Heartwarming / Twenty One Pilots

Music

• Twenty One Pilots' focus on offering comfort and support to those dealing with mental illness and depression in all of their music is extremely heartwarming. The band's de facto motto is "stay alive", and they try to dedicate every live show to making people feel the joy of life. This often leads to moments like this one.
• Lyrically, "Migraine" perfectly conveys how depression can sometimes make one feel like they're the only one suffering and that you shouldn't bottle it up, but you will get better if you recognize how far you've come.
• "House of Gold" is about Tyler's dedication to his mom.
• "Tear In My Heart", a song dedicated to Tyler's wife, Jenna, is this from start to finish.
• "We Don't Believe What's On TV" is about the singer's gratitude for a loved one's presence in the face of his own cynicism and insecurities. This line in particular stands out:
  I used to say "I wanna die before I'm old"
  But because of you I might think twice.
  • This performance of "WDBWOTV" at a NYC show (featuring Halsey, Walk the Moon, Hoodie Allen, Matt and Kim, and MisterWives) is pretty cute in a True Companions sort of way.
• There's something delightfully sweet about "Screen". First, there's the admission that the target of the song knows the singer's real self in spite of his attempts to "be so cool". Topping it is the communal chant of "we're broken people" sung as You Are Not Alone-style encouragement.
• "Goner". As sad as it is, it is also very empowering to see Tyler confronting Blurryface and ending him once and for all. Blurryface is represented with a warbling sound audible in the quiet first two verses, but when the loud rock ending comes, the sound is buried underneath and hardly any traces of it are heard again, reflecting Tyler drowning Blurryface out with the power of his music.
• The video from "Nico and the Niners": After witnessing Tyler being captured by Nico, Josh leads a rescue mission into Dema to save him. When they reunite, they embrace, perform their signature handshake, and stage a concert together for the first time since the band took a break over a year previously.
• "Smithereens" is another love song dedicated to Jenna, with Tyler declaring that he "had to do one on the record for her" and promising that he'd step up to anyone who tries to mess with her, even if it means getting beat to smithereens.
  For you, I'd go write a slick song just to show you the world.
• "Legend" is a tribute to Tyler's grandfather Robert, who passed away from dementia during the production of Trench. Even though Tyler includes sad details of his grandfather's decline in health (including the fact that he stopped visiting his grandfather after he could no longer recognize him), the song is overall cheery and upbeat in sound, making it feel far more like a celebration of Robert's life than a mournful dirge.
  I look forward to having a lunch with you again.
• "Level of Concern", an upbeat song about receiving comfort from a partner, was written in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Its music video features Tyler and Josh creating the song from their respective home studios with the help of their partners and, in Tyler's case, his newborn daughter Rosie. ^note  It is pretty much impossible to not smile when you see the member’s family helping in the video. Additionally, proceeds from the song were donated to a relief fund for live music industry workers who were left unemployed by the quarantine.

