Dave Grohl has explained why the Foo Fighters Rickrolled the Westboro Baptist Church at the weekend.
The band drove a truck into the extremist group’s protest outside their show in Kansas City, playing Rick Astley track Never Gonna Give You Up and waving banners reading “Keep It Clean” – a reference to the last time the Foos responded to a Westboro hate campaign.
A video clip shows Grohl telling the Kansas audience why he decided to act. He says: “You can’t just sit there and do nothing – you’ve got to go our there and say what you want to say, so we did.
“Someone said, ‘Guess who’s coming tonight?’ I said, ‘Who?’ They said, ‘Them.’ I said, ‘Why?’ They said, ‘Cause.’
“I said, ‘Cool – let’s go out and fucking hang out with them for a bit.”
The bandleader didn’t have time to set up the elaborate performance he’d staged in 2011, so chose to perform a Rickroll instead. He says: “Nothing says love like a little Rick Astley in your life. Never gonna give his ass up!”
Grohl – who’s still sporting a strapped-up leg after his stage fall in June – then dedicates Foos track My Hero to “all the people who stand up for what they believe in,” adding: “Every time we stand up in front of ‘them’ we do it because we believe we’re standing up for what is right.”
