Tony Hawk’s favourite song by The Clash: “I can say I was there”
Tony Hawk is undoubtedly the most famous skateboarder of all time. He made his TV debut under the name “Skateboard Johnny” in 1981 at age 13, and turned professional just one year later. In each year from 1983 to 1995, he was crowned the National Skateboard Association vert champion, becoming the only person to win the title in 12 consecutive years.
Hawk has also inspired the next generation of skaters, both through his Activision video game series and through his philanthropic work with his charity, The Skatepark Project, which helps build skate parks around the world in underprivileged areas.
Speaking to DJ Jason Bentley in a 2008 interview on KCRW to promote his next annual Stand Up For Skate Parks event, Hawks remembered the music that he heard being played at skate parks when he was a kid.
“Growing up at the skate park, to me, that was a playground”, he said. “Skating then was considered so outcast and almost unlawful. The culture and the lifestyle and the fashion and the music that was coming from that scene was very edgy. You would hear Dead Kennedys and T.S.O.L. coming out of the loudspeakers, where there are kids, young kids, hearing the stuff that at the time they thought was shocking.”
In the interview, Hawk also name-checked music by DEVO, Nine Inch Nails, and The Pixies before bringing up a group that was of particular importance to him. “I love The Clash, and I can say I was there from the beginning on The Clash, thankfully. I remember hearing ‘White Riot’ in the skate park days. I would get a ride with the older skaters and in their car they were blasting The Clash. I always thought London Calling was one of the best albums of all time, really.
It wasn’t just in his early days at the skate park when The Clash resonated with Hawks, though. Ten years on from his television debut, Hawk was at the height of his fame when another song from The Clash caught his attention. “When they released ‘The Clash on Broadway’, I bought it and I had never heard ‘Safe European Home’. It became one of my favourite songs.”
By now, Hawk’s skateboarding had taken him around the world. He’d spent a lot of time on tour himself and would often find himself far away from home for weeks or even months at a time, so the lyrics had a deep resonance with him: “to me it meant being on the road and just wanting to get back to normalcy again, back to your comfort zone. Not European home, but a safe American home”.
The songs included on the Tony Hawk’s video games often reflect the music that is important to him. He pushed to include The Dead Kennedys’ ‘Police Truck’ on the first game in 1999 to introduce a new audience to the music which had soundtracked his early days of skating, and music from The Clash has featured on two subsequent instalments in the series – ‘White Riot’ on 2003’s Tony Hawk’s Underground and ‘Clash City Rockers’ on 2007’s Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground.
Whilst the 2005 game Tony Hawks’ American Wasteland doesn’t contain any songs by The Clash, the artwork for the soundtrack album is a homage to their classic London Calling album art (itself an homage to the artwork of Elvis Presley’s seminal debut 1956 album), with Hawks’ silhouette smashing a skateboard on the ground in place of a guitar.
