Arabic version: ديف غرول يكرّم الناجي من كارثة بيكونسفيلد تود راسل

According to ABC News, Foo Fighters leader Dave Grohl paid tribute to Beaconsfield mine survivor Todd Russell during the band’s Sydney concert, dedicating an acoustic performance of The Ballad Of The Beaconsfield Miners to him.

Russell died this week aged 54, days after leaving hospital care to spend his last days at home with family. He and colleague Brant Webb became internationally known after surviving the 2006 Beaconsfield gold mine collapse in Tasmania.

Grohl told the Sydney audience that someone from the band’s record company had contacted him while Russell and Webb were trapped underground. He said he learned the miners had requested water and an iPod containing Foo Fighters music, and asked that they be sent a note offering concert tickets and beers once they were free.

The musician recalled writing the instrumental track in a hotel before a 2006 Opera House show after learning Webb would attend. He said the pair later met the band for the promised drinks, and that he later put the song on Foo Fighters’ 2007 album Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace.

Before playing the song solo on acoustic guitar, Grohl described Russell as one of the heroes he had met and said he was performing it for him. Russell’s Beaconsfield community has also remembered his decades of service as a firefighter.