Taylor Hawkins, the hard-hitting, charismatic drummer for Foo Fighters, has died at 50.
A
statement posted to the band’s social media late Friday and sent by its
representative confirmed the death, but did not provide a cause or
location. The band had been scheduled to play a show Friday night in
Bogotá, Colombia, at the Festival Estéreo Picnic.Recognizable
for his flailing limbs, surfer’s good looks and wide, childlike grin,
Mr. Hawkins became a member of the band led by Dave Grohl for its third
album, “There Is Nothing Left to Lose,” released in 1999, and played on
the group’s subsequent seven albums. He drew on two distinct styles:
the fundamentals of Roger Taylor, from Queen, and the intricacy of
Stewart Copeland from the Police. He added the muscle of punk and metal,
the precision of drum machines and a gift for explosive momentum.Foo
Fighters’ most recent LP, “Medicine at Midnight,” arrived last year as
the group was celebrating its 25th anniversary, and in an interview with
The New York Times, Mr. Hawkins was direct about his hopes for its
future. “I want to be the biggest band in the world,” he said.
Mr.
Hawkins started to play drums at age 10, and said that his mother gave
him the confidence to dream big: “When I first got drums, she was the
one who would watch me play. She was a big supporter and told me I’d
make it,” he said in an interview last year. Attending a 1982 Queen show
confirmed that music was his passion. “After that concert, I don’t
think I slept for three days,” he said in a 2021 interview with the
metal magazine Kerrang. “It changed everything, and I was never the same
because of it. It was the beginning of my obsession with rock ’n’ roll,
and I knew that I wanted to be in a huge rock band.”
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After
playing in a local California band called Sylvia and backing the
Canadian rock vocalist Sass Jordan, Mr. Hawkins’s first mainstream break
came in 1995, when he joined Alanis Morissette’s band as she toured
behind her blockbuster album “Jagged Little Pill.” (He appeared in the
video for its breakout hit “You Oughta Know,” flipping his blond mane
behind the drum kit.)
Mr. Grohl, then still primarily known for
his role as the drummer for Nirvana, recalled meeting Mr. Hawkins
backstage at a radio station concert in the 1990s and feeling an
immediate kinship.
“I was like, ‘Wow, you’re either my twin or my
spirit animal or my best friend,’” Mr. Grohl said in an interview last
year. “When it was time to look for a drummer, I kind of wished that he
would do it, but I didn’t imagine he would leave Alanis Morissette,
because at the time she was the biggest artist in the world.”
But when Mr. Grohl called him later looking for a drummer, Mr. Hawkins said, “I’m your guy,” Mr. Grohl recalled.
“I
think it had more to do with our personal relationship than anything
musical,” he added. “To be honest, it still does. Our musical
relationship — the foundation of that is our friendship, and that’s why
when we jump up onstage and play, we’re so connected because we’re like
best friends.”
Mr. Grohl, Foo Fighters’ lead singer and one of
its songwriters and guitarists, had played drums on the band’s first
album in 1995, and he took over again for its second LP, “The Colour and
the Shape,” when a replacement failed to stick. In joining the band,
Mr. Hawkins was charged with assuming the seat of one of contemporary
rock’s most distinct, powerful and beloved drummers. His colorful flair
and good humor helped him carve out his own place in the band, and he
adapted to Mr. Grohl’s creative process: “He writes in rhythms, not only
in melodies but in rhythms, so I have to meet him there,” Mr. Hawkins
said.
Recorded in a Virginia basement without the input of a
record label, “There Is Nothing Left to Lose” went on to win the Grammy
for best rock album — the first of the band’s 12 career awards there.
At
this year’s Grammys, where Foo Fighters were scheduled to perform on
April 3, “Medicine at Midnight” was nominated for three awards,
including best rock performance (for the song “Making a Fire”), best
rock song (“Waiting on a War”) and best rock album.
Foo Fighters
were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2021, recognized
for their “rock authenticity with infectious hooks, in-your-face guitar
riffs, monster drums, and boundless energy.” At the ceremony, Mr.
Hawkins told Mr. Grohl, “Thank you for letting me be in your band.”
In
addition to his drumming, Mr. Hawkins went on to contribute as a
songwriter to Foo Fighters albums, even singing lead vocals on occasion.
Beginning in 2006, he released three albums with a side project, the
cheekily named Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders. He also played in
a cover band called Chevy Metal and a prog-rock band called the Birds
of Satan. Last year, he teamed up with the guitarist Dave Navarro and
the bassist Chris Chaney to form a band called NHC; the group’s debut
EP, “Intakes & Outtakes,” was released in February.
On recent
Foo Fighters tours, Mr. Hawkins would swap places with Mr. Grohl to
sing a cover of Queen’s “Somebody to Love,” emerging from behind the kit
in his signature shorts to pay homage to the band that set him on his
path. He’d also take the spotlight for drum solos that stretched several
minutes, smiling as he became a whirl of limbs atop his riser, smashing
his cymbals and bashing a timpani.
Although he was referred
to as “a sideman with a frontman’s flair,” Mr. Hawkins admitted over the
years to feeling some insecurity about filling Mr. Grohl’s seat behind
the drum kit. “A lot of my insecurities — which led to a lot of my drug
use — had to do with me not feeling like I was good enough to be in this
band, to play drums with Dave,” he told Spin in 2002.
In 2001,
he overdosed in London and was briefly comatose. “Everyone has their own
path and I took it too far,” Mr. Hawkins told Kerrang, adding that he
once believed the “myth of live hard and fast, die young.”
He
added, “I’m not here to preach about not doing drugs, because I loved
doing drugs, but I just got out of control for a while and it almost got
me.”
In a 2018 conversation with Beats 1, Mr. Hawkins said,
“There’s no happy ending with hard drugs,” but declined to explain how
he stayed sober: “I don’t really discuss how I live my life in that
regard. I have my system that works for me.”
Mr. Hawkins married his wife, Alison, in 2005. She survives him, as do their three children, Oliver, Annabelle and Everleigh.
