This summer’s Drops of Jupiter: 25 Years In the Atmosphere Tour is offering some chips off the ol’ block amid performances by headliner Train and supporting act Barenaked Ladies.
Both bands take the stage each night with father-son combinations. Train brings out frontman Pat Monahan’s 14-year-old son Rock to sing and play guitar on a cover of Journey’s “Stone in Love” — going toe-to-toe with lead guitarist Butch Walker on the solos — as well as Dirty Heads’ “Vacation” (Monahan senior featured on a 2021 version) and the group’s own “Save Me, San Francisco.” Barenaked Ladies’ ranks, meanwhile, include Ed Robertson’s multi-instrumentalist son Lyle, 26, as a utility player handling guitar, bass, keyboards and backing vocals throughout the band’s hour on stage.
You can bet the papas are not hiding their pride in having their sons be part of the family business.
“It’s been pure joy, really,” Pat Monahan tells Billboard via Zoom, seated alongside Rock. He says his son “was born a 40-year-old man. He’s always been a mature, well-mannered guy that has a great sense of humor and talent and is easy to be around. It’s a thrill because he’s got a great work ethic; when people bring their kids on stage, if they’re not adults, people immediately go, ‘This will be cute.’ Then when it’s great they go, ‘Oh, sh-t! Karen, get your phone!’ It’s really fun to watch.”
On the BNL front, Lyle Robertson was initially intended as an on-call substitute for bassist Jim Creeggan, whose father passed away last month. Lyle also played with the group last November and December as well during its nearly five-week run on the CPKC Holiday Train.
“The original plan was to have Lyle on retainer in case Jim needed to slip home last-minute to help (his family),” Ed Robertson explains. “The idea was we would fly Lyle out and he could cover bass stuff. Then we thought, ‘Why not keep Lyle out here? He’s already here. He can play some guitar, do some vocals, and if Jim needs to split in a hurry he can slide over to bass.’ Jim’s the one who said right away, ‘Lyle’s a great musician, such a great player. We all know and love him. Let’s bring him along,’ and it’s been a real pleasure to have him out.”
In BNL’s case that’s also allowed the band to perform as a quintet for the first time since Stephen Page left in 2009. “It’s really nice,” the elder Robertson notes. “There are certain songs, like ‘Falling For the First Time,’ where I’ve missed having an extra guitar. Playing ‘Brian Wilson,’ it’s great to have that second acoustic guitar. It’s sure nice having an extra live player to fill out the sound.”
Not surprisingly, the two sons have bonded backstage and on off-day gatherings. “We went out for dinner one night with all the Train guys, and me and Rock sat next to each other, quoting Tropic Thunder and Hot Rod, all these comedy movies that we thought we were the only ones that found them funny. When we’re not soundchecking or playing, everyone’s chatting, getting to know each other. You hear stories of, for lack of a better term, train wrecks of people on tour not getting along … but this is just like summer camp, a huge community in the very best way. I think it’s a dream come true for both of us.”
Alexa Teed/Courtesy Shelter Music
In the Atmosphere
Both of the sons have music in their DNA, of course, and have been around their fathers’ bands since they were born. Rock Monahan, the Seattle-born youngest of three siblings, has been making cameo appearances on stage since he was seven years old, and though he was more focused on singing initially he also began taking guitar lessons when he was young.
“I was never insanely serious about it,” Rock says. Getting exposed to Joe Satriani playing Van Halen songs with Sammy Hagar last year changed his tune, however. “I listened to Van Halen for that Sammy Hagar show,” Rock says, “and I was like, ‘I didn’t know that you could do that.’ It kinda put me down the rabbit hole. My dad showed me Led Zeppelin, and that became kind of the most important thing for me, one of them.”
Now he greatly admires Jimmy Page (“He’s such an amazing songwriter”) and well as Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour (“His solos on everything just feel like you’re literally floating”), along with Metallica’s Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield, Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi and Ozzy Osbourne guitarists Zakk Wylde and Randy Rhoads. (The Monahans attended the Back to the Beginning Osbourne/Sabbath farewell festival last summer in Birmingham, England.) More recently he’s taken an interest in the late Jeff Buckley’s playing. “All I do is listen to music and play music,” Rock says.
And nobody is doubting that he can.
“He’s very much like I was when I was 14 — a musical sponge, and just obsessed with guitar,” says Walker, who suggested “Stone in Love” as a showcase for the teenager’s talents. “He’s got his dad’s pipes at 14, which is crazy; he literally can sing every range, and we can sing and play any songs with him. He’s a confident performer. He’s been around this for so long, he can hang around and joke and talk shop, kinda like another band member.”
