Pat Monahan's 14-year-old son Rock is part of a tour named after Train's 25-year-old classic "Drops of Jupiter.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 28, 2026 — Bend, OR — Hayden Homes Amphitheater.
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