Dave Grohl once played drums with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers on Saturday Night Live. In another odd pairing, Guns N’ Roses once asked The Eagles Don Henley to fill in on drums for GN’R drummer Steven Adler while he was in rehab.
The occasion was the 16th Annual American Music Awards held on January 30, 1989, where Gun’s N Roses performed “Patience“. Here’s how it all went down… A few weeks after Axl Rose sang background vocals for a Don Henley song called “I Will Not Go Quietly”, Rose called Henley in the studio and asked,
“I got a proposition for you. We’ve got to play the American Music Awards, and our drummer’s sick. We want you to play the drums.”
Henley agreed. When asked about the one-off performance he said:
“Fortunately it was a ballad that we played, not a balls-to-the-wall number. I rehearsed with Axl a couple of days, although the whole band never showed up. But it was a piece of cake. There was really nothing to it.”
In my opinion, the performance was below average (not solely because of Henley). I am pretty sure Henley went almost unnoticed and unfortunately Rose’s microphone was cut off before he could thank him.
Luckily for us, we have youtube and can relive this “magical moment”. Click photo or link below to check out Grohl playing with Tom Petty.
