Sam Smith cancelled his performance at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's fifth annual Art + Film Gala on Saturday (07.11.15) to go on vocal rest.

Sam Smith

Sam Smith

The 'Writing's On The Wall' hitmaker was forced to pull out of the charity event, attended by the likes of Kim Kardashian West and Leonardo Di Caprio, just six months after undergoing a throat operation on his vocal chords.

A statement was released by organisers of the charity gala - that brings together the film and art worlds to raise money for the museum and its film-related programming and exhibitions - about Sam's no-show, which read: "Sam Smith has fallen ill and regretfully was unable to perform tonight at the LACMA Art + Film Gala. He was required to go on vocal rest."

Eagles singer Joe Walsh, 67, was forced to step in at the last minute at the Gucci-sponsored event.

Addressing the audience, the 'Hotel California' singer said: "Well, here I am. I'm glad to be here, I think. I'm just going to play a couple songs, and we'll see what happens."

A host of big name stars who attended the charity gala missed out on hearing the Sam sing, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Reese Witherspoon, Jared Leto, Salma Hayek, Jason Statham, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and his wife Sam Taylor-Johnson and Usher.

The news comes after Sam, 23, revealed last week he was suffering from a throat infection and the pain was so bad it felt as though he had a "tennis ball" stuck in his throat.

In an Instagram post, he shared: "Feeling very sorry for myself. Throat Glands are so fucking big. Feel like I have a tennis ball down my throat (sic)"