John Mayer and Josh Klinghoffer picked up their guitars following the death of Betty White on New Year’s Eve to perform acoustic covers of “Thank You for Being a Friend.”
The song was used as the theme to The Golden Girls, on which White played one of her most iconic roles – Rose Nylund.
Mayer performed “Thank You for Being a Friend” as a tribute to White during CNN’s New Year’s Eve broadcast hosted by Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen.
Klinghoffer, former of Red Hot Chili Peppers and currently Pearl Jam’s touring guitarist, explained in an Instagram post that he was inspired to cover the song by “a lot of loss lately, a lot of endings.”
Borrowing from a friend’s poem, he urged fans to see the new year as a beginning.
“Perhaps try and do something differently. Make that call. Start that book. Go and breathe outside. Put an end to that fight. Feel. Try and mend some of the broken things you see around you, inside and out,” he wrote. “Live life knowing you don’t have forever as all lives tend toward ending.”
“Thank You for Being a Friend” was written and recorded by Andrew Gold, who released it in 1978 on his third album, All This and Heaven Too. The song was a Top 10 hit in Canada and peaked at No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S.
Cynthia Fee recorded a shorter version of “Thank You for Being a Friend” as the theme song to The Golden Girls, which ran from 1985 to 1992 and lives on in syndication.
Gold died in 2011 at 59.
Other music stars took to social media to share their thoughts following news of White's death only days shy of her 100th birthday.
"Betty will live forever not only in this world but the world here after," tweeted Dolly Parton. "I will always love her as we all will!" Cher remembered: "I Watched Her on her first TV Show ‘Life With Elizabeth’ When I Was 7 Yrs Old. When She Did [Sonny & Cher] I Got a Chance To Tell Her. I Was Embarrassed ‘cause tears came to my eyes. She put her arms around me, & I Felt 7 again. Some Ppl Are Called ICONS, BETTY IS A TRUE ICON."