“Explore, experience, celebrate”
Queens Of The Stone Age, Arctic Monkeys‘ Matt Helders, Brody Dalle and The Raconteurs all led tributes to the late Anthony Bourdain on what would have been his birthday.
The US TV chef, host, writer and journalist died in France last year (June 8). He was 61 years old. Yesterday (June 25) to mark what would have been his birthday, a host of Bourdain’s musical friends and fans contributed to a video encouraging people to mark ‘Bourdain Day’ by “exploring, experiencing and celebrating”.
“They’re talking about Anthony Bourdain’s birthday,” said QOTSA frontman Josh Homme after a series of cameos, “so remember our good friend Anthony Bourdain by celebrating on his birthday.”
Members of Royal Blood, The Kills and The Strokes are also among those to feature in the short clip.
The likes of Iggy Pop, U2 and Pearl Jam paid tribute to Bourdain, with his friend and collaborator Josh Homme also sharing a touching letter that he wrote to his daughter.
Homme once guested on Bourdain’s show No Reservations. In one sketch, Homme is seen playing a guitar and singing, before Bourdain walks up to him, takes his guitar and smashes it against a tree. Homme’s daughter Camille witnessed the sketch and according to Homme, became upset with Bourdain.
Upon hearing the news, Bourdain wrote a letter to Camille in which he apologized for upsetting her. Sharing the letter on Twitter, Homme wrote: “Tony, I miss you bad. Once, Camille was so mad at you. She was defending me. And so were you. And you, with great care, such empathy, such sweetness… You apologized to a little girl who was defending her daddy.”
In the letter, Bourdain says that it was ‘not Daddy’s guitar’ and the pair of them ‘were just playing around.’ You can see Homme’s message and Bourdain’s letter below.
Tony, I miss you bad. Once, Camille was so mad at you. She was defending me. & So were you. Ariane, this was your father. Humbly yours, Joshua pic.twitter.com/sR3mwO5WBI
— QOTSA (@qotsa) June 29, 2018
Last year, U2 dedicated a song to Anthony Bourdain at their New York show. At the end of the first encore during the Irish band’s show at Harlem’s Apollo Theater, frontman Bono began talking about losing “a lot of inspiring, useful people” in recent times “who gave up on their own life”. “It’s hard to lose a friend and this band has been through that,” he added.
He then directly mentioned Bourdain, saying: “And now this great storyteller, who I’m sure has stories he couldn’t tell us. So for Anthony Bourdain, and his friends and family, this is a song inspired by a great, great, great friend of ours. His name is Michael Hutchence.”
Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor also honoured Bourdain last year, comparing his admiration of him with that of David Bowie.
“I never met [Anthony Bourdain],” said Reznor. “But I liked the world with him in it better. I liked knowing he was out there in some fashion, especially in these times. That’s a loss; culturally, we needed that voice.”
He continued: “With Bowie, I did know him to a degree. I certainly studied his work and continued to do so. It felt like, ‘Man, we weren’t done. There’s more to go. I needed you in the world’. It was like a family member almost. There are these people that you feel you can rely on out there – not for support necessarily, but it’s good to know they’re experiencing life as we’re in semi-uncertain times and even when we aren’t. I think about that a lot.”
