A night at the Los Angeles Forum for Taylor Hawkins. I nearly didn’t go for various reasons, and Pat Smear phoned me and said, you have to come, we all love you and it’s mandatory that I see you. Then Jessica Squire - Def Leppard tour manager came to see me and said “Come on, you know everyone there” and I thought why not?. The first thing I see which was if I’m honest, nice but strange, was the huge projection of my picture of Taylor wearing one of my t-shirts on the outside walls of the forum. I ended up having a really good night and the high light was seeing the surviving members of Soundgarden with singer Taylor Momsen. The thing that really amused me was seeing Travis Barker and his wife, with more security around them than President Biden. Nice to see Josh Homme, looking very well, with his father. Stewart Copeland, who I’d never met before and was very nice. I thought I was back on The Stadium Tour at one point hanging with Nikki, Tommy, Joe, Sav, Phil, Joan Jett and the singer of Classless Act. As ever, a pleasure to run into John Paul Jones, who told me that he hadn’t been in the Forum for 45 years, and that along with Madison Square Garden, were his two favourite venues to play in America. I headed out before the end, leaving Joe Elliott alone, having far too much of a good time.
