Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl breaks down mid-song at the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert

Dave Grohl emotionally broke down mid-song as he performed at The Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert off at Wembley Stadium on Saturday night, where crowds of fans and musicians gathered to remember the late drummer.

Taylor died suddenly in March of this year in his hotel room in Columbia, at the age of 50, while The Foo Fighters were on the South American leg of their recent world tour.

In his memory, frontman Dave, 53, fronted the fundraiser and was joined on-stage by a string of stars including Paul McCartney and Queen – and even Taylor’s teenage son Oliver Shane.

But at one point during the star-studded show, Dave became overwhelmed with emotional as he joined his bandmates in belting out The Foo Fighters hit tracks.

The American singer broke down in floods of tears mid-song during Times Like These, before bravely gathering himself together and continuing with the set.

As he sang the lyric, ‘Do I stay or runaway and leave it all behind?’, his vocals cracked as he became very tearful during the poignant moment.

Earlier in the show, Dave had taken to the stage to thunderous applause with the rest of the band, and took over the drums that his late bandmate once helmed, as Liam Gallagher opened the show.

Several musicians took Taylor’s place as the drummer for the concert, including Dave Grohl’s daughter Violet, 12-year-old Nandi Bushell and Taylor’s own son, Oliver Shane, 16, who performed My Hero.

Travis Barker also sat in the drummer’s seat to open the show, putting on an incredible performance of The Pretender and Monkey Wrench, finishing with a drum solo. The Darkness’ Rufus Tiger Taylor and Omar Hakim also took to the drums.

Addressing the crowd during the show, Dave said no-one could make you laugh, dance, or sing like Taylor could as he paid tribute to his late friend.

He added: ‘We’ve gathered to bring you a gigantic f**king night for a gigantic f**king person. So sing and laugh and dance and f**king scream and f**king make some noise so he can hear us right now!

‘Cos you know what, it’s going to be a long f**king night!’

Dave also gushed over the amount of support for the fundraiser, as he said that even if it was just Taylor’s close friends there, it still would have been at least 100 musicians show up.

Before introducing his daughter Violet and Mark Ronson to the stage, he said: ‘When we first started talking about putting something together for Taylor, we sat down and we said even if it’s his closest friends, that’s like 100 f***ing musicians.

‘So this collection of friends and family and musicians, this is all brought together by him and we’re all connected here today by that one guy.

‘Bringing musicians that have never met, musicians that have never played together, all in one place, at one time, with all of you beautiful people to make f***ing noise for Taylor Hawkins.’

A whole host of stars took part in the six-hour concert, from Nirvana to Metallica, Queen, Led Zeppelin, RUSH, AC/DC, Paul McCartney and The Police.

Dave Chappelle even made an appearance at the gig to reminisce over hosting Saturday Night Live with the Foos as a musical guest in November 2020.

Jason Sudeikis also dropped by to introduce Taylor’s other two bands – Chevy Metal and Coattail Riders.

And Elton John spoke via pre-recorded message, saying: ‘I want to pay tribute to Taylor Hawkins because he was a great musician. But more than that he was a great father and a great husband and a great guy to hang out with.’

He added: ‘He played on my last album which I was so thrilled about and honoured. So, tonight is about remembering him, honouring him, and don’t ever forget him.’

Liam Gallagher opened the show with Oasis’ Rock and Roll Star, while Kesha also performed a rendition of Children of the Revolution.

And taking to Instagram, Kesha shared a carousel of snaps from the evening – including one with Taylor’s son Oliver, as the youngster followed in his dad’s musical footsteps.

The TiK ToK singer also shared pictures with frontman Dave backstage to her 3.2M followers, captioning: ‘Just a bunch of dorks playing Wembley’.

The Darkness’ Justin Hawkins followed to sing some of Taylor Hawkins’ songs, before Sir Paul McCartney performed The Beatles’ Oh! Darling as a duet with The Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde.

Blink-182’s Travis Barker was also in attendance as he joined the band on stage to play the drums during their hits The Pretender and Monkey Wrench.

He attended with wife Kourtney Kardashian, as the pair donned matching leather jackets while paying tribute to the late rocker.

While Metallica’s Lars Ulrich and The Pretenders’ Martin Chambers were also on the drummer list

The concert is the first of two planned tribute nights, with the other gig set to be in Los Angeles later this month.

Closing out the show, Dave said: ‘I hope that you guys felt all the love from all of us and all of the performers because we felt it from you for Taylor tonight, so thank you everybody.’

He added: ‘I’d like to thank the Hawkins family for being here with us tonight’.

He brought out the musicians on stage for a final bow and signed off: ‘Let’s hear it one more time for Taylor f***ing Hawkins!’

It comes as the frontman also revealed that the funeral would be a ‘celebration’, confiding in The Struts’ Luke Spiller – who was close friends with Taylor.

Luke explained to The Sun: ‘This week we were all at 606 in London, and I took Dave to one side and said: ‘Thank you so much for considering me to be involved. I’m so happy I can contribute in some way.’

‘He told me: ‘Just remember, this isn’t some f-ing funeral. This is a celebration, and we are doing it at Wembley because Taylor deserves Wembley. Taylor deserves nothing but the best for his send off.’ And it’s right. I wish we didn’t have to do it. But it will be a moment and a day people will never forget,’ continued the musician.