David Hasselhoff Is About to Become a Post-Punk Icon

David Hasselhoff is a talented guy in more ways than one, or two, or even three. Perhaps you know him as the sultry star of Knight Rider or the heroic lifeguard on Baywatch, which he also produced. According to the Guinness World Records, he is the most-watched man on television, ever!

Maybe you skipped his gigs hanging out with an anthropomorphic crime-fighting car or running behind Pamela Anderson as she skipped along the beach in an alarmingly flattering red swimsuit, but you bore witness to the 2007 video where he drunkenly, sloppily ate a hamburger while his 16-year-old daughter looked on in horror? Or you may have dug deep into his highly successful music career, which blossomed in the late 80s… mainly in Europe… especially Germany. (Fun fact: Viewership of his 1994 pay-per-view concert special was significantly disrupted by the OJ Simpson car chase.)

Well, 25 years later, the 67-year-old jack of all trades seems to have recovered from that disappointing moment and has turned his attention to covering goth rock icons of yesteryear. You can now add "shoegaze artist" to his multi-hyphenate resume.

Hasselhoff has just released a cover of The Jesus and Mary Chain's 1989 single “Head On" (from their LP Automatic, and which has also famously been covered by the Pixies), and we've gotta say, it actually, truly, undeniably slaps. It also features guitarist Elliot Easton of The Cars.

Listen below:

Move over, William Shatner's cover of "Common People": There is a new aging white male superstar actor proving himself to be surprisingly good at covering British indie icons!

The Hoff is dropping a new album later this week that will be chock full of similarly unexpected covers, including Echo and The Bunnymen’s "Lips Like Sugar," Modern English’s "I Melt With You," David Bowie’s "Heroes,” Whitesnake's "Here I Go Again," and The Lords Of The New Church’s "Open Your Eyes," for which he has already released a video.

The album, Open Your Eyes, will feature "an incredible cast of diverse supporting acts including Todd Rundgren, The Stooges’ James Williamson, country legend Charlie Daniels, industrial pioneers Ministry, The Cars’ Elliot Easton and more," according to Cleopatra Records. The label describes the record as an extravaganza of 80s nostalgia "marking the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany" and notes that it will "[bridge] several musical cultures including the UK, Germany, and the US!"

While this may feel a little, um, out of the blue, Hasselhoff has actually expressed big love for new wave and post-punk in the past. Back in the early 90s, New Order actually performed on Baywatch:

And for the past year or so, Hasselhoff has been releasing tidbits of himself working on the record. Catch a preview of him covering "Lips Like Sugar" here:

This record, it appears, will be shockingly legit. This man has cred for eons. We'll leave you with this:

Open Your Eyes is now available for pre-order. Who knew that in 2019, David Hasselhoff would be our new goth dad?