Credit: Jabari JacobsTwenty One Pilots has had a big year: the Columbus, Ohio duo earned their first number-one album on the Billboard 200 with Blurryface, they headlined sold-out shows on a massive summer tour, and they performed on MTV's Video Music Awards for the first time. However, that VMAs performance almost didn't happen.
"There was an artist they mentioned [to collaborate with us] and we said, 'Thank you, but we're going to pass. It doesn't make sense for us for a number of reasons,'" frontman Tyler Joseph tell Alternative Press. "And we thought that was it: We had blown our chance to play the VMAs -- and it's gone forever. But it was a good decision and it made sense."
Then MTV suggested Twenty One Pilots could perform alongside rapper A$AP Rocky.
"I started diving into what he's all about, and although it's very different from [where] we're coming, there was a like-mindedness," Joseph explains. "It was one of the favorite moments of my career. Not because of what everyone saw, but just the learning process of working with another artists and working with the politics of what it means to work on a stage that big."
During the VMAs performance, Twenty One Pilots and A$AP Rocky played a medley of both their songs, including "HeavyDirtySoul" and "Lane Boy." It was the second-most Shazamed moment during the awards show.
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