Tony Hawk struck an emotional chord with fans after sending out a bittersweet message to grunge icon Kurt Cobain.

The skateboarding legend reflected on his growing family in a poignant Instagram story, as some fans are only just realizing he’s now, technically, related to the late Nirvana frontman.

That’s right – Tony Hawk and Kurt Cobain, two of the biggest stars of the 90s, share a grandson.

Back in September, Hawk became a grandfather for the first time when his son Riley Hawk, 31, and Frances Bean Cobain, 32, welcomed a baby boy, called Ronin Walker Cobain Hawk. What a powerhouse of a name!

Frances Bean Cobain with her son, Ronin Walker Cobain Hawk (Instagram/TheSpaceWitch)

Frances, 32, is the only child of Cobain and singer and guitarist Courtney Love.

Born in 1992, she wasn’t even two years old when her father took his own life in April 1994 at the age of 27.

But she shared the happy news of her new arrival last year, posting a series of pictures of their joyous family of three to social media.

“Welcome to the world most beautiful son. We love you more than anything,” she wrote.

Now, Hawk shared how he wishes Cobain was here today to meet his ‘wondrous grandchild.

Riley Hawk and his newborn son (Instagram/Thespacewitch)

In a recent Instagram story to his 9.3 million followers, Tony shared a ticket stub from a Nirvana concert he attended in Houston, Texas back in October 1991 – when it cost just $10 a ticket, by the way!

Hawk wrote: “Went straight from S.U.A.S. event at Houston skatepark to this concert in 1991. It was as transformative as live music can be.

“We all experienced something rare and powerful that night. The world would never be the same.”

The doting grandfather then opened up about his family, writing: “I wish Kurt were here so he could see the incredible woman his daughter has become.

“Meet her devoted, caring husband, and hold our wondrous grandchild,” he reflected.

Is that a tear in your eye? Same here…

Hawk penned the sweet message via his Instagram story (Instagram/Tonyhawk)

Some were in pieces over the beautiful message, as one fan wrote on TikTok: “Well dang, not me ugly crying over here. OUR GRANDCHILD. Imagine being at that show and having no clue that you would share the same grandchild years later. Wow.”

A second agreed: “Not this making me cry. So glad Frances found this love and family.”

A third reckoned: “The cultural congruence of skating and grunge, this was like meant to happen. Also I just know Kurt’s daughter feels at ease with the Hawks.”

Over on X, formerly Twitter, people were stunned to discover Hawk and Cobain’s familial link as people admitted they had ‘no idea’.

One person reckoned baby Ronin is already ‘the coolest person alive’, as a second dubbed him ‘the ultimate 90s (grand)baby’

“Crazy legacy from both sides,” another weighed in, as someone else wrote: “Can you imagine being the kid that gets to say your grandfathers are Kurt Cobain and Tony Hawk?”

And Hawk is keen to pass on his love of skateboarding to Ronin too.

In another Instagram post last week, Hawk posted a photo of himself beaming while sat on a skateboard, holding his grandson.

“What happens when all of your kids can skate on their own and no longer rely on you to give them rides?” he asked. “You wait until they have their own kids. Circles (wheels?) of life.”

Ronin Cobain Hawk’s Pro Skater is surely on the horizon, no?

0 commentsFeatured Image Credit: Odd ANDERSEN/AFP/Kevin Mazur/WireImage/Getty Image

Tony Hawk left stunned as 9-year-old breaks record doing three back-to-back 900s in front of him

The Birdman was in attendance for the Tony Hawk’s Vert Alert competition over the weekend.

Skateboarding legend Tony Hawk was left gobsmacked after witnessing a nine-year-old boy perform three-back-back 900s over the weekend.

In June 1999, Hawk, then 25, was competing at X Games V in San Francisco, California.

During this event, he repeatedly tried and failed to land a ‘900’ – a skateboarding trick where a rider completes two-and-a-half, 360-degree revolutions while in mid-air on a vert ramp.

However, the athlete wrote his name in the history books as the first-ever skateboarder to perform the elusive 900.

Tony Hawk suffers ‘major setback’ after breaking leg

Credit: Instagram/Tony Hawk

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25 years later, only a handful have successfully pulled off Hawk’s stunt, including Ema Kawakami in 2022 and more recently 14-year-old Arisa Trew from Australia.

Last month, the latter became the first female skateboarder to land a 900, drawing praise from the Birdman himself on Instagram.

Meanwhile, nine-year-old Kawakami – who landed his first 900 when he was seven – has gone one step further.

