Childish Gambino, Elton John Pay Tribute to Mac Miller

By Variety Staff

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – The tributes to Mac Miller, who died Friday of an apparent drug overdose , continued on concert stages Saturday night, with Childish Gambino and Elton John remembering the rapper.

In Chicago, Gambino (aka Donald Glover) asked fans not “commodify this moment” by filming him, although many did.

“I’m a very sensitive person… but this sh– got me f—ed up,” he said. “He was the sweetest guy, he was so nice. And we were both internet music kids, and a lot of critics were like, ‘This corny-ass white dude, this corny-ass black dude,’ and we used to talk. And this kid, he just loved music.”

He added that people “should be allowed to be sad about it. My heart was broken and I feel good about being sad because it tells me that he was special, that I had a special moment… Everybody in this room deserves that.”

He dedicated his song ‘Riot’ to Miller, adding, “I just wanna say ‘I love you, Mac, and I just want to tell you that I love you and this song is for him because I feel like sometimes he wanted to let go.”

And in Allentown, Pennsylvania, at the opening show of his three-year farewell tour, dedicated his 1974 hit “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” to Miller, “Who unbelievably, at 26, passed away. It’s inconceivable that someone so young and with so much talent could do that,” he said. “I would like to pass all of our love and best wishes to his loved ones, his family, his friends. Mac, wherever you are, I hope you’re happy now.”