Tony Hawk made his way as a skateboarder, but he’s been a household name for decades now. He’s had so many different endeavors, from video games to a Six Flags amusement park ride. But he’s also appeared in a handful of music videos, and these are four of the best.
“I’m Just a Kid” by Simple Plan
Since Simple Plan’s “I’m Just a Kid” was featured in the 2002 movie The New Guy, the music video is suitably based on the film. And because of this, Tony Hawk’s cameo in the music video is like a cameo of a cameo. In The New Guy, Hawk appeared as himself in a couple of scenes. For the music video, he makes a brief appearance while the band is trying to one-up the main character from the movie.
During the skateboarding scene, there’s a split-second shot of Tony Hawk going nuts in the bleachers. However, it looks like this is cut directly from the movie rather than new footage. Still, the music video cleverly incorporates movie promo into the single promo, using elements of the narrative as well as the two main actors, DJ Qualls and Eliza Dushku.
“Wild In the Streets” by Circle Jerks
“Wild in the Streets” appeared on the 1982 Circle Jerks album of the same name. But in 2022, they unveiled a new music video for the 40th anniversary. This new video spliced together footage from a 1982 Circle Jerks live show with current-day footage of skateboard superstars tearing up California sidewalks.
Tony Hawk made a cameo, showing off his expertly honed skills. Alongside him were Lance Mountain, Christian Hosoi, Eric Koston, Dashawn Jordan, Sal Barbier, and several others. The Atiba Jefferson-directed music video seamlessly blended the 80s footage with the new footage, recreating period-correct film textures, for example. It also bridged those 40 years by bringing together all-star skateboarders from the Circle Jerks era with a modern generation of prodigies.
“Open Your Eyes” by Surfbort
In April 2022, Tony Hawk took a starring role in Surfbort’s music video for “Open Your Eyes”. The Brooklyn punk band became his aggressive trainers, pushing him to do bigger and better skateboard tricks. This was interspersed with them performing the track at the bottom of a half-pipe.
They try to teach Tony Hawk karate moves, yell at him through a megaphone, smack him on the butt, and give him scores like “You Suck”, “Bogus”, “Wack”, and “Zero”. The band then shows Tony Hawk, an internationally famous skateboarder, how it’s done. They glide through the half-pipe eating pizza, lying sideways on the board, and meditating, with the help of a green screen, of course. At the end, vocalist Dani Miller rides by, balancing on Hawk’s back as he lies on his stomach on the board.
“Smells Like Nirvana” by Weird Al Yankovic
In 1992, Weird Al released “Smells Like Nirvana”, his “Smells Like Teen Spirit” parody. The music video is a slightly off recreation of Nirvana’s video, with Weird Al playing Kurt Cobain. You might be wondering where Tony Hawk shows up. Well, this one is a little more difficult, to the point where even Weird Al wasn’t aware until years later.
A young Hawk is featured as an extra in the crowd, and he has only a split-second appearance. But it was formative enough that he tweeted about it in 2009. Then, he brought it up again in 2023 while Weird Al was a guest on his podcast. In the initial tweet, however, Weird Al replied in disbelief that he didn’t know. “No way!” he wrote. “YOU were in my Smells Like Nirvana video?? How did I not know that? Awesome!”
Photo by Mark Sutton – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images
The post Tony Hawk Has Been Randomly Appearing in Music Videos for More Than 30 Years—Here Are the Best Ones appeared first on VICE.
