After of course Loverboy and Nickelback, Canada’s best band is arguably Rush. So when the Foo Fighters’ tour stopped in Edmonton, Alberta, they paid tribute to the progressive rock legends by covering Rush’s 1981 classic “Tom Sawyer.”
Now if you’ve attempted to sing “Tom Sawyer” at karaoke or on Rock Band, it’s not exactly an easy song to belt out. Geddy Lee‘s high-pitch vocals come out of nowhere and can be near impossible. However that didn’t stop the Foo Fighters from inviting some dude from the crowd to sing lead vocals.
The supposedly random selection from the crowd paid huge dividends for the rock band already. In June, Dave Grohl picked a kid out of the crowd to play drums with the band because it was his birthday. Then a few weeks later, Grohl invited his orthopedic surgeon, who fixed up his broken leg, onstage to sing stadium anthem “Seven Nation Army.” Both participants killed it, but would this special guest continue the tremendous performances or would he suck ass?
Grohl asked the soldout Edmonton crowd if anyone could sing “Tom Sawyer,” and Brian Roberts confidently raised his hand. Dave brought him up and honestly did expect too much considering the difficulty of the song. “Welcome to my nightmare,” Grohl said as he handed Brian the mic. Dave calmed the nerves of the concertgoer by saying, “Don’t fuck it up.”
Brian Roberts didn’t fuck it up.
“Dude! That was fucking amazing,” Grohl said after the song. “Holy shit! I don’t even know. What the fuck? What was that? Dude, are you a eunuch? How did you fucking hit those notes?” Hopefully Varys doesn’t find this offensive.
To understand completely how great this regular Joe’s cover was, Grohl’s face says it all.
[CoS]