One March 25, 2022, the world lost a great drummer and member of one of the biggest rock bands of all time with the passing of Taylor Hawkins of the Foo Fighters. To honor Hawkins, Dave Grohl put together two of the biggest tribute concerts of all time which were announced back in June. The first took place at Wembley Stadium in London, England on September 3rd. It was the perfect place to hold the first concert since Taylor was a giant of drumming and the Foo Fighters played there in 2008 reuniting Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones.

The next show took place at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles on Tuesday, September 28th. This event not only brought together a number of the world’s greatest drummers like Queen’s Roger Taylor, The Police’s Stewart Copeland, Omar Hakim, Tool’s Danny Carey, Red Hot Chili Peppers Chad Smith, Motley Crue’s Tommy Lee, Rage Against the Machine’s Brad Wilk, Blink-182’s Travis Barker, but there were a lot of bass greats performing as well. These bassists were part of bands with Hawkins like Chris Chaney with Alanis Morissette, Coattail Riders and NHC, Wiley Hodgen, and Nate Mendel of the Foo Fighters. There were also icons from Hawkins favorite bands like Geddy Lee from Rush, Geezer Butler from Black Sabbath, Nikki Sixx from Motley Crue, Rick Savage from Def Leppard, and Level 42’s Mark King.

The opening performance of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” came from Grohl’s daughter Violet and guitarist Alain Johannes. The show began with no introduction or countdown. The performances continued with Joan Jett with the Foo Fighters, Hawkins’ bands Chevy Metal and The Coattail Riders, James Gang, Mark Ronson, Them Crooked Vultures, Wolfgang Van Halen and the Darkness’s Justin Hawkins, ⅗ of Def Leppard with Foo Fighters members and Weezer’s Patrick Wilson, Tommy Lee and Nikki Sixx, Foo Fighters with Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme and The Cars’ Elliot Easton, P!nk and Nancy Wilson, Stewart Copeland and the Foo Fighters, Alanis Morissette and the Foo Fighters, Sebastian Bach Geezer Butler Lars Ulrich and the Foo Fighters, Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson with Grohl Chad Smith and Danny Carey, Krist Novaselic Taylor Momsen Pat Smear Matt Cameron and Kim Thayil, Queen and the Foo Fighters, and an hour long Foo Fighters set with 10 different guest drummers and comedian Dave Chapelle joining in for “Creep.” The final song was “Everlong” with Smith on drums. The show started at 7 P.M. and ended at 1 A.M. and included 53 songs from artists Hawkins played with and his favorite bands.

Of the artists on the lineup, many had history with the Forum including the Red Hot Chili Peppers last hometown show with John Frusciante on the Stadium Arcadium tour before touring again in 2022, Black Sabbath The End tour Soundgarden, Miley Cyrus, and Metallica Chris Cornell tribute, Rush’s final show of R40 which Copeland, Smith, Hawkins, and Carey were at. Van Halen dress rehearsal for the 2012 tour, Tenacious D Dave Grohl 45th Birthday Party, P!NK in 2019, The Eagles Hotel California Tour 2021, Queen and Adam Lambert Rhapsody Tour, Dave Chapelle & John Mayer.

Many of the performers have each lost a band member as well so this paid tribute to many icons, many that were Hawkins’ idols like Rush’s Neil Peart, Yes’s Alan White, Queen’s Freddie Mercury, Eddie Van Halen, and Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham.

