Taylor Hawkins’ 16-year-old son Shane joined Foo Fighters behind the drum kit for a killer performance of “My Hero” at an epic tribute concert for the late drummer.
The performance of “My Hero” was the penultimate song in an over 5-hour long show at Wembley Stadium Saturday that also streamed live via Paramount+ (and will be available for on-demand viewing on the streaming service starting Sunday). And Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl introduced Shane by saying that he’s never seen someone else hit the drums harder.
Turns out the kid rocks just as hard as his dad. Check out the emotional performance below.
Throughout the night, Foo Fighters brought out a slew of musical guests who all played special tribute to Hawkins, including a rotating assortment of drummers each performing various Foo Fighters songs, including Travis Barker and yet another teenager, Nandi Bushell, who famously challenged (and beat) Dave Grohl in a viral drum-off.
And they of course were the tip of the iceberg in a show that also saw various members of the Foo Fighters performing with Liam Gallagher of Oasis, Brian May of Queen, Brian Johnson of AC/DC, Pretenders, Rush, Supergrass, Paul McCartney, Mark Ronson, Ke$ha and Dave Grohl’s own daughter Violet Grohl. The son of another late rock legend, Eddie Van Halen’s son Wolfgang, also performed in a shredding performance of some classic Van Halen tunes alongside the Foo Fighters.
Shane Hawkins could be seen lurking on the side of the stage early in the night when Dave Chappelle came out to address the crowd and explained that after Chappelle sang “Creep” with the band at Madison Square Garden last year, he bumped into a teenager backstage who explained to Chappelle that he didn’t skate because he didn’t want to hurt his arms. He wanted to be a drummer some day “like his dad.”
Chappelle continued and said that he attended a late night jazz show at the Blue Note club in New York along with both Taylor and Shane, and the two commented on the jazz drummer. While Shane teased his dad as saying that Taylor had nothing on the jazz drummer on stage, Taylor humbly told his son, “that’s a real musician.”
Other highlights from the show included performances from Hawkins’ early bands, including Chevy Metal and The Coattail Riders. There was also a reunion of Them Crooked Vultures, which is a supergroup made up of Josh Homme, Grohl on drums and Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones. Brian May from Queen did a solo acoustic performance of the song “Love of My Life,” which capped a set that also included “We Will Rock You,” “I’m In Love With My Car,” “Under Pressure” and “Somebody to Love.” Stewart Copland of The Police played drums while Foo Fighters covered “Next to You” and “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic.” And McCartney brought out Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde to help him sing The Beatles’ “Oh! Darling,” which McCartney said he hadn’t performed since he recorded it “over 100 years ago” (it was actually recorded in 1969).
If you missed the show, special editions of the concert will air in primetime on CBS on Sep. 3 from 10:00-11:00 p.m. EDT. MTV will also air a one-hour special across its channels around the world starting in Latin America on Saturday, Sep. 3 and other international territories on Sunday, Sep. 4, followed by an extended two-hour compilation that will air globally.
Taylor Hawkins died at age 50 in March following a Foo Fighters show in Bogota, Colombia, leading the band to cancel all its remaining tour dates throughout at least 2022. The tribute concert was the first show from all the Foo Fighters since his death. A separate tribute concert for Hawkins in Los Angeles on Sep. 27 at the Kia Forum in Inglewood is sold out.
