At the 1999 X Games, Tony Hawk became the first skater to ever pull off a 900-degree aerial spin.
25 years later, he’s still on his board every day.
“I skated yesterday and learned a new trick,” the 55-year-old icon told the New York Post on in an exclusive interview.
However, rather than just walk the walk, Hawk also talks the talk now, too.
Along with fellow extreme pioneer and Bones Brigade member Rodney Mullen, he’s embarking on a two-show ‘ Darkslides and Secret Tapes Tour’ where the pair will stop into New York City’s Beacon Theatre on Thursday, April 4 and Austin’s Moody Theater on Sunday, April 7.
“I’ve been friends with Rodney for 40 years, and I feel like we each bring a very different perspective on our careers and our success,” Hawk explained.
“He lived on a farm in Florida and grew up skating on a concrete pad. I lived in the surf culture of Southern California and started skating because my brother was a surfer but we found ourselves with kind of the same trajectory and motivations.”
At both shows, the legendary duo will chat and share rarely seen videos.
“We have a lot of historical footage and stuff that was documented when we were kids and stuff that we didn’t realize at the time but were milestones of our sport,” Hawk said.
“You’ll see Rodney’s first kick flips, my first aerials and spins. Some of it is floating around the Internet, but you can’t find it all in one cohesive place like we’re going to show it.”
They will also answer questions from the audience.
“That’ll probably be some of the most fun stuff because it’s so spontaneous and off the cuff and we don’t have canned, rehearsed answers for what people are going to ask us.”
And while it’s not scripted Tony would love for someone to inquire about Mullen’s recent surgery.
“It’s no secret Rodney recently had a double hip replacement and he just started skating again,” Tony shared. “I want to know what he’s doing. Has he done a kick flip yet?”
Want to see Birdman and Mutt chop it up live?
We’ve got everything you need to know and more about Tony Hawk and Rodney Mullen’s 2024 ‘Darkslides and Secret Tapes Tour’ below.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Tony Hawk and Rodney Mullen 2024 tour schedule
A complete calendar of all tour dates, venues and links to buy tickets can be found here:
There may be more shows if these gigs go over well.
“We’re hoping to establish this as a format and then go forward with a lot of cities,” Hawk pointed out. “This is all very much an experiment. Every time I talked to Rodney on the phone, which has been a lot in the last week, we get more excited about it. So I have a good feeling.”
Rodney Mullen story
While chatting, Hawk dropped a story about Mullen from long ago.
“When we were Bones Brigade rookies, Stacy Peralta lived in Santa Monica, so we would stay with him,” Hawk began. “One night, he took us out to eat in Westwood, which is where movies premiere and in the ’80s was kind of a hot spot.”
“There are street performers there,” he continued. “We parked kind of far away from the restaurant because there was no parking and we skated. Rodney started doing his usual amazing tricks. Suddenly, this huge crowd gathered around him and started leaving the other street performers to watch Rodney.”
“People started throwing money at him,” Hawk laughed. “Then, one of the street performers came over and chewed him out. That was the end of Rodney’s show.”
“We were all of 13.”
Tony Hawk on “Saturday Night Live”
In January 2023, “White Lotus” star Aubrey Plaza hosted with musical guest Sam Smith.
Tony Hawk was there, too.
The night’s first sketch, “Miss Universe,” featured Hawk and The Property Brothers as judges in a parody of the beauty contest where they “rank women based on looks” as Kenan Thompson quipped in the sketch.
True to form, Hawk had fun with his role and screamed all his lines.
“In the original script, it was literally me saying my name,” Hawk noted. “I just went with it. During rehearsal, I improvised a new line and they loved it.”
“Lorne was like ‘we’re going to keep Tony’s new line in there.’ Next thing I know, I’ve got an extra line or two. But after that I understood how the sausage is made and how some things don’t work in rehearsals. Some things work way better because they they riff on it. And that is the that’s the beauty of ‘SNL.’”
You can catch the goofy four-minute sketch here:
Tony Hawk “Masked Singer” appearance
Ever the renaissance man, Hawk appeared on “The Masked Singer” as well.
“They hit me up to do show and I was a little skeptical,” Hawk told us about his February 2020 stint on the show. “Then they started going through a list of potential songs and bands. I thought, ‘That would be pretty cool to sing The Cure.’ I worked with a vocal coach for a few weeks to try and nail the range of that song.”
“My dancing was not the greatest. I think that’s what shut me down. I also think that for that audience The Cure is a bit obscure. They wanted me to do ‘Born to Be Wild,’ and I had both of those in my pocket. And they wanted me to be ‘Born to Be Wild’ first because they thought it was more energetic and the dance was a little more up their alley.”
“But to my own demise, I insisted on The Cure being first.”
Below, you’ll find an unofficial video of the performance.
People recognizing Tony
Outside of skating, Tony Hawk might be most well known for people asking him if he’s…Tony Hawk.
“(It happens) every day,” he chuckled. “It happened yesterday again. I stopped sharing it (on social media) because people think it’s redundant and I’m making it up. I’m just sharing the experience and I think someone will probably think this is funny.”
“Now it happens almost as much in jest,” he continued. “The meme has formed a life on its own. It drives my daughter crazy if I don’t tell people it’s me. They didn’t ask.”
“It almost feels pretentious (to be) like ‘well, actually, I am.’”
Huge concerts in 2024
If you can’t make it out to NYC or Austin there are plenty of huge shows that might be headed closer to a venue near you.
Here are just five tours we can’t wait for this year.
• Blink-182
• Red Hot Chili Peppers
• Foo Fighters
• Green Day with Smashing Pumpkins
• Pearl Jam
Who else is on the road? Check out our list of the 50 biggest concert tours of 2024 here to find out.