Canadian actor Michael J. Fox joined Coldplay on stage for an emotional performance at England’s Glastonbury Festival Saturday.
The Back to the Future star, who lives with Parkinson’s disease, came out on stage in a wheelchair and joined on guitar for the British band’s hits Humankind and Fix You. A sea of fans sang along.
“The main reason we’re in a band is because of watching Back to the Future,” Coldplay singer Chris Martin said on stage during Fix You. “So thank you to our hero forever and one of the most amazing people on Earth, Mr. Michael J. Fox. Thanks so much, Michael.”
Martin was referencing a scene from the 1985 film in which Fox, having time-travelled to 1955, performs Chuck Berry’s Johnny B. Goode at a high school prom, introducing the dumbfounded crowd to rock ‘n’ roll. Fox previously joined Coldplay on stage in 2016 to cover Johnny B. Goode.
The actor thanked Coldplay in an Instagram post Sunday and shared several photos from Glastonbury.
“Oh yeah in case you were wondering … it was f*cking mind blowing,” he wrote. “There is a time for every band and a band for every time. This is @coldplay’s time.”
More than 200,000 people attended this year’s festival, according to the BBC.
Fox, who grew up in Edmonton and Burnaby, B.C., broke out as an actor with a role on the sitcom Family Ties before his leading role in Back to the Future and its two sequels.
He revealed in 1998 that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1991 at age 29, and has since worked to raise funds and awareness with his non-profit organization, The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. Fox retired from acting in 2020.
At his first-ever concert, 10-year-old Leo Toevs was picked out of the crowd, and Coldplay frontman Chris Martin sang him a very personal birthday song.
