Foo Fighters lovers in Italy who banded together to perform an impressive rendition of the song "Learn to Fly" featuring 1,000 musicians will finally get their wish.
Lead singer Dave Grohl announced Thursday that the band will play a show on November 3 at the Carisport venue in Cesena -- bringing to reality a dream that organizer Fabio Zaffagnini set in motion last year by putting out a call for hundreds of guitarists, drummers, bassists and singers to perform this summer in unison and film a version of the hit song.
"To see so many people put so much time, and effort, and love into making music moved me to tears," Grohl wrote on the band's Tumblr. "And the fact that it was a Foo Fighters song...well...it's hard to put into words how humbled that made me feel. It is without a doubt one of the most beautiful experiences of my entire life."
The fans, calling themselves the Rockin' 1,000, wanted to show the Foo Fighters how much they are loved in that area of the world, where the band hadn't played a show since 1997. "What we did here is a huge, huge miracle," Zaffagnini told the crowd of musicians assembled on a grassy field in Cesena, a town with a population of less than 100,000, where they'd gathered to perform in July.
Zaffagnini and others crowdfunded for six months, and the musicians paid their own way to Cesena from all over Italy, lugging their instruments with them. Zaffagnini told CNN that the rockers quickly played in sync after practicing together only a few times. "It went viral much over our expectations and its been just a fantastic sensation, we live in a very tiny tiny town in Italy, and for us it's a real miracle."
Grohl says he almost didn't watch the impressive video, which tons of people sent to him, thinking it was just another "CAT GETTING STUCK IN A PAPER BAG" clip. "I'll never forget that day that my phone was flooded with texts from friends, all saying 'Have you seen this???', 'Amazing!', 'So insane!' with an anonymous YouTube link attached," Grohl wrote. "I didn't bite at first, but after the 10,000th message, I clicked the link and was absolutely blown away by what I saw." Grohl quickly posted a message to the fans: "This video. How beautiful, how very beautiful," he responded in Italian. He promised his band would answer the Rockin' 1,000's call for a concert -- and now they have a date. The band will go on to play other European shows in November.
The video that blew Dave away and his response, in case you missed em:
