Dave Grohl made an emotional speech to kick off the first of two star-studded tribute concerts held in honour of late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins.
Grohl opened the tribute concert at Wembley Stadium with a heartwrenching but uplifting introductory speech which has been transcribed below.
"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 him 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. 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. Coz you know what, it's going to be a long fucking night, right? Are you ready? Are you ready? Are you fucking ready?"
The speech was followed by performances from a collection of the metal and rock world's biggest stars who paid tribute to Hawkins's life and legacy with a 50-song setlist.
Performances from fellow modern rock titans Oasis's Liam Gallagher, Queens Of The Stone Age's Josh Homme, blink-182's Travis Barker, Supergrass, and of course, the remaining Foo Fighters themselves, underlined the influence of Hawkins's work amongst his contemporaries, while nods from the likes of Billie Eilish and The Struts, as well as 12-year-old YouTube, start Nandi Bushell, reinforced his continued cultural relevancy.
There were contributions from Hawkins's childhood heroes too, including Rush’s Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor, AC/DC’s Brian Johnson, Metallica's Lars Ulrich, The Pretenders and even The Beatles' Sir Paul McCartney, who rocked the house with Chrissie Hynde on Oh! Darling, and led the Foos cover of Helter Skelter. For a student of rock history as Hawkins was, there could have been no more monumental or fitting tribute than to have his idols turned contemporaries honour him via song.
In a night filled with memorable moments, it was arguably the two most intimately connected people involved that delivered the most tearjearking moments, with Hawkins son Shane bringing the big feels with his powerful drumming performance on My Hero and Grohl bringing himself and the arena to tears with his performance of Times Like These. The latter was the first time Grohl had played a Foo Fighters track since Hawkins passing and the pain of the loss was eviden as he forced himself through the opening, gradually returning to the Grohl we all know and love by songs end. The Foo Fighters portion of the show saw them joined by Josh Freese on drums.
The epic shows final performance, a Grohl solo rendition of Everlong also brought on the waterworks for many.
If these heartfelt tributes have you wanting to reconnect with the music of Taylor Hawkins and you're not sure where to start, there are worse places than our Best Of Taylor playlist. Hawkins' last known recorded output was the Foo Fighters 2021 record Medicine At Midnight, which picked up three Grammy Awards in April.
Hawkins was last seen in Australia playing a massive one-off show at GMHBA Stadium in Geelong, Victoria, earlier this month where he was his usual energetic, captivating self, dominating behind the kit and then leading the crowd in a massive cover of Queen's Somebody To Love on vocals.
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