Non-Music

• Tyler and Josh tattooing their names onto each other onstage. Even sweeter was that this was the result of a Twitter poll to decide which one of them would be tattooed that, after 275,000 votes, resulted in a perfect tie. If that's not a testament to how equally valued both members are to their fans, then what is?
• Tyler likes to give emotional speeches leading up to the "Trees" encore, but his "We Did It" speech, delivered at their first-ever show at Madison Square Garden, is likely to warm the heart of any long-time fan.
• After the Reading Festival debacle (where Tyler tried crowdsurfing to a platform after security wouldn't let him get to it during "Car Radio", only to be manhandled by the crowd), the Clique got the hashtag #RespectTylerJoseph to the #1 top trend on Twitter.
• As a testament of Tyler's immense care for the safety of his fans, there are many instances of Tyler stopping songs live to help people out. Here's one example with Tyler stopping "Goner" immediately after someone yells out "SECURITY!" (for a fan that had passed out). You can hear the concern in his voice when he says "What's wrong?"
• The response to Tyler changing the lyrics of "Stressed Out" to voice his opinion on the song becoming overplayed and alienating his fans was overwhelmingly affectionate for Tyler, with lots of people telling him that they still liked the song, and some even showing him tattoos they received of lyrics from the song.
• At one concert, Tyler's mic stopped working while he was singing "Car Radio". The audience decided to finish the song for him. Really shows how the Clique sticks with the band no matter what.
• As silly as the two accepting their Grammy for "Stressed Out" in their underwear was, Tyler's speech was genuinely sweet to hear, and anyone who's been following them knows that he and Josh are living proof of his words.
  "...I want everyone who's watching at home to know, that you could be next. So watch out, okay? Because anyone, from anywhere, can do anything. And this is that."
• This video Jenna livestreamed on her Instagram from a bar where Tyler surprised the patrons with a karaoke performance of his own song, "Stressed Out". Jenna even starts singing along with her husband at one point and shouts "Go, baby!"
• In honor of Father's Day, Tyler brought his dad onstage at their headlining gig for Firefly Festival 2017 to help his son perform a song his father "wrote"^note DJ Khaled's "All I Do Is Win" and tick "dance in front of 50,000 people" off the bucket list.
• After winning the fan-voted Chart Achievement Award at the Billboard Music Awards, Tyler took to Instagram Live to thank the fans in person, not just for the awards, but for his newly-bought leaf blower. To elaborate:
  Tyler: It's the first tool that I've ever bought. I should thank you guys for that, because I've never had to buy a power tool or a lawn-care tool because I've never had a piece of property where leaves are on, because I've never had a house on that property. I've never had a place that was mine until I met you guys. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have a house, I wouldn't have the land, I wouldn't have the trees... and I wouldn't have the leaf blower.
• After nearly two years since they were last able to play a full show in their hometown, Twenty One Pilots wrapped up their breakthrough Blurryface album cycle with the "Tour de Columbus", a series of intimate shows for their hometown fans in venues important to the band's early history: the Basement ^note the 300-capacity club the band played many of their earliest shows in, including the free Vessel album release concert, the Newport Music Hall ^note the first major venue the band played and sold out, which directly led to them being signed, and Express! Live/the LC ^note the venue where they announced their signing and the site of their first full concert TV special. After these shows sold out almost immediately in a lottery system, two new shows at Columbus arenas were announced, opening up another 40,000 spaces with priority given to those who had missed out the first time; these also sold out almost immediately, testifying to the size of the fanbase the band had accumulated over the years and their status in their hometown.
• Tyler's pre-"Trees" speech at the fifth Tour de Columbus show in the Schottenstein Center, not only the final show of the leg but the final show of the Blurryface era. He begins holding back tears at one point, and gives out two important messages: you can't put a ceiling on your dreams, and you can't do it alone. Even when they performed for less than a dozen people, they were yearning to play arenas, and it's a testament to their talent and hard work that their dreams finally came true.
• Tyler was so moved by the volume and active participation of an audience at an arena show in Phoenix, Arizona, that he and long-time video producer Mark Eschleman put together a tribute to the region in the span of a day, drawing archival footage from their first Arizona show in a small bar basement to emphasize the massive growth the band has experienced.
• Any time Tyler and Josh respond positively to an interview is usually a pretty heartwarming moment. Most interviews tend to be rush jobs of the same few stock questions conducted while the band is exhausted from playing shows every night, and Tyler and Josh both express tremendous gratitude whenever an interviewer goes out of their way to engage with them.
  • During a 2014 interview with Dutch music news site FaceCulture, the interviewer opened the floor for Tyler to freely talk about the deeper purpose for his music and even offered some advice regarding how Tyler could better come to terms with his own imperfections. Tyler responded by profusely thanking him for validating why he does music, something the media even in Tyler's own country regularly failed to do. The band has conducted numerous interviews with the same reporter almost every time they return to the country, with Tyler and Josh both appreciating conversations with him enough that they opened a 2019 interview by trying to figure out how long it had been since they'd seen each other like old friends. Tyler even personally got up from that session to quiet some rowdy crew members who interrupted the interviewer.
  • In this interview with German station DASDING, Tyler and Josh are both so impressed by the effort and artistry the interviewer put into a decorative box adorned with questions for them to scratch off and discover that they do something they both emphasize they've never done: ask for more time to answer all of the questions.
• Late in his life, Tyler's grandfather Bobby constantly asked what his grandson was doing. When Tyler's dad replied that he made music, Bobby asked to hear one of his songs. Tyler's dad didn't have any copies in the car, but he didn't need any; he was able to just turn on the radio and find one in moments. (Full story here.)
• In the middle of a headlining set at Lollapalooza Berlin in 2019, Tyler stopped the show to invite a "couple people" onstage. He was joined by his visibly pregnant wife. Even the normally unsentimental Joseph was touched by the outpouring of love and support from the Clique at the news.
  • Not to be left out, Josh dyed his hair pink at the show to help announce the gender of his friends' child.
• Tyler and Jenna's tender announcement of the birth of their daughter, Rosie Robert Joseph.

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