Taylor Hawkins, drummer of the Foo Fighters, passed away unexpectedly on Friday evening at the age of 50. From behind his drum kit, he was decisive for the sound of the American rock band.
Thousands of Foo Fighters fans were already standing in front of the main stage of the Estério Picnic festival in Bogotá on Friday when the news hit the video walls: performance canceled due to the death of Taylor Hawkins, drummer of the American rock band.
dismay. Hesitant applause. Roadies reloaded the ready equipment.
A cause of death has not been announced. Hawkins raised the alarm for chest pain a few hours earlier. Ambulances came to the rescue, but attempts at resuscitation in his hotel room in the Colombian capital were in vain. The Texan was fifty, married since 2005 and father of three children.
Drummers are rarely eye-catchers. The charismatic Hawkins does, with his blond mane and eternal good humor. If one drummer looked like Animal from The Muppet Show, it was him: a ferocious, violently hard pounding, but tight, virtuoso and decisive for the band sound.
‘Love at first sight’
Frontman Dave Grohl recognized something of himself in Hawkins: he was such a drummer in Nirvana himself, until frontman Kurt Cobain shot himself in the head in 1994.
Grohl’s own band Foo Fighters was initially a loose cannon. When drummer William Goldsmith left, Grohl played the drums on second album The Color and the Shape (1997) but himself in.
Who the new drummer should be, was written in the stars: Hawkins in other words, drummer in Alanis Morissette’s band since 1995. His introduction to Grohl was “love at first sight.” When Grohl officially asked him to become a Foo Fighter in early 1997, Hawkins agreed.
Bassist Nate Mendel recalls that Hawkins was quick to ask, ‘What would you think if we got really good? A better band, with more attention for our live playing?’
The ragband became a stadium-sized rock machine, with the deputy chief not standing next to Grohl, but sitting behind him.
A heroin overdose nearly killed Hawkins in 2001, but he said he renounced the drugs after that. He drummed on nine Foo Fighters studio albums, co-wrote songs and even sang a few, such as Cold Day in the Sun (2005). Along the way he made three albums with his band Taylor Hawkins & The Coattail Riders and had hobby projects like The Birds of Satan (2014) and NHC (2022).
He and Grohl were known as a jovial duo with a healthy sense of humor: up for anything, as long as it was fun. They made documentaries, an album with Bee Gees covers (2021) and recently a horror comedy, Studio 666with its own speed metal soundtrack.
Dave Grohl, 28 years after Kurt Cobain, has to bury another musical blood brother. “His infectious laugh will always be with us,” the band wrote in response.