Rock drummer, classical pianist and X Japan bandleader Yoshiki has been celebrating a summer of firsts. To start off, there’s his new film, Yoshiki: Under the Sky, which marks his directorial debut and combines live performances and virtual collaborations recorded during lockdown. Guest musicians include The Chainsmokers, St. Vincent, Sarah Brightman, the Scorpions, Nicole Scherzinger, Yoshiki's current Last Rockstars bandmates Hyde and Sugizo and more.

Interspersed among Under the Sky's musical performances is footage of Yoshiki talking about his art, his song inspiration and his emotional struggle following the suicide of his father when he was 10 years old as well as the deaths of two X Japan members, Hide and Taiji. The musician has been very open about these events in recent years, including in the 2016 X Japan documentary We Are X, and he feels this transparency has helped him cope and provide solace to people in similar situations. In the film, he speaks to a fan who says his music comforted his wife during her battle with a terminal illness.

As Yoshiki told HITS: "Positive thinking and moving forward can support people. The film is titled Under the Sky. It means we are still under the sky; we are still living. We are not going up in the sky yet. We have some kind of mission while we are living, so why not live as much as we can while we have this life?”

Under the Sky received its international premiere in New York City Thursday, 9/7, and was screened in Tokyo 9/8 and London 9/11. The L.A. screening, 9/14, occurs the same day Yoshiki will become the first Japanese artist to have his handprints committed to cement at Hollywood's famous Chinese Theatre. His friends KISS bassist/singer Gene Simmons and Squid Game actor Lee Byung-hun will attend and make remarks honoring the veteran rocker.

Next month, Yoshiki will embark on Requiem, his 10^th anniversary tour for the Classical album, which in 2013 hit #1 on iTunes charts in 10 countries. He will be the first Japanese musician to headline shows at the Tokyo Garden Theater, Royal Albert Hall, Dolby Theater and Carnegie Hall. Yoshiki will present famed classical pieces and original works with an orchestra, including his latest single “Requiem,” written for his mother after she passed away in 2022. The musician-composer also wants to try something new—a live drum solo, unusual in a classical setting.

Yoshiki has been juggling multiple musical projects lately, and he enjoys moving between musical worlds. X Japan, which has sold 30 million albums and sold out the famed Tokyo Dome a record 18 times, just released its first single in eight years, the power ballad “Angel.” It’s a taste of their long-awaited new studio album, their first in 27 years. Yoshiki's supergroup the Last Rockstars, which includes fellow J-rock artists singer Hyde, guitarist-violinist Sugizo and guitarist Miyavi, recently put out their second single, “Psycho Love,” a modern hard-rock track with dance inflections, months after their live North American debuts in L.A. and New York.

Another likely first involves Yoshiki's “audition” process for Under the Sky's penultimate piano performance, of the hit song “Endless Rain"; he integrated clips of fans from around the world singing along, submitted at his request. He felt both grateful and guilty as a result of the deluge of video entries he received and from which he had to select his favorites. “I felt bad, so I watched every single one of them,” he confessed. “Thousands of videos.”

Asked how long that took, Yoshiki replied, “Six months or so.” That sort of dedication has been typical of the beloved performer throughout his long and storied career.