Starting off with a serious note. Coldplay kicked off its Monday, October 2, show in Portland, Oregon, with a minute of silence to honor the victims of the horrific mass shooting that took place the night before in Las Vegas. During the massacre, a gunman killed 59 people and injured another 527.
Following the moment of silence, the band launched into its tribute to the late Tom Petty, who died earlier that night. Chris Martin, along with R.E.M.’s Peter Buck on the guitar, took the stage to honor Petty in front of a full crowd at the Moda Center with the band’s moving rendition of his iconic song “Free Fallin’.”
Coldplay shared a video of the performance on its Facebook page Monday night. “Following the moment of silence, Peter Buck joined the band for this wonderful rendition of Freefalling by Tom Petty,” the band captioned the clip of the set.
The performance came shortly after news broke that the rock legend passed away on Monday, October 2. Celebrities flooded social media to pay homage to the late singer, and Coldplay honored Petty in the best way they knew how —
As previously reported, Petty, 66, died of cardiac arrest. His longtime manager Tony Dimitriades confirmed the rocker’s passing in a statement to Us Weekly on behalf of the singer’s family: “He suffered cardiac arrest at his home in Malibu in the early hours of this morning and was taken to UCLA Medical Center but could not be revived. He died peacefully at 8:40 p.m. PT surrounded by family, his bandmates and friends.”
