Red Hot Chili Peppers paid a special tribute to the late Taylor Hawkins at MTV’s VMA Awards last night.
The band were awarded a Global Icon Award at last night’s ceremony, which was co-hosted by Nicki Minaj, LL Cool J and Jack Harlow. This ceremony took place at New Jersey’s Prudential Center, Newark.
Along with this special tribute to Hawkins, Red Hot Chili Peppers also treated attendees to live performances of tracks ‘Can’t Stop’ and ‘Black Summer’.
You can check these performances out for yourselves below.
“miss him everyday”
Following these performances, Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith spoke to the audience where he mentioned the late Foos drummer Taylor Hawkins. Hawkins tragically died in March aged 50.
“There’s another musical icon, global icon, and his name is my brother Taylor Hawkins”, Smith said. “I want to dedicate this to Taylor and his family and I miss him every day and fly on Hawk, fly on brother”.
Elsewhere, frontman Anthony Kiedes had thanked his bandmates for their influence on his life.
Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith dedicates his performance at the #VMAs to Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins who passed away earlier this year:
“Fly on Hawk, fly on brother.” pic.twitter.com/f8BCxUeVxN
— The Recount Alt (@therecountalt) August 29, 2022
Chad Smith had previously paid homage to Taylor Hawkins earlier this year, as Chili Peppers had finished off their live set at New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.
Alongside several Foos bandmembers, Taylor’s wife Alison also attended the gig.
Smith told the audience “the guys in the band are here”, before declaring “We love them. We love Taylor”.
Smith had previously revealed that he had been in contact with Alison before their live performance.
“She doesn’t want it to be anything other than, ‘Let’s celebrate music, let’s celebrate our friends, let’s celebrate Taylor. This is what he would want and he would be very happy that you guys are playing and he would want it be nothing but a positive experience.’ So we’re going to do all that and she’s going to be part of that and I’m very honored that we can do that with her. … We’re going to play our hearts out”, he said.
