Former Van Halen singer Sammy Hagar – who’s currently touring with his supergroup project, The Circle – has performed a cover of the Foo Fighters‘ 1997 hit ‘My Hero’, in honour of the band’s late drummer Taylor Hawkins.
Sammy Hagar And The Circle were brought on-board to headline the Beale Street Music Festival – which took place in Memphis last Friday (April 29) – after Hawkins died on March 25, just hours before the band were due to headline a festival in Bogotá, Columbia. Foo Fighters later cancelled their entire slate of upcoming gigs in the wake of Hawkins’ passing, which included an appearance at Beale Street.
In a message shared alongside a video of his cover, Hagar wrote that he initially refused the offer to fill the Foo Fighters’ spot, but came around after a meeting with the rest of The Circle. He explained: “We came up with, ‘Why not! Let’s just go play music… you’re at a big ass Circle party for those people, [let’s] just do what we do!’
“With Dave Grohl’s blessings, we decided to do a broken-down version of one of my favorite songs from one of my favorite bands. It felt appropriate. No rehearsal – after all, this is rock & roll and that’s what it’s all about.”
Have a look at Sammy Hagar And The Circle covering ‘My Hero’ below:
Hagar and co.’s cover of ‘My Hero’ adds to the dozens of tributes shared in Hawkins’ honour since his passing. Others have come from the likes of Coldplay, Liam Gallagher, Stereophonics, Stevie Nicks, Sir Elton John, Slash, Joan Jett, the surviving members of Rush, Yungblud, Sir Paul McCartney and Royal Blood. The drummer was also paid tribute at the 2022 Grammy Awards ceremony.
Yesterday (May 3), Warpaint‘s Stella Mozgawa recalled the time her teenage band opened for Foo Fighters in an interview with Hot Press. She hailed the late musician as a “titan of the drumming world,” and described the experience as “invaluable and unexplainable”.
Hawkins’ first posthumous release – a cover of Johnny Winter’s 1970 track ‘Guess I’ll Go Away’, which he recorded with Johnny’s brother Edgar – was released last month. It came as part of a tribute album, ‘Brother Johnny’, that Edgar released in his sibling’s memory; the Texan blues-rocker died in 2014 at the age of 70.
Hagar, meanwhile, is continuing to tour with The Circle – which features his former Van Halen and Chickenfoot bandmate Michael Anthony – for most of 2022, including several shows with blues guitarist and ‘Bad To The Bone’ singer George Thorogood.
The post Sammy Hagar And The Circle cover ‘My Hero’ to honour Taylor Hawkins appeared first on NME.
