Back in 2015, a group of over 1,000 musicians came together to perform a massive cover of Foo Fighters’ “Learn To Fly.” The performance was a stunt to get Foo Fighters’ attention and ask them to play a show in Cesena, Italy. It worked, as the band did end up performing in the city. Since then, the project, dubbed Rockin’1000, has continued to perform, and their first performance in nearly three years took place this past weekend.
The set was played to over 50,000 people in Paris and it included a tribute to the late Taylor Hawkins via a cover of “My Hero.” The caption of the performance’s official YouTube upload reads, “One thousand musicians dedicating this song to one drummer: Taylor Hawkins. ”
Worth noting is that “My Hero” comes from Foo Fighters’ 1997 album The Colour And The Shape, and Hawkins only joined the band after that album was recorded. Still, he has plenty of experience with “My Hero”: Since 1998 (Hawkins’ first full year with the band), Foo Fighters have performed the song over 900 times, according to setlist.fm. The site also offers further proof that “My Hero” is one of Foo Fighters’ signature songs: They’ve played it live 970 times total, making it the band’s third-most performed song, behind “Monkey Wrench” (997 times) and “Everlong” (1,086 times).
Watch Rockin’1000 perform “My Hero” above.