Childish Gambino Paid Tribute To His Late Father At His Final Show

Last night, Childish Gambino played what he said is “the very last Childish Gambino show” at The Forum in Los Angeles on Monday. While that’s reason enough for the performance to be talked about, it was also noteworthy because Donald Glover made a sad personal announcement: His father, Donald Glover Sr., passed away recently.

thank you, mr. glover. from r/donaldglover

Before performing “Riot” and dedicating the song to him, he said, “I lost my father a couple weeks ago, and I wanted to play him some of the new songs, but he didn’t want to hear them because he was like, ‘I know they’ll be great.’ I’m not saying that to talk about music, I say that to talk about trust.”

He more vaguely touched on losing people close to him in 2018 during his Sunday performance, also at The Forum, as Variety quotes him as having said, “I lost a lot of good people. I know it’s been a tough year for everybody, that’s what’s crazy. I wish I could change everything for everybody.”

Glover previously talked about how his father’s music tastes inspired his Awaken, My Love! album, saying in a 2016 interview, “I remember listening to songs my dad would play — albums by the Isleys or Funkadelic — and not understanding the feeling I was feeling. I remember hearing a Funkadelic scream and being like, ‘Wow, that’s sexual and it’s scary.’ Not having a name for that, though; just having a feeling. That’s what made it great.”

Glover’s father was a proud dad, as he frequently showed on his Twitter account by retweeting many tweets praising his son and sharing messages like, “For me to grow up in NYC and have your son take MSG by storm is unbelievable.” The senior Glover had an active Twitter presence, so fans took to the platform to pay their respects:

https://twitter.com/GrandmastaShash/status/1075060878813188097

https://twitter.com/TrevorMorrison/status/1075060517700595712

https://twitter.com/wo3de_tian_na/status/1075058385211469824

Watch Glover talk about his father above.