The skateboarder dished on the musical family background behind his singing skills and how his kids reacted to the surprise revelation
After he was revealed as the celebrity behind the elephant mask on Fox’s The Masked Singer on Wednesday night, Tony Hawk dished on how his kids reacted to the surprise, the family background behind his singing skills, and how despite his years of fame, he still needs to sneak his way into A-list parties!
ET’s Kevin Frazier caught up with the legendary skateboarder on Thursday as he reflected on his Masked Singer journey, admitting that he wasn’t sure if he had what it takes to sing on the popular series.
“I always wondered if I was capable of it,” he said. “When they invited me to do it, I thought, ‘Well that would be a good way to try because I am literally disguised. I felt like that gave me the confidence to really try.”
“My older sister is a professional singer -- she sings for Michael Bolton, The Righteous Brothers. And, my dad used to play a lot of different instruments, so I thought I had a little musical background and maybe I could put that to the test,” Hawk added.
The sporting icon revealed his go-to song would normally be, “Born to Be Wild,” by Steppenwolf, which he feels would have made for a better stage performance. However, he opted for The Cure’s “Friday I’m in Love” because he’s a big fan of the band. He and his wife, Catherine Goodman, even chose a song by the group for their wedding march.
And, while many viewers were surprised to see the 51-year-old behind the elephant mask, it turns out some members of Hawk’s family were just as stunned.
“The kids in the household knew because I had told them what I was doing when I was coming up to L.A. all the time doing this,” the father-of-four said. “But we have three boys in college [and] they did not know.”
“[Their reaction was,] ‘What? Really? You?’ But they were all complimentary … surprisingly. You're not generally complimenting your dad that much on his performances!”
With or without his kids showering him with praise, Hawk remains an idol to many fans around the world, including thousands of children, who idolize him thanks to his video games. He still finds it strange to be approached by such fans on the street.
“It is weird,” he said. “When I grew up skating, [I] didn't aspire to be rich or famous for it, so to have any kind of fame was odd to me. Now, especially at my age, when I see kids and they know who I am or they expect me to perform magic on my skateboard, it's still odd. I feel like a stranger, but at the same time I'm thankful. I love that I still get to do it for a living.”
Despite worldwide recognition, Hawk still needs to pull some tricks when it comes to getting into certain Hollywood shindigs.
It turns out that he snuck his way into Vanity Fair’s recent Oscars bash, where he was thrilled to meet Tom Hanks and Brad Pitt all within 10 minutes!
“I was there promoting the movie [Best Short Documentary winner, Learning to Skate in a Warzone (If You're a Girl)] and what we found out at that moment is if you're holding an Oscar in your car, you get into the Vanity Fair party. Everybody in the car. So, our car was over full of people literally sitting on top of each other squished and we just stuck the Oscar out the window and they let us through!"
See more on The Masked Singer below.
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