Skateboarding icon Tony Hawk is famous for not being recognized in public, but one person who will always recognize him is Goldfinger frontman John Feldmann.

“Tony Hawk really changed the trajectory of my career,” Feldmann tells ABC Audio.

Feldmann is, of course, talking about Hawk’s Pro Skater video game series, the first installment of which featured Goldfinger’s song “Superman” on the soundtrack. Thanks to its placement in the game, “Superman” has become one of Goldfinger’s signature and most beloved songs.

“So many kids played that game,” Feldmann laughs. “So many people played that game.”

Initially, Feldmann didn’t even know that “Superman” was even in Pro Skater, but he soon realized it was about to become a phenomenon when he and Goldfinger played the song while on tour in England shortly after the game was released.

“We played, like, five, six songs that I thought were gonna be our biggest hits,” Feldmann recalls. “Then we played ‘Superman,’ and the whole crowd just [formed] the biggest the circle pit of the night, it was just this wild moment…It’s just become this huge thing.”

Both the first and second Pro Skater games were remastered in 2020, and brought back “Superman” for the soundtrack while also adding a few other, newer songs, including Machine Gun Kelly‘s “Bloody Valentine.” Feldmann feels that the spirit of the Pro Skater soundtrack continues to live on in today’s music.

“There’s definitely a movement happening, that’s been happening for the last year with all these artists,” Feldmann says, name-checking blackbear and WILLOW. “It’s just amazing to watch all these younger kids making music that I grew up on, that changed my life.” 

Goldfinger released a rerecorded version of “Superman” featuring Biffy Clyro‘s Simon Neil in August.

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