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Photo Gallery
Ben Harper 1 Ben Harper 2 Ben Harper 3 Cypress Hill Daryl Hannah De La Soul Evil Knievil Glen Plake Incubus Larid Hamilton LL Cool J LL Cool J 2 Layne Beachley Rochelle Ballard and Macy Gray Metallica Johnny Moseley Offspring Tony Alva Toni Iommi Bill Ward Rob Zombie Tony Hawk Jack Johnson Matt Hoffman |
The ESPN Action Sports and Music Awards marked a historical convergence of music and action sport athletes in an evening that will go down as the first and best of it's kind. Live performances from Black Sabbath, Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, Incubus, De La Soul featuring Busta Rhymes, Crazy Town, and Mixmastermike set the tone, while athletes from snowboarding, free-skiing, BMX, surfing, skateboarding, and motocross laid down authentic acceptance speeches for, basically, finally getting props.
Unlike mainstream sports and the stupid amounts of money and stardom poured into them, action sports participants appreciate moments of glory, reminding one of what the Oscars, Grammy's, and Olympics might possibly have once been like. Maybe even cool.
Action sports, though, is a lifestyle thing. Lifestyle includes music. You skateboard, you listen to Eminem, you snowboard, NOFX is playing in your coatpocket walkman, and so on. This night, such musicians were honored right along with the athletes. And, for example, everyone in the house stood for Metallica when they accepted their Artist Contribution Award for "raising the enjoyment and consciousness of action sports" according to the evening's program. Metallica's speech was ironic in their humbleness when James Hetfield thanked everyone, "really, because we didn't even know how much we inspired you guys." He went on to note that we have it all backwards: "YOU guys are the crazy motha-fuckers out there…not metal!" (But what was truly crazy motha-fucking was watching Metallica, in the audience, rocking out to Sabbath at the end of the show.)
LL Cool J started things off with massive energy, pumping the house with announcements of what the evening had in store. Because it was the first-ever awards ceremony for action sports athletes and musicians, all knew to expect only the unexpected. LL Cool J made that apparent. Music and action sports are the only two industries that both walk the line of unacceptance until, somehow, the invisible line is crossed, launching its participants into rockstardom and the inevitable Mainstream Love Affair.
Here, too, was the only place where those who don't compete in competitions were honored, still. For example, his peers voted snowboarder Kevin Jones, who is not necessarily an event-guy, as Snowboarding's Athlete of the Year. He, in turn, thanked Metallica for "making it real." Big-wave surfer Laird Hamilton was also honored with an award for the Feat of the Year for surfing the heaviest and possibly, most gnarly wave in history. Dressed in a blue suit and leather flaps ala his Hawaiian roots, he humbly thanked Jesus Christ and "all my friends who have ever saved my life…"
Evil Knievil re-iterated Hamilton's message. Dressed in American flag leathers, he rode down the stage ramp on his Harley during the Honors to Action Sports Legends and reminded everyone about the life-risks people have taken in pursuit of their passion and sport. While most of us in the audience already understood this, his message should fare well with the mass market when it airs on ESPN.
Comedian Tom Green's video parody with Tony Hawk will soon go down as a short-film series classic. First clip started with Tony showing up at "Tom's Skateboarding Gym" and Tom making fun of Hawk's historical 900 trick pulled during competition. "It's time to learn the "new" new, Tony!" Four more clips and it only got way better. On stage, Green rolled in on a skateboard and pulled a couple of 360's before heading down the ramp into the audience and taking a beater in typical Green comedic fashion. The hype was all in honor of Tony Hawk for his Action Sports Achievement Award. Another standing ovation and the humble Hawk dressed in a swanky grey suit took to stage and thanked everyone who'd ever helped him get to where he was today. (Just the opposite of Metallica who thanked their sponsors "Absolut and the Colombian Drug Cartel.")
Women were honored in surfing, skateboarding, snowboarding, and skiing all backed with exceptional footage of each ripping in their perspective sports. Australian Layne Beachely, out of breath and amazed by her Surfer of the Year award said, "Maybe this is what Russell Crowe felt like at the Oscars…" Surely. But he didn't look as good. (See Photo Gallery) Barrett Christy hiked up the ramp to the stage on crutches when announced that she had won for Snowboarder of the Year. "I truly did not expect this at all," she said, completely flustered. Finally, this woman won something she probably should have won long ago. But then, it was only last week that there was such a thing as this type of awards ceremony.
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