While the Taylor Hawkins tribute concert was already an emotional event for Dave Grohl, Foo Fighters, and other artists involved, the day also brought back a classic Grohl side-project. For the first time in 12 years, Grohl, Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme and Led Zeppelin legend John Paul Jones performed as Them Crooked Vultures.
Taking the stage to perform “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” by Elton John, the band kept it simple to start and performed a three-song set. “Ladies and gentlemen, we are Them Crooked Vultures,” Homme said in his quick intro. “For right now, I’ll just leave it at that.” After the intro and cover tune, the group performed “Gunman” and closed with Queens of the Stone Age’s “Long Slow Goodbye.”
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The reunion dropped in the middle of the massive tribute performance for Hawkins. The concert went on for around 5 hours, opening with Liam Gallagher joining Foo Fighters, Nile Rodgers, Wolfgang Van Halen doing his best impression of his father, and Britpop staples Supergrass.
Following Vultures, The Pretenders, James Gang, Brian Johnson and Lars Ulrich from Metallica all made an appearance before the main lineup took the stage in prime time. After the AC/DC and Metallica legends took off, The Police’s Stewart Copeland showed his appreciation for his fellow drummer, paving the way for Rush and Queen to follow. Then Foo Fighters took the stage for the main push at 8 p.m., closing out the show by 10:30.
“Technically we’re still a band,” Grohl told The Guardian in 2019. “We practice once every decade, and we’re coming up on another decade, aren’t we? I don’t have any official news, but there’s always something cooking.” Judging from that line, the timing is just right.
It was quite the emotional journey for Grohl, and it finally seemed to get to him when Foo Fighters kicked off their closing set. The feeling of the day was defined right at the top, though, with Grohl’s introductory speech.
“Tonight we’ve gathered here to celebrate the life, the music and the love of our dear friend, our bandmate, our brother, Taylor Hawkins,” Grohl the Wembley Stadium crowd. “We’ve gathered with family and his closest friends, his musical heroes, and his greatest inspirations to bring you a gigantic f-ing night for a gigantic f-ing person. Sing and dance, and laugh and cry, and f-ing scream and make some f-ing noise so he can hear us right now.”