Set List

1. Violet Grohl/ Alain Johannes- Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen)

2. Foo Fighters /Joan Jett/Travis Barker- Cherry Bomb (The Runaways)

3. Foo Fighters /Joan Jett/Travis Barker- Bad Reputation (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)

Shane Hawkins introducing Chevy Metal

4. Chevy Metal Brent Woods Wiley- Riff Raff (AC/DC)

5. Chevy Metal Jon Davison- Owner of a Lonely Heart (YES)

6. Chevy Metal/Ke$ha/Rami Jaffe- Heros (David Bowie)

7. Coattails Riders with Justin Hawkins & Josh Freese- Range Rover Bitch

8.Coattails Riders with Justin Hawkins & Josh Freese- It’s Over

9. Coattail Riders/Mark King/ Justin Hawkins & Josh Freese/ Greg Kurstin- Something About You

10. Coattail Riders Justin Hawkins & Rufus Taylor- I Believe in aThing Called Love (The Darkness)

Dave talks

11. James Gang-Walk Away

12. James Gang- The Bomber: Closet Queen, Bolero, Cast Your Fate to the Wind

13. James Gang and Dave Grohl on drums- Funk #49

Dave talks

14. Mark Ronson/Chris Chaney/Andrew Wyatt/ Dave Grohl-

15. Them Crooked Vultures-Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Elton John)

16. Them Crooked Vultures- Dead End Friends

17. Them Crooked Vultures- Long Slow Goodbye (Queens of the Stone Age)

Dave Grohl talks Taylor and Van Halen shorts

18. Wolfgang Van Halen/Justin Hawkins/Josh Freese/Dave Grohl- Panama (Van Halen)

19. Wolfgang Van Halen/Justin Hawkins/ Josh Freese/ Dave Grohl- Hot For Teacher (Van Halen)

20. Dave Grohl/ Chris Shiflett/ Rami Jaffe/ Joe Elliott/Phil Collen/ Rick Savage/ Patrick Wilson/ Pat Smear- Rock of Ages (Def Leppard)

21. Dave Grohl/ Chris Shiflett/ Rami Jaffe/ Joe Elliott/Phil Collen/ Rick Savage/ Patrick Wilson/ Pat Smear/ Miley Cyrus- Photograph (Def Leppard)

Dave Grohl talks

22. Tommy Lee/ Nikki Sixx/ Dave Grohl/ Pat Smear/ Chris Shiflett/ Rami Jaffee- Live Wire (Motley Crue)

23. Tommy Lee/ Nikki Sixx/ Dave Grohl/ Pat Smear/ Chris Shiflett/ Rami Jaffee- Home Sweet Home (Motley Crue)

24. Foo Fighters/Josh Homme/ Elliot Easton- Shake it Up (The Cars)

25. Foo Fighters/ Josh Homme/ Elliot Easton- Just What I Needed (The Cars)

Dave Grohl speaks

26. Foo Fighters/Jon Theodore/ Nancy Wilson/ P!nk- Barracuda (Heart)

Half way mark

Dave speaks about meeting Taylor at KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas

27. Foo Fighters/ Stewart Copeland- Next to You (Stewart Copeland)

28. Foo Fighters/Stewart Copeland/Jon Davison- Everything She Does is Magic (The Police)

29. Alanis Morrisette/ Chad Smith/ Chris Chaney/ Dave Grohl/ Pat Smear/ Rami Jaffe/Chris Shiflett- You Oughta Know (Alanis Morrissette)

30. Lars Ulrich/ Sebastian Bach/ Geezer Butler/ Foo Fighters- Supernaut (Black Sabbath)

31. Lars Ulrich/ Sebastian Bach/ Geezer Butler/ Foo Fighters- Paranoid/ Heaven and Hell(Black Sabbath)

Jack Black announces Rush

32. Rush/Dave Grohl- 2112 ( Rush)

33. Rush/Chad Smith- Working Man (Rush)

34. Rush/Danny Carey- YYZ (Rush)

Dave Talks

35. Matt Cameron/Kim Thayll/Taylor Momsen/Krist Noveselic/Pat Smear

36. Matt Cameron/Kim Thayll/Taylor Momsen/Krist Noveselic/Pat Smear/ Dave Grohl- Black Hole Sun (Soundgarden)

Dave announces Queen-

37. Queen/Foo Fighters/Justin Hawkins- We Will Rock You (Queen)

38. Queen / Foo Fighters Rufus Taylor drums Roger Taylor lead vocals – I’m in Love with My Car

39. Queen/Justin Hawkins/ Foo Fighters/ Under Pressure (Queen & David Bowie)

40. Queen/P!nk/ Foo Fighters- Somebody to Love (Queen)

41. Brian May- Love of My Life (Queen)

Allison Hawkins comes out

Taylor Video

42. Foo Fighters/Josh Freese- All My Life

43. Foo Fighters/ P!nk/ Jon Theodore-The Pretender

44. Foo Fighters/ Travis Barker- Walk

45. Foo Fighters/Matt Cameron- Low

46. Foo Fighters/ Brad Wilk- This is a Call

47. Foo Fighters/ Patrick Wilson- The Sky is a Neighborhood

48. Foo Fighters/ Patrick Wilson/ Dave Chapelle- Creep (Radiohead)

49. Foo Fighters/Omar Hakim- Run

50. Foo Fighters/ Rufus Taylor- Best of You

51. Foo Fighters/Shane Hawkins- My Hero

52. Foo Fighters/ Shane Hawins- I’ll Stick Around

53. Foo Fighters/Chad Smith- Everlong

All photographs by:

Danny Clinch

Andrew Stuart

Timothy Norris

Andreas Neumann

Oliver Halfin