Dave Grohl dedicates Foo Fighters' Kerrang! Award to Chester Bennington
Foo Fighters were big winners at the 2018 Kerrang! Awards as they picked up two prizes during the ceremony at Islington Assembly Hall in London. The Foos beat Linkin Park, Metallica and Green Day to be voted Best International Band by the rock magazine and its website’s readers. They also picked up a gong for Best Live Band. During their speech for the former, frontman Dave Grohl dedicated the win to the late Chester Bennington, who passed away last July after taking his own life, at just 41 years of age.
Dave Grohl and the gang accepted the award in typical Foo fashion, with Grohl high-kicking the air at one point. He also ended the acceptance speech by quoting Paul Thomas Anderson's 1997 cult classic 'Boogie Nights', part of which you can see in the fan-shot footage below. In the midst of all this was also a somber moment, as Grohl dedicated the award to Bennington and even compared the loss to that of his own former Nirvana bandmate Kurt Cobain, who committed suicide in 1994.
“On a serious note, I would like to dedicate this one to Chester,” said Grohl. “I know what it’s like to lose somebody like that. At least we have his music forever. So this one’s for Chester.”
The event was attended by some of the biggest names from the world of rock music including Slipknot singer Corey Taylor, Alice Cooper, and Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi. Johnny Depp was also there to present Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry with the Kerrang! inspiration award.
Last week, Mike Shinoda addressed whether Linkin Park will continue without Chester Bennington in an interview with HeartRadio‘s ‘Inside The Studio’ podcast. “That’s the million-dollar question, right?” he said. “And, unfortunately, I’ve said it before, but there aren’t any answers to that at this point. It would be awesome if there were. That would be really easy,” said Shinoda, who released his own solo album 'Post Traumatic' last week.
“I wish we were in a Brian Johnson/Bon Scott situation where it’s, like, no, the guy, our best friend, who sang for the band who passed away, he literally said, ‘This is the guy,’ and we listened to the guy and the guy’s definitely the guy, and we all love hanging out with him, and we want to play with him. That didn’t happen to anybody else, really. That hasn’t happened to us.”
Meanwhile, other winners of the night included Scottish band Biffy Clyro, who were presented with the award for Best British Band by The Darkness singer Justin Hawkins.
Also, Brighton metalcore band Architects won the best British Live Act category. The recognition followed the death of lead guitarist and founding member Tom Searle, who lost a three-year battle with skin cancer in August 2016. British alternative rock act Enter Shikari won the sixth Kerrang! Award of their career by taking home the best album gong for 'The Spark'.
The evening concluded with Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi being presented with the Icon Award for his enduring body of work with the Birmingham heavy metal pioneers.