Chris Willman presents the International Achievement in Music award to Yoshiki | Variety Hitmakers - video Dailymotion

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Transcript

00:00When I first met him last year I heard him give a gorgeous instrumental piano

00:03performance and he struck me as one of the most gentle, elegant, virtuoso

00:07musicians I've ever encountered. But I had to reconcile for myself it's the same

00:11guy I've seen in multiple documentaries and film footage bashing the drums of

00:15the legendary band X-Japan and bashing them rather violently I might add. When he

00:22was once asked to name the albums that changed his world the first two albums

00:24he ticked off were Kiss Alive 2 and Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. So maybe

00:30there was some inevitability to his becoming the first musician in history

00:33become equally renowned as the drummer frontman for an 80s metal band and as a

00:38neoclassical pianist. I love that. He sold more than 30 million albums with

00:43X-Japan and last year he brought his classical world tour to venues ranging

00:48from the Royal Albert Hall and Carnegie Hall to here at the Dolby Hall. But that's

00:54not the end of his different interests. He has two fashion lines so you'll see

00:59him in Paris and Milan this year if you're there and charitably he was named

01:03one of Forbes Asia's 30 heroes of philanthropy. Among one-offs my walkout

01:10music there was a theme he wrote for the Golden Globes but he's also working now

01:13on a global theme for Hello Kitty which brings us to the point that he's the

01:18first living person to have a Hello Kitty doll named after him, Yoshi Kitty.

01:24He's spent decades now inspiring fans around the world with his passion, talent

01:29and I would add his empathy. He was originally scheduled to receive this

01:33award at a Variety event earlier this year but he ended up not being able to

01:37make it. Happily he's here with us today to accept Variety's International

01:42Achievement in Music Award. Please join me in welcoming Yoshiki.