Michael J. Fox joined Coldplay to play the electric guitar on stage during the band’s record-breaking fifth headline Glastonbury set on Saturday night.
In one of the UK festival’s standout moments, Fox – who is something of a guitar hero himself thanks to his turn as Marty McFly in Back To The Future – was brought out in front of a crowd that reportedly exceeded 100,000 people to perform two encore tracks.
Fox was welcomed to the stage by vocalist Chris Martin, who had previously paid tribute to the UK festival's legendary co-creator Michael Eavis.
While strumming away on his acoustic guitar, Martin quipped: “Here’s another legendary Michael, one who totally rocks. With his Chuck Berry riff, and the way he punched [Back to the Future bully] Biff, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Michael J. Fox.”
Wielding an especially eye-catching Fender Stratocaster that looked to sport a peach/pink finish and Lace Sensor pickups, Fox joined a packed on-stage assembly to help strum through Humankind, before layering up guitarist Jonny Buckland’s awe-inspiring outro lead line from evergreen crowd pleaser Fix You – the penultimate song of the set.
Martin, who knelt by Fox for much of the latter song, also gave a nod to Fox’s influential Back To The Future guitar moment with some impromptu Johnny B. Goode callbacks. The performance can be seen below.
The reaction to Fox’s presence on stage proved overwhelming for some attendees, and a few members of the audience were seen to be visibly emotional following the film legend’s introduction.
When it was time for Fox to depart, Martin heaped praise on the 63-year-old – who has been battling Parkinson’s since 1991 – telling the crowd he was the reason the band formed in the first place.
“Especially thank you to the main reason why we’re in a band, is because of watching Back to the Future,” Martin said. “So thank you to our hero forever, and one of the most amazing people on Earth, Mr. Michael J. Fox. Thank you so much, our hero.”
Coldplay were performing their record-breaking fifth headline Glastonbury set, having first played the festival’s iconic Pyramid Stage back in 2002.
Saturday’s show was also the second time Fox has featured during one of those headline sets. Back in 2016, he performed Johnny B. Goode in its entirety with Martin and co.
“Glastonbury, all the love and thanks to the @coldplay team who took such great care of us,” Fox wrote on Instagram after the show. “And many thanks to Chris, Will, Johnny, Guy and Phil.
“Oh yeah in case you were wondering…it was f*cking mind-blowing. There is a time for every band and a band for every time. This is @coldplay’s time.”
Coldplay are by no means the only group of musicians to have been inspired by Back to the Future, which found Fox ripping through Chuck Berry's Johnny B. Goode on a famously historically inaccurate Gibson ES-345.
To that end, it was revealed last year that the scene – recorded using a Strat copy with a Floyd Rose – almost featured a Fender Stratocaster instead.
