Rock band with Warren-born leader wins Grammy for Best Rock Performance

Rock band with Warren-born leader wins Grammy for Best Rock Performance

Staff and wire report

LOS ANGELES

Warren-born Dave Grohl and his band the Foo Fighters won Best Rock Performance for their single “Walk” at the 54th Grammy Awards on Sunday night in Los Angeles.

The Grammy Awards was transformed into a Whitney Houston memorial, where attendees celebrated the pop star and the show hurriedly assembled a last-minute tribute.

Sunday night’s ceremony, just a day after Houston was found dead in her Beverly Hills hotel room, began with the tone of a wake, where the music industry family honored one of its biggest stars and a six-time Grammy winner.

“We’ve had a death in our family,” said host LL Cool J shortly after Bruce Springsteen opened the show by singing, with obvious poignancy, his new single, “We Take of Our Own.”

Cool J led the crowd in a prayer for music’s “fallen sister,” as the Staples Center crowd bowed their heads. He declared the night one to “celebrate and remember,” and played a clip of Houston performing “I Will Always Love You” from the 1994 Grammys.

Later in the show, Jennifer Hudson, the actress and “American Idol” finalist, was to perform a tribute to the 48-year-old Houston.