Appearing at the veteran skateboarder’s ‘Vert Alert’ competition over the weekend, the Japanese schoolboy from Kobe performed three back-to-back 900s in an attempt to win gold.

His performance was watched by Hawk, Selema Masekela and Paul Zitzer – with the former delivering a standing ovation and clapping after seeing the trick.

Ema Kawakami managed to do the trick three times back-to-back (Instagram/@xgames)

Despite impressing Hawk and pulling off the wild feat, it appeared three back-to-back 900s just wasn’t enough for Kawakami to swing the Vert Alert competition.

Instead, 15-year-old Guilherme ‘Gui’ Khury – who landed the world’s first-ever 1080 trick in competition at the X Games in 2021 – was crowned the competition winner.

Following the event, a clip of Hawk’s reaction and Kawakami’s stunt has gone viral across social media.

After watching the video, one Reddit user said: “Love watching Tony Hawk at things like this.

“He’s still genuinely in love with the sport, hugely encouraging to those ‘new’ to it, no sense of bitterness you often get from folks who can no longer compete at the very pinnacle. Great to see.”

A second typed: “I love how excited Tony gets seeing other people shred. He’s always all about it.”

“Tony Hawk is so f***ing cool,” wrote another. “He was so happy for the kid.”

Meanwhile, one Instagram viewer said: “3 Nines in a row!!!!! Phenomenal and in front of Tony! What a dream.”

“This might be one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen,” penned another user.

A sixth commented: “I remember watching the first 900 at the dinner table like it was the moon landing. I thought nothing would ever top it, and now a NINE YEAR OLD just hit 3 in a row. It’s like going from horses to the moon landing in 70 years.”Featured Image Credit: Instagram/@xgames

Fans shocked to discover how much of $10,000,000 prize money Beast Games winner actually gets as MrBeast issues sharp response

People are suggesting the IRS is the real winner after hearing how much was taken from the prize pot

Whether you subscribe to MrBeast or not, by now we’ve all heard of Beast Games – the most expensive game show in history.

MrBeast, real name Jimmy Donaldson, has the most subscribers on YouTube – 362 million followers that he gained primarily through hosting his own competitions which involved him giving eye-watering sums of money away and incredible prizes, like an island in The Bahamas.

Contestant wins $10 million in Mr Beast Games

Instagram/mrbeast

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He’s given away tens of millions of dollars on his own, but for Beast Games he teamed up with Amazon Prime to award the winner of the show with $10 million… although there’s a catch.

Beast Games

First, let’s get into what the game show is and what it consists of.

Inspired by the Netflix series, Squid Game, the games stage elaborate challenges and tasks for participants.

In total there were 1,000 contestants competing in gruelling physical and mental challenges to be in with a chance of bagging the top prize fund, $10,000,000 – and with it airing on Amazon Prime in December, it has become the biggest ever cash prize in reality TV.

Spoiler alert! The finale saw the last standing six players which was then whittled down to just Jeffrey Randall Allen and Twana Barnett.

(X/@MrBeast)

Allen, who identified as player 831 in the game, had to guess which of the 10 briefcases in front of him had a $10 million cheque inside that had been concealed by Barnett.

He guessed correctly and eventually won the huge cash prize.

How much the winning contestant took home

After finding out he won the $10 million, he soon after discovered that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which administers and enforces US federal tax laws, actually staked claim to a large portion of it.

In fact, the taxman has taken home just under half of it.

Taking to Twitter, an account tweeted: “The winner of MrBeast’s $10,000,000 ‘Beast Games’ prize will only receive $5.03 million after taxes.”

It garnered a sharp response from MrBeast, he wrote in quotations ‘Only’ accompanied with a crying face emoji, suggesting that Allen wasn’t as hard-done by as the Tweet made ou

The ‘Solitary Experiment’ on the show (Amazon Prime Video)

Fans’ reaction to the cash prize

Thousands of fans flooded to the comments, with one posting: “Yeah, only. You have 10 million and they only got half. So it’s only relative to the stated amount. This is about how bad taxes are, not you.”

A second typed: “That’s still a HEFTY slice off the top even if there’s 5 mill left.”

With a third penning: “Same time.. 50% tax is pretty bonkers.. I can see 1/3rd at most. And the fact that were programmed to think 1/3 tax is a good deal, shows how far taxes have gone…”

Meanwhile, fans suggested the real winner was the IRS.

One joked: “Amazing. So technically IRS is also competing silently.”

“Congrats to the IRS for winning Beast Games,” another added.

Conversation

Featured Image Credit: Beast Games/Amazon Prime

Tony Hawk Shares Hefty Amount He Was Paid For Tony Hawk Games

The skating legend said the first video games ‘changed his life’

Tony Hawk’s skating games were generation-defining. Fortunately for him, they also made a lot of money.

In 1999, shortly after landing that 900 spin, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater hit consoles. It was an instant success, catapulting skating to the forefront of popular culture and birthing a franchise that’s spawned 20 games.

There’s been several spin-offs, from Underground to Project 8, but they’ve rarely bettered the initial entries in the series (hence the first two were remastered for next-gen consoles

Activision

In an interview with The Nine Club in 2018, Hawk discussed the success of the games and how they completely changed his life, both financially and how much they increased the public’s awareness of him.

He said: “When the fourth game was released, my main contact at Activision asked to have lunch with me in LA. He’s not the head, but he was definitely the guy overseeing our games.”

The executive explained to Hawk that the first three games were still in the top 10 chart for sales. For context, Pro Skater 4 came out three years after the first game, and its predecessors were still outperforming other titles

Before handing him a cheque, he tried to prepare Hawk by saying things were ‘way bigger’ than he’d ever thought.

Hawk was then handed a cheque for $4 million (£3.07m). “It was my annual royalty or whatever it was,” he explained, but at the time he was baffled by holding such a large sum of money.

“I don’t want to downplay that… the video game changed my life,” he added.

The Tony Hawk’s gaming series has made an estimated $1.4 billion since its launch, so it’s unclear exactly how much he’s made since then, but it’s fair to assume it’ll be quite a lot.

Alamy

Not every game has been a success: Pro Skater 5 was ripped apart by critics and fans; and the Ride and Shred peripheral failed to connect with players. However, the franchise’s cultural legacy is unimpeachable.

“I was proud, in general, of how it raised skating’s profile.

“A shocking moment, one that gave me most validation, was when we released the fourth game, the first three titles were still in the top ten for sales. That seemed unreal. Beyond any fantasy.

“Just the idea that we got to do one sequel, and we did four, and the first three were still top selling.

“I’m proud of what we created and the legacy of those games – I never imagined it would become what I’m known for, more than my actual skating.

“It’s been crazy, it still resonates. Some of the things I get to do, in a lot of ways, are connected to that awareness that came from the video games.

Fans shocked after discovering how Shakira wrote her first album without knowing any English

‘Shakira, Shakira’s’ musical talent clearly knows no bounds

To write, sing and release a whole album in a foreign language… I just can’t comprehend how you would do that.

But that’s exactly what Shakira did for her debut English album, and fans have been left stunned that the Colombian star managed to come up with multiple hits without knowing English.

Shakira surprise Coachella appearance and announcement

Credit: YouTube

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You aren’t here to listen to my input, and frankly I’m sure you don’t care… but… if I tried to sing a Spanish song for example, I think I’d know the beat but there would be no way I could sing the whole song without slipping up.

It is easy to memorise songs in our native tongue as you can understand what the artist is singing about through the lyrics.

Anyway, I digress.

Shakira, or to give her her full name Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll, released her fifth studio album in 2001 Servicio de Lavandería, which translated to Laundry Service in English – her first in the language.

And her music was a banger, so much so that one song on the record has been listened to over 632 million times. The song? ‘Whenever, Wherever’ – an absolute tune.

Shakira performing her album in 2001 (Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images)

So how did the ‘Hips Don’t Lie’ icon write her first English album?

Well, the year was 2001 so she couldn’t really rely on Google Translate, I mean we didn’t even have iPhones back then.

Instead, she used a dictionary.

Speaking about it herself in a 2009 interview, the singer explained: “Writing songs used to be so difficult for me. A few years ago I could barely speak English and I used to write my songs with a dictionary.

Shakira during the Copa America final 2024 (Omar Vega/Getty Images)

“It was a real labour of love and I would sit there for hours just looking up words. But now thankfully it comes to me more naturally and spontaneously.”

She did it with the help of her former manager Emilio Estefan Jr, and his Cuban-American singer wife Gloria Estefan.

Following its release and seeing how well it did across the US and the world, she released a further three albums in English.

If you were a fan of Shakira beforehand, I’m sure you’re in awe of her now.Featured Image Credit: Patricia J. Garcinuno/WireImage/Stuart Franklin/Getty Images