X Japan Founder, Yoshiki, Awarded Asian Icon Reward at the Classic Rock Award

Yoshiki had quite the wonderful night at the Classic Rock Awards last Friday in Tokyo. The Classic Rock Awards is regarded by many of the world’s rock stars as the “annual must-attend event.” The show brings together rock’s global Hall of Fame.

The X Japan founder opened up for the prestigious annual award show with a very memorable classic piano performance, featuring renditions of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” and X Japan’s very own “Art of Life.” Yoshiki’s performance was praised by rock legends such as Def Leppard, Jeff Beck and Cheap Trick. To make things better, later that night he was honored with the first ever Asian Icon Award. Upon receiving the prestigious award he had a few words to say.

“So many artists in Asia are going overseas and Asian rock is growing worldwide. X Japan, is proud to be one of them and if there’s a wall between east and west, the wall is getting lower and thinner. I’m going to break this wall. It’s an honor to receive this award. I would like to dedicate this award to the members of X Japan, especially Hide and Taiji. Thank you very much.” –Yoshiki–

On January 12th and 13th of next year, Carnegie Hall will present “Yoshiki Classical: Featuring Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra.” This performance will also mark Yoshiki’s first Carnegie Hall debut.

Currently Yoshiki is on a world tour greeting audiences for the X Japan documentary, We Are X, at film festivals around the world. We Are X is story of how X Japan became one of biggest rock bands not only in Japan, but around the world.

Below are the Yoshiki Classical and X Japan current tour dates: