Dave Grohl Gives Emotional Speech At Taylor Hawkins Tribute

The music neighborhood is coming collectively immediately to have fun the life and work of late drummer Taylor Hawkins, kicking off the primary of two tribute exhibits deliberate for this month at Wembley Stadium in London and L.A.’s Kia Forum. The Foo Fighters took the stage at Wembley Stadium immediately round 11:30AM ET, showing visibly emotional as Dave Grohl delivered a passionate speech to get the festivities began as the group chanted “Taylor” within the background.

“Ladies and gentlemen, tonight we’ve gathered here to celebrate the life, the music and the love of our dear friend, our bandmate, our brother Taylor Hawkins. For those of you who knew hm personally, you know that no one else could make you smile or laugh or dance or sing like he could. And for those of you that admired him from afar, I’m sure you’ve all felt the same thing,” stated Grohl.

“So tonight we’ve gathered with family and his closest friends, his musical heroes and greatest inspirations to bring you a gigantic fucking night for a gigantic fucking person. So sing and dance and laugh and cry and fucking scream and make some fucking noise so he can hear us right now. Cuz you know what, it’s going to be a long fucking night, right? Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you fucking ready?”

The Foos are infamous for delivering marathon hours-long units and immediately’s tribute seems to supply the identical.

The first efficiency got here from Oasis’ Liam Gallagher who joined the Foos on stage (with Grohl within the drummer seat) to ship significant renditions of “Rock N Roll Star” and “Live Forever.” Gallagher beforehand tweeted a heartfelt message the day Hawkins died and likewise delivered the identical “Live Forever” tribute to Hawkins throughout a live performance in London across the identical time, saying, “I dedicate this last song to the one and only Taylor fucking Hawkins. This is for you, brother.”

Other friends to date within the broadcast have included comic Dave Chapelle who delivered an anecdote about internet hosting “Saturday Night Live” when the Foos had been the music visitor in 2020, and commented on watching Hawkins be a doted dad to his youngsters backstage. Cameras then panned to Hawkins’ youngsters within the viewers.

All eyes have after all been on the musicians within the drummer seat for every set. David Bowie’s drummer Omar Hakim was certainly one of them, joined by Nile Rodgers of CHIC and Josh Homme on vocals for a canopy of certainly one of “Let’s Dance,” with Bowie being certainly one of Hawkins’ favorites. Gaz Coombes of Supergrass additionally appeared. Rodgers remembered how he was in Bogota the evening Hawkins died and the 2 acts had been set to jam collectively earlier than Hawkins’ unlucky passing.

“Saturday Night Live” album Jason Sudekis (who appeared in a Foos music video) launched a set from Hawkins’ facet undertaking Chevy Metal. There was additionally a set from the Coattail Riders, each with a rotating solid of visitor vocalists together with Kesha on “Children of the Revolution” by Marc Bolan and T-Rex in addition to The Darkness’ Justin Hawkins on Coattail Riders’ “Louise,” “C U In Hell” and “It’s Over,” amongst different tracks. Drummers included Josh Freese on a package embellished with a picture of one other late star, Olivia Newton-John.

The live performance continues immediately with extra visitor stars deliberate, together with Chris Chaney, Stewart Copeland, Chrissie Hynde, Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, Brian May, Mark Ronson, Roger Taylor, Rufus Taylor, Wolfgang Van Halen, Krist Novoselic, Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones, P!nk, Nandi Bushell, Greg Kurstin, LeAnn Rimes, Travis Barker, Violet Grohl, Brian Johnson, Luke Spiller of The Struts and Lars Ulrich. Watch the livestream under and discover official merch.