Foo Fighters and Wolfgang Van Halen prank fans with ‘Eruption’ solo

13 May, 2024

Foo Fighters pulled a prank on their fans at Welcome To Rockville with the help of Wolfgang Van Halen – watch footage of the trick below.

To close out their trek across the United States, Foo Fighters headlined the Welcome To Rockville festival in Daytona. Midway through their set, the band performed a guitar solo, followed by shortened covers of Beastie Boys‘ ‘Sabotage’, Ramones‘ ‘Blitzkrieg Pop’, and Nine Inch Nails‘ ‘March of the Pigs’.

Following the segment, frontman Dave Grohl took to the microphone to complain that he’s never given the time or opportunity for his own guitar solo: “You know who never gets a fuckin’ solo? Me, god damn it, I never get a fucking solo! So, since this is the last night of the trip, I’m gonna do a fucking solo. How about that? You may think, ‘That guy can’t play a fucking solo.’ You wanna see me do a guitar solo right now?”

Grohl then seemingly launched into the tap-solo segment of Van Halen‘s ‘Eruption’. However, the solo kept playing after Grohl was done and had raised his hands in the air to celebrate before the camera panned to show Wolfgang Van Halen ripping through the solo offstage.

Grohl groaned: “Dude, I told you to keep that cool, Wolfie! What the fuck are you doing right now? Everybody, give it up for Wolfgang Van Halen.” Wolfgang then played a short snippet of Van Halen’s ‘Hot For Teacher’ before being chased offstage as Grohl said they’d not be able to stop once they started playing more Van Halen tracks.

Dave Grohl then dedicated ‘My Hero’ to Wolfgang and his late father, the legendary Eddie Van Halen.

Foo Fighters also recently dedicated ‘My Hero’ to the late legendary record producer Steve Albini. The legendary record producer – who was the mastermind behind iconic albums such as Nirvana‘s ‘In Utero‘ and Manic Street Preachers‘ ‘Journal For Plague Lovers’– died on May 8 of a heart attack while at Electronic Audio, his recording studio in Chicago. His death was confirmed by the studio’s staff members.

“Tonight I’d like to dedicate this song to a friend that we lost the other day, who I’ve known a long, long time,” Grohl told the crowd. “He left us much too soon. He’s touched all of your lives, I’m sure. I’m talking about Steve Albini. For those of you who know, you know. For those of you who don’t know, just remember that name: Steve Albini. Let’s sing this one for him.”

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