“I was considered an outcast”: Tony Hawk’s favourite songs of all time
Not only is Tony Hawk an icon for his efforts in vertical skateboarding but he’s also played a key role in many people’s musical development. A lifelong fan of excellent sonics, he first inseparably fused his two favourite interests with 1999’s Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, bringing the longstanding, symbiotic relationship of the skate park and alternative music to the masses and inspiring generations of misfits.
Since that moment, the Californian has released many games, each providing an array of inspired tricks that budding skaters have tried and mostly failed to bring to life. In a show of their cultural gravity, they have also been tastemakers for the complexion of players’ musical library. While many playing the games were already alternatively inclined, to the youngest among them, who were only starting their forays into music, they proved to be guiding lights.
The games delivered songs that have become instant favourites for players of all ages by Dead Kennedys, Goldfinger, Primus, and many more. A distinctly countercultural rendering of a lifestyle on the edges, for many, Tony Hawk’s games and music are intrinsic to their personal development.
One song synonymous with the name of Tony Hawk and the Pro Skater games is Dead Kennedys classic, ‘Police Truck’. Initially arriving in 1980 as the B-side to the indomitable ‘Holiday in Cambodia’, it had a rebirth in 1987 when it was released as a single in its own right. Coloured by a distinctly surf-rock riff, guitar tone and rhythm, the punk anthem is a perfect distillation of skating’s profoundly countercultural essence, with the chorus of “ride, ride, how we ride”, typifying this nature, despite the actual meaning of the lyrics decrying police corruption. Its use in the 1999 game not only spoke to the free spirit of Hawk’s origins in skateparks but outlined the anarchic nature of a life spent cruising around on a wooden deck.
For Hawk, who openly states he ‘grew up’ in the skate park, songs such as ‘Police Truck’ spoke to something deep within him, as at the time, skating was very much for misfits on the societal fringes and not the fetishised fashion accessory it is today. An edgy, proto-hipster experience, the music of Dead Kennedys and other Californian punks such as TSOL educated the young skaters and made an indelible mark, incubating a countercultural spirit.
When speaking to KCRW in 2008, Hawk recalled being “considered an outcast” in school due to his skateboarding and the music he listened to. It might seem a strange concession for a man so inextricable from popular culture, but times have significantly changed. Accordingly, he reflected on what ‘Police Truck’ and Dead Kennedys mean to him.
He explained: “When I was at school, I was considered an outcast. I wasn’t even really acknowledged because I was a skater, and I looked different, and I listened to this type of music. I listened to Dead Kennedys, and, so that just seemed absurd. You know, that was for guys with Mohawks that lived in England as far as they knew. And I just liked it because it was different and Jello Biafra has such a biting humour in his music. If you actually listen to his lyrics, they’re pretty amazing and almost political.”
That comment gave great insight into Hawk’s development, and luckily for fans, it wasn’t all. As part of this enlightening interview, he also shared some of his other favourite songs, all alternative classics that open a larger window into his inner workings when taken with his candid accounts of them. These were DEVO’s ‘Gut Feeling’, Frank Black’s ‘If It Takes All Night’, The Clash’s ‘Safe European Home’ and Nine Inch Nails’ ‘1,000,000’.
Perhaps the most surprising revelation of them all was that Hawk came to Black’s widely influential outfit, Pixies, “sort of late”. It seems unfathomable for a man so closely tied to alternative culture, but no one’s perfect. Furthermore, they didn’t have the internet or cool video game soundtracks back then.
Tony Hawk’s favourite songs of all time:
- DEVO – ‘Gut Feeling’
- Dead Kennedys – ‘Police Truck’
- Frank Black – ‘If It Takes All Night’
- The Clash – ‘Safe European Home’
- Nine Inch Nails – ‘1,000,000’