Walker and Train bassist Hector Maldonado “have really taken Rock under wing,” according to Pat Monahan — including some guitar shop visits, though dad notes that “Uncle Butch and Uncle Hector never really put up a credit card for these adventures — but they sure like to go on them.” Rock’s recent acquisitions include sparkly purple ESP purchased in Nashville and a Gibson Custom Murphy Lab Flying V (like Hammett plays) during a recent excursion in Chicago. “That was an expensive little afternoon,” his father quips.
Rock’s also been building a legion of admirers during the tour, beyond the fans who are flooding social media with videos. “My manager also manages Green Day and Keith Urban, and separately they have both texted him,” Pat Monahan says. “Keith was like, ‘Hey, can I come out and jam with Rock?’ — not Train, Rock.” Urban joined the band for a cover of Player’s “Baby Come Back” Aug. 7 in Chicago. “Billie [Joe Armstrong] texted [the manager], ‘Pat’s son’s kinda f–kin’ awesome man.’ [Journey’s] Neal Schon followed him the other day on Instagram. It’s fun to watch that for him.”
Monahan says he, Rock and Walker are writing a new song together, “so after ‘Stone in Love’ does its thing on Instagram we can put that out there.” The plan forward is for Rock to be “habitually writing … between school and activities back home. He’s gonna have to put those 10,000 hours in if he really wants to become a songwriter.” And there’s no question he’s up to the task.
“I’m just doing what I love with people I love,” Rock says. “I definitely feel like it’s a second family out there. I’ve grown up with this band around me, and it’s really fun and amazing to be part of it like this.”
Lovin’ Life
Lyle Robertson has been on his own musical path, “always fiddling around with things,” since he was very young. He began playing drums when he was seven, when his favorite bands were AC/DC and Led Zeppelin. He switched to guitar around age 11, adding bass — which he considers his favorite instrument — at about 16 and more recently teaching himself to play piano.
He’s currently studying at Humber Polytechnic in Toronto and has his own band, High Flyer, that began releasing music during 2023 and put out a new single, “Come a Little Closer,” during July. A spate of other material is recorded and ready for release in the near future.
“Lyle is a really accomplished musician,” says BNL’s Kevin Hearn. “He grew up around it, and around us, so it’s an easy fit. It’s been fun to have him be part of it.”
It’s also been “a crazy learning curve, in the best way” for Robertson. “A lot of my friends have been saying, ‘It must be super easy to learn the songs,’ but not necessarily,” he explains. “Some of them, yes, I already knew how to play them. But some of the songs, the parts I learned were on the record but I’ve never actually played them live, so it’s really been a great opportunity to get to learn them like this and play them on this level.”
Lyle adds that while he’ll occasionally join his father on a private airplane between shows he’s just as happy to be on the bus with his “uncles” and bandmates.
“I know lots of people who don’t love sleeping on the bus,” he notes, “but I love sleeping on the bus. I love the whole routine of it. It’s super fun to come back on the bus with Kev and Jim and Ty [drummer Tyler Stewart] and the tour manager Ike [Schaible] and shoot the sh-t, put on a movie, read a bit. It’s a great lifestyle.”
Lyle will continue to study and play with High Flyer and is up for any future involvement with BNL. Watching his young friend Rock’s tour experience, however, has given him another idea.
“Yeah, I made a joke the other day — ‘Hey, dad, think if I spend the next day off with Pat he’ll get me a guitar, too?’”
The Drops of Jupiter: 25 Years in the Atmosphere tour, which also includes opener Matt Nathanson, runs through Aug. 30., wrapping up in Auburn, Wash. Train has been playing songs from its upcoming studio album, Mad Dog in the Fog, which comes out Aug. 28, while Pat Monahan is preparing for the Sept. 6 opening of Begin Again — a stage musical adaptation of the 2013 John Carney film for which he’s written new songs — in San Diego.
BNL, meanwhile, has accompanied the summer trek with two new songs — “Almost Ready” and “Careful (For Dee)” — and is planning to begin writing in earnest during early 2027 for a follow-up to 2023’s In Flight.
Remaining tour dates include:
August 19, 2026 — West Valley City, UT — Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre
August 21, 2026 — Phoenix, AZ — Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre
August 22, 2026 — Santa Barbara, CA — Santa Barbara Bowl
August 24, 2026 — Los Angeles, CA — Greek Theatre
August 25, 2026 — Lake Tahoe, NV — Lake Tahoe Amphitheatre at Caesars Republic
August 26, 2026 — Mountain View, CA — Shoreline Amphitheatre
August 28, 2026 — Bend, OR — Hayden Homes Amphitheater
August 29, 2026 — Ridgefield, WA — Cascades Amphitheater
August 30, 2026 — Auburn, WA — White River Amphitheatre
