The Foo Fighters hosted the first of two tribute concerts on Saturday to their fallen drummer Taylor Hawkins. The six-hour show at Wembley Stadium in London featured numerous music luminaries including Paul McCartney, Metallica’s Lars Ulrich, AC/DC’s Brian Johnson, Stewart Copeland of The Police, The James Gang, Justin Hawkins of The Darkness, Rush’s Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, Travis Barker, Them Crooked Vultures and Queen’s Roger Taylor and Brian May, among many others.
While the star-studded affair had dozens of memorable moments throughout, including Hawkins’ son performing drums on the song, “My Hero,” one spot involving AC/DC singer Brian Johnson and The Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins had some fans puzzled and/or upset. While Johnson, along with the Foo Fighters and Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, were performing “Back In Black,” Hawkins ran onstage and appeared to take the microphone from Johnson while the two swapped lines in the second verse. “Woo, that was fun,” Johnson exclaimed afterward. “I enjoyed that. Thank you.” Johnson and Ulrich, along with the Foo Fighters, then launched into a version of AC/DC’s “Let There Be Rock” before Ulrich came from behind the kit to address the crowd. “Taylor, I know you’re watching,” Ulrich said as he prepared to leave the stage. “I know you’re hearing this. I know you’re feeling this. We f*cking love you. On behalf of everybody in Metallica, nothing but love. Thank you Wembley. We’ll see you soon.”
One person wrote on Twitter that Hawkins “should’ve gotten his *ss kicked backstage for his little stunt during ‘Back In Black.’” Hawkins went on Twitter to clarify that Johnson had asked him to come on stage and help sing the song. “10 minutes before the AC/DC segment of the tribute, Brian Johnson asked me to come up and sing the second verse of Back In Black,” Hawkins posted. “I initially refused, I’ve never sung it before and I didn’t want it to seem like I was gatecrashing. However, Brian really was insistent and Dave Grohl told me that ‘if Brian tells you to do something, you f*cking do it’.”
“I had Rufus [Taylor, The Darkness drummer] pull up the lyrics on his phone and I gave it a go, but in all honesty I think Brian just wanted to create a memorable spontaneous moment and have a laugh so he could really push on and smash the rest of his set. The stage manager scrambled to prepare a microphone for me, but I didn’t know which one I was supposed to take and I ended up having to steal Brian’s, which looked a bit awkward. Brian Johnson is an absolute legend and Dave was right, I couldn’t turn it down.”
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