REAL GONE
The One
Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins died suddenly on March 25 in Bogotá, Colombia.
No pretender: Taylor Hawkins in full flight.
Thomas Rabsch/LAIF
FOR TAYLOR HAWKINS, being the drummer in the Foo Fighters was the best job in the world. Before he landed the gig in 1997, he’d been a huge fan of Dave Grohl’s largely solo-recorded, self-titled debut album, released two years before.
“Oh my God, I was fucking in love with it,” Hawkins enthused to MOJO two years ago in Los Angeles. “I’d just joined the Alanis Morissette band and we were having a fucking blast, man. Our soundtrack in the van was the Foo Fighters record.”
Grohl famously wasn’t happy with the recorded contributions of the band’s then-drummer, William Goldsmith, to the second Foo Fighters album, ’97’s The Colour And The Shape, replaying most of the rhythmic parts himself.
Goldsmith duly quit. Grohl called Hawkins (who he’d met on the touring circuit) for advice on a good replacement. Hawkins volunteered his services.
Charismatic, good-looking, hyperactive and prodigiously talented, Hawkins brought propulsive energy to the Foo Fