After hours of emceeing and taking part in numerous devices for different acts, Dave Grohl closed out the Taylor Hawkins tribute in London with the surviving members of Foo Fighters and shock visitor Paul McCartney.
Although nobody can exchange Hawkins behind the equipment, the Foos had been joined by a variety of drummers throughout their set, together with Josh Freese on “Instances Like These” and “All My Life,” Travis Barker on “The Pretender” and “Monkey Wrench,” Rufus Taylor on “These Days and “Better of You,” 12-year-old phenom Nandi Bushell on “Be taught To Fly” and Hawkins’ 16-year-old son Shane, who was completely thunderous on “My Hero.”
“Pulling this entire factor collectively during the last three months, we met some actually wonderful individuals — individuals I’ve by no means met earlier than,” Dave Grohl stated after “Better of You.” “One in all them, I acquired to face on stage with tonight and play the bass: Miss Chrissie Hynde from the Pretenders, who I occur to suppose is the baddest motherfucker on the earth. She introduced a good friend tonight.”
That good friend was none aside from McCartney, who shocked the group by dusting off The Beatles’ “Oh, Darling.” “God bless Taylor,” stated McCartney, who inducted the Foos into the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame in 2021. “Me and Chrissie are gonna do a track right here that I haven’t completed since I recorded it 100 years in the past. I’ve by no means completed it as a duet, however we’re gonna do it tonight for the primary time, for you.”
McCartney caught round to sing lead on “Helter Skelter,” not earlier than relating an anecdote about being requested to play drums, of all devices, on the Foo Fighters track “Sunday Rain.” “This group has two of the very best drummers on the earth, they usually wished me to drum on it, so I did,” he stated with a smile of the observe, which appeared on the Foos’ 2017 album Concrete and Gold. “Fairly a reminiscence.”
The set continued with “Aurora,” which had earlier soundtracked an emotional pre-show photograph montage of Hawkins and, like the 2 Beatles covers, featured Omar Hakim on drums. “I believe this subsequent track was Taylor’s favourite Foo Fighters track, so we knew we needed to do it tonight,” Grohl stated.
“I don’t suppose I’ve ever seen anybody hit the drums as laborious as this particular person,” Grohl advised the viewers when introducing Shane Hawkins after “Aurora.” “Past that, he’s a member of our household, and he must be right here tonight with all of us.”
This was the primary time the Foos have carried out stay with out Hawkins, who handed away unexpectedly in March on the age of fifty. Tonight’s live performance was the primary of two honoring the late drummer; the second is about for Sept. 27 on the Kia Discussion board in Los Angeles with a lot of tonight’s performers, in addition to Alanis Morissette, Miley Cyrus, P!nk, Gene Simmons, Joan Jett, Nikki Sixx, Crimson Scorching Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith and Rage In opposition to the Machine’s Brad Wilk, amongst others.
