What to Know
Tom Hanks’ adorable proud dad moment has gone viral online, and it’s not hard to understand why. Over the weekend, the 69-year-old actor attended the Stagecoach Festival, a country music festival in California. He certainly wasn’t the only celebrity in attendance, but his reason for attending seemed personal, given that a fan spotted him calmly enjoying his son’s set.
Tom’s 35-year-old son, Chet Hanks, performs in a band called Something Out West. A video recorded by a festival attendee named Keren Ashri shows Tom listening to his son perform “You Better Run.”
He even sang along to his son’s song.
Although Tom looked like he was trying to blend in and not draw attention to himself, he was spotted singing along and bobbing his head to his son’s performance. Fans who saw Keren’s video on Instagram loved this for Tom. “What’s cool is nobody bothering him,” one commenter noticed. “Just letting him enjoy his son.”
A lot of fans described the video as “wholesome” and cute because they couldn’t help but notice how proud Tom looked. “that was the coolest moment for me seeing him in the crowd,” another person wrote. “Humble a– dude just a proud dad.”
The fan who recorded the viral video spoke to People about the moment she noticed Tom in the audience. “10 minutes into the show, I noticed him and freaked out honestly,” Keren said. “I couldn’t believe he was standing right there next to me! He was enjoying watching his son.”
People also noticed the very obvious “dad energy.”
Tom Hanks watches son Chet perform at the Stagecoach Music Festival
by u/mcfw31 in popculturechat
It’s possible that fans didn’t notice Tom right away because he looked a lot like a typical dad. Reacting to the viral clip on Reddit, one fan wrote, “Classic dad pose right there.” Someone else also noticed “the Dad head bobble.”
“I’ve seen a lot of dads at a lot of shows,” another person commented. “While they all look just like this, this is my favorite.” A fourth Redditor said, “He’s really the ultimate ‘I’m just here for the vibes’ supportive dad.”
The heartwarming moment clearly touched a lot of people online, and it presumably meant a lot to Chet as well. “He looks so proud 🥹,” another fan noticed. “I bet this meant a lot to Chet.”
And Chet has actually spoken up about his dad’s appearance at Stagecoach as well.
A few days after Chet performed at the music festival, TMZ stopped him and asked him about his dad enjoying his music at the festival. “It felt warm and fuzzy,” Chet told the tabloid.
TMZ also asked Chet if his dad gave him any feedback after the performance. Based on how Chet responded, it sounds like Tom had a very dad-like reaction. Chet hesitated a bit before answering, but eventually said that his dad told him he “did a great job.”
“I was trying to think of something funny, but I couldn’t think of anything,” Chet admitted. “He was just like, ‘Yeah, good job! You did great!'” Truly peak dad energy.
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