Foo Fighters Guitarist Chris Shiflett Pays Sly Tribute to Reds Icon Pete Rose During Cincinnati Stadium Show: ‘Cincinnati Invented Hustle’

The Foo Fighters came to play on a picture-perfect Thursday night (July 25) in Cincinnati on the latest date of their Everything or Nothing At All summer stadium tour. After rocking warm-ups from Wolfgang Van Halen’s WVH and Akron, OH-native Chrissie Hynde’s Pretenders, the veteran band charged out and got right to work with the one-two punch of “All My Life” and “No Son of Mine,” with the latter meandering through digressions into Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” and Metallica’s “Enter Sandman.”

The hit-packed set touched on all the classics that fans — lead singer/guitarist Dave Grohl kept shouting out the group’s “OG” day ones throughout the night — were there for, including “The Pretender,” “Breakout,” and “My Hero,” in addition to an extended band introduction bit that included various members flashing their style on covers of songs by the Beastie Boys, Ramones and Nine Inch Nails.

But the moment that likely swelled the hearts of the crossover areas in the rock and roll/baseball Venn diagram was when lead guitarist Chris Shiflett came out for the encore wearing a red “Cincinnati Invented Hustle” t-shirt that he’d picked up that day to show his support for the city’s disgraced hit king.

The choice was even more apt considering that HBO dropped its new four-part documentary series about baseball’s all-time hits leader this week, Charlie Hustle & The Matter of Pete Rose, which touches on Rose’s illustrious career, as well as the betting scandal that resulted in the former Cincinnati Reds player and manager’s lifetime ban from the game and the Baseball Hall of Fame; Rose’s nickname as a player was Charlie Hustle in reference to his tenacious style of play.

Shiflett made sure the fans who filled the Reds’ home stadium got a glimpse at his homage to their beloved, tarnished local legend, swinging his guitar to the side a few times during the emotional, roiling encore tribute to Grohl’s late educator mother, Virginia, “The Teacher” to make sure they got the wink-wink reference; check out fan footage of the song, and the shirt, here. The show also featured the band’s nightly tribute to late drummer Taylor Hawkins, “Aurora,” with Grohl noting that it was Taylor’s favorite Foo Fighters song.

The Rose shout-out was just one of a handful of nods to the band’s ties to the Buckeye state. Earlier in the show, Grohl noted that he’d grown up in Warren, OH before moving to Virginia, and also referenced the fact that bassist Nate Mendel’s wife is from the Queen City. “He married a Cincinnati girl,” Grohl said. “Fellas, if you want to find a good girl, you come to Cincinnati.”