When Top Gun: Maverick finally lands in theaters May 24, it will even sound different than once planned.
Twenty One Pilots lead singer Tyler Joseph said Tuesday, during an interview with Los Angeles radio station KROQ, that he was once involved with the music.
“Funny thing, I was working with the music-placement person for the new Top Gun, on writing a new song for them, and then I believe Tom Cruise came in and just fired everyone,” Joseph said. “You’ve seen that new Top Gun trailer has been out for like three years. There’s been a few overhauls, and I was part of that.”
However, Joseph said that he hadn’t gotten far.
“I saw some scenes,” Joseph said. “They brought me in to show me some scenes and stuff, and I actually don’t think I started writing.”
A source close to the production says Joseph’s comments are “just not true” and that Cruise never saw any songs submitted by the band.
Yahoo Entertainment has reached out to reps for both Cruise and the movie’s studio, Paramount, for comment and will update this story with any statements.
Cruise has a reputation as a harsh taskmaster. In December 2020, audio was leaked from the set of Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning in which Cruise can be heard threatening to fire anyone now following COVID-19 protocols.
The sequel to 1986’s Top Gun, on which Cruise is a producer, has been delayed multiple times, at least partly because of the pandemic. The first trailer was released way back in July 2019.
Just last week, Lady Gaga released her new song for the flick, “Hold My Hand,” which she described as “a love letter to the world during and after a very hard time.”
“When I wrote this song for Top Gun: Maverick, I didn’t even realize the multiple layers it spanned across the film’s heart, my own psyche, and nature of the world we’ve been living in,” Gaga wrote. “I’ve been working on it for years, perfecting it, to make it ours. I wanted to make music into a song where we share our deep need to both be understood and try to understand each other — a longing to be close when we feel so far away and an ability to celebrate life’s heroes.”
When I wrote this song for Top Gun: Maverick, I didn’t even realize the multiple layers it spanned across the film’s heart, my own psyche, and the nature of the world we’ve been living in. I’ve been working on it for years, perfecting it, trying to make it ours. pic.twitter.com/1GReWGW8Ql
— Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) April 27, 2022
I wanted to make music into a song where we share our deep need to both be understood and try to understand each other—a longing to be close when we feel so far away and an ability to celebrate life’s heroes.
— Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) April 27, 2022
I’m so grateful to Tom and Hans and Joe for this opportunity—and it’s been a beautiful experience working with them. Me, BloodPop, Ben Rice and everyone else who worked on it with us are so excited to share it with you.
— Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) April 27, 2022
This song is a love letter to the world during and after a very hard time. I’ve wanted you to hear it for so long. And I’m so excited to give it to you on May 3. “Hold My Hand.” https://t.co/bSPhBodqOn
— Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) April 27, 2022
She called working with Cruise on the song and the movie’s score “a beautiful experience.”
Cruise had good things to say, too, about the Oscar- and Grammy-winning artist’s song.
“It’s like that moment when things just came together in such a beautiful way,” Cruise told James Corden this month during an appearance on The Late Late Show. “Her song that she’d written just fell right in and became really the underlying score and the heartbeat of our film. She’s amazing.”
The original soundtrack was, of course, a huge blockbuster, having moved more than 9 million copies to date. Hits such as Berlin’s “Take My Breath Away” (which won the Oscar for Best Song) and “Danger Zone” by Kenny Loggins, plus tunes from ’80s favorites Cheap Trick, Loverboy and Miami Sound Machine, propelled the collection to No. 1 on the Billboard pop charts and the best-selling soundtrack of 1986.
