #TaylorHawkins my friend, my idol…. My neighbor,” wrote Cyrus on Twitter. “Growing up on a farm I never could see the light of another house nearby, but living by Taylor for the years that I did out in LA were some of the most fun times of my life.”

In the accompanying voicemail, Hawkins’ voice can just be made out on the scratchy recording. “What up Miley? It’s Taylor. I heard you’re movin’. Waaah!,” he says. “I’m listening to ‘Photograph’ by Def Leppard. You could kill that one.”

In a follow-up tweet, Cyrus added, “So lucky to have known him not just as a superstar but to have spent time watching him just be a dad and a husband!”

During the tribute concert this week, Miley Cyrus did indeed crush her cover of ‘Photograph’, welcomingly accompanied by Leppard singer Joe Elliott and guitarist Phil Collen.

Her moment was just one highlight of a mammoth six-hour set that also featured – brace yourself – performances from the likes of Rush, Queen, Wolfgang Van Halen, Alanis Morissette, Jack Black, Dave Chapelle, Mark Ronson, The Darkness, Queens Of The Stone Age, Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath, Lars Ulrich of Metallica, and Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic.

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In a recent interview on The Plug W/ Justin Jay, Foo Fighters guitarist Chris Shiflett blasted cruel conspiracy theories about Hawkins’ death.

“Taylor was this big character and he meant a lot to millions of people so I get that fascination with [his death], but so much of what I’ve seen out there is so completely wrong,” he said.

“There’s people out there saying shit like Dave (Grohl) killed Taylor by making him get the COVID vaccine. You’re going to turn it into that? Fuck you. I try not to pay attention to it but it does make you angry because that shit is just disrespectful.”

For more on this topic, follow the Classic Rock Observer.

https://twitter.com/mileycyrus/status/1575232608908476416?s=21

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