The Struts' Luke Spiller had planned Queen cover shows with Taylor Hawkins

The Struts have long been friends with Foo Fighters. Dave Grohl previously called the English rockers the "best opening band" the Foos ever had, and Struts frontman Luke Spiller bonded in particular with late drummer Taylor Hawkins over their mutual love of Queen. As Spiller tells the Talk is Jericho podcast, he and Hawkins had made plans to play a few Queen covers shows together.

"Just before Taylor died ... four or five weeks before, we were rehearsing together, getting ready to do a bunch of shows where we were gonna look at the early Queen stuff and really dig out the deep cuts and do a bunch of shows like that," Spiller shares.

Spiller would later honor Hawkins at his London tribute concert, joining the Foos and Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor for a performance of "We Will Rock You."

"To think that it went from this to that was just really mind-boggling," Spiller says.

While performing at the tribute concert was an emotionally complicated experience, it did give Spiller some unforgettable memories, including that "We Will Rock You" performance and Paul McCartney smoking his vape.

The Struts' new album, Pretty Vicious, is out now.