The highlights came thick and fast at the second Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert, held at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California, and not many were thicker or faster than Def Leppard's mighty rendition of their classic 1983 classic Photograph, aided and abetted by various Foo Fighters as well as popular music icon Miley Cyrus.
The pairing took place 21 songs into the show, which had already seen performances from the likes of Joan Jett, James Gang and Them Crooked Vultures, and was followed by an appearance from Motley Crue where Vince Neil's shoes were filled by Derek Day, frontman with the Stadium Tour's opening act, Classless Act. Def Leppard opened their two-song set with another classic from Pyromania, Rock Of Ages.
Cyrus has a history with this sort of thing: she also generated rave reviews for her appearance at the Chris Cornell Tribute Concert, held at the same venue in 2019, where she sang Cornell’s Two Drink Minimum and Temple Of The Dog's Say Hello 2 Heaven. She also made her love of grunge clear with a rather beautiful take on Pearl Jam’s Just Breathe, filmed in 2020 for MTV Unplugged Presents Miley Cyrus Backyard Sessions.
And, of course, there's that long-rumoured album of Metallica covers, which she brought up during a conversation with Interview magazine in 2020. Asked what she was up to, she replied: “We’ve been working on a Metallica cover album and I’m here working on that. We’re so lucky to be able to continue to work on our art during all of this. At first, it felt uninspiring and now I’ve been totally ignited."
Two years on there's no sign of it, but at least Photograph keeps the idea floating around the ether.
The Taylor Hawkins tribute show from Wembley Stadium, London, is available to watch on-demand with a Paramount+ subscription.
