Thousands of musicians and rock lovers gathered in Paris this past weekend for the Rockin’1000 concert at Stade de France in Paris. This year’s iteration was extra epic as the musicians came together to pay tribute to the late Foo Fighters’ drummer Taylor Hawkins.
The tribute featured hundreds of drummers, singers, guitarists, and bassists all jamming out to “My Hero” by the Foo Fighters. In a video posted to the event’s official, they wrote, “One thousand musicians dedicating this one to one drummer: Taylor Hawkins.”
The entire event was actually inspired by the beloved band. Back in 2015, 1,000 fans got together to simultaneously perform “Learn to Fly” in Cesena, Italy in hopes that the band would perform in their town. When the video eventually went viral, gaining over 32 million views, the Foo Fighters headed to the small Italian town. “Since then we organize concerts with 1000 musicians playing together the songs that made the glorious History of Rock!”
This was the first staging of the Rockin’1000 in nearly three years and the event drew a massive crowd of 50,000 people, according to Consequence. In addition to the moving Hawkins tribute, the musicians also covered rock classics from The Who, Rage Against the Machine, Pink Floyd, The White Stripes, Guns N’ Roses, and many more. The event was also the subject of a 2020 documentary named We Are the Thousand.
The rock community was in shock when the band announced the death of Hawkins on March 25 at the age of 50. Countless musicians from Billie Eilish to Geddy Lee expressed their sadness and shared their love for the legendary musician.
You can watch the video here: