More than two months after the tragic death of drum virtuoso Taylor Hawkins, Foo Fighters have announced that they’ll perform two tribute concerts to “celebrate the life, music, and love of their husband, father, brother, and bandmate.†The shows will take place on September 3 at London’s Wembley Stadium and September 27 at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles, respectively, and the public will be able to purchase tickets at a later date. (We swear to God, Ticketmaster, do not fuck this up for the fans.) In addition to Foo Fighters headlining both performances, the band will be enlisting “all-star†guests for the lineups to join them in honoring Hawkins. “Taylor’s endearing spirit and deep love of music will live on forever through the collaborations he so enjoyed having with other musicians and the catalog of songs he contributed to and created,†Hawkins’s wife, Alison, said in a statement released by his family. “In celebration of his life, it is now up to all of us who loved him most to honor Taylor’s legacy and the music he gave us.â€
These two tribute concerts come after Foo Fighters endured a weird bit of internal turbulence in the aftermath of Hawkins’s passing. Last month, Rolling Stone published a lengthy feature that aimed to provide perspective about the final weeks of his life. Several of Hawkins’s friends went on the record to say that he had a “heart-to-heart†with Dave Grohl about his future in the band, with two people asserting that Hawkins told Grohl he could no longer mentally and physically keep up with the Foos’ demanding tour schedule. “That took fucking balls,†another anonymous friend said. “That did take a year of working up the guts to do.†However, two of these quoted musicians, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith and Pearl Jam’s Matt Cameron, quickly expressed regret over their participation and claimed that Rolling Stone misrepresented the article’s intentions. Following Hawkins’s death on March 25, Foo Fighters indefinitely canceled all tour dates.