On Sept. 1, six days before he died, Mac Miller tweeted, “Go listen to Dylan Reynolds - No Control. It’s a beautiful song. Thank you.”
Go listen to Dylan Reynolds - No Control. It’s a beautiful song. Thank you.
— Mac (@MacMiller) September 1, 2018
It was a sweet little nod to his longtime best friend, neighbor and fellow Pittsburgh artist, a singer-songwriter the rap star had signed to his Warner Bros. imprint REMember Music.
It was liked by 8,700 people, including late-night TV host James Corden, who retweeted it on Sept. 7, the day Miller died, writing, “I never met Mac Miller but was a fan of his spirit. Seeing this tweet and then listening to this song today is heart breaking. Its so sad. X.”
I never met Mac Miller but was a fan of his spirit. Seeing this tweet and then listening to this song today is heart breaking. Its so sad. x https://t.co/JwopG6JnWv
— James Corden (@JKCorden) September 7, 2018
Sad on many levels. The haunting acoustic ballad, on which he sings “heaven is closer than it seems,” was written in the wake of Reynolds, 27, being diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
“I wrote the song maybe six or seven months ago when I was going through chemo,” he said in a phone interview from Los Angeles. “It was probably the fastest I’ve written a song. It happened probably within 30 minutes.”
On Halloween, Reynolds had the honor of opening the tribute concert to the late rapper at the Greek Theater in LA on Halloween that was livestreamed on YouTube.
He’ll perform his single live on “The Late Late Show With James Corden” on CBS. Mr. Corden, he says, reached out to him via Twitter a month ago inviting him to perform on the show, which airs at 12:35 a.m. Friday.
Miller and Reynolds, both from Point Breeze, met when they were 5 and grew up together as best friends, sharing a love for music and sports. Reynolds started out at Allderdice, moved to California after his freshman year, came back and went to Fox Chapel High School and ended up graduating from cyber school.
When Miller learned that Reynolds, who lives in Lawrenceville, had to begin chemo, “He flew across the country to be with me for my first cancer treatment — he got there an hour before the hospital opened,” Reynolds says. “It’s just a testament to the kind of person he was. He was an angel. He IS an angel.”
Miller also was working with Reynolds “in a personal, private way” playing bass and guitar on the pop/R&B songs on his forthcoming EP, which will be released in the next month or two.
Most people will get their first taste of it Thursday on the Corden show when he performs “No Control” in public for the first time ever.
“It’s kind of crazy,” he says. “It was very surprising, but at the same time, something about it kind of feels right. The song means so much to me, so it feels like the right way to do it.”
Scott Mervis: smervis@post-gazette.com
First Published: November 14, 2018, 7:53 p.m.
