Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters performs live on the Main Stage during day three of Reading Festival 2019 at Richfield Avenue on Aug. 25, 2019 in Reading, England.
Not all heroes wear capes. Some wear surgical masks and scrubs.
Dave Grohl paid tribute to one of the normal-size giants who walk among us when he Zoomed in for a surprise appearance Monday night on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
The real surprise lay in wait for emergency and trauma nurse TJ Riley from Jacobi Medical Center in The Bronx, NY who has battled with COVID-19.
Riley is also a big-time Foo Fighters fan. Grohl made his day/month/year by serenading the nurse with “Everlong,” the classic stadium rock anthem from 1997’s The Color and the Shape.
When Grohl’s smiling, bearded face pulled up on screen, Riley did what any other super-fan would: he threw his hands up and let fly with a string of expletives. “Dave, I’m a huge, huge fan,” he confirmed. And his friends are going to be so jealous. “I’m going a little out of my mind right now. I think I’m having a coronavirus dream," he quipped. "This is crazy.”
The Hall of Famer hit an acoustic version of the song and dedicated it Riley. "Really TJ, thank you so much for everything that you’d done for so many people," Grohl enthused. "It’s much appreciated. And Jimmy, thanks so much for honoring such brilliant people, for doing the right thing."
Before the big surprise, Riley explained traumatic injuries are down, coronavirus infections are up in his hospital. Way up. “The whole hospital is focused on the coronavirus,” he said. "All the units that we have, they’re all pretty much COVID-19 units.” Some 60% of his co-workers have contracted the virus, he explained. Riley was the first.
The “heathcare hero of the week” also bagged $10,000 and every nurse in his department scored gift packages, donated by apparel company Life is Good.
Watch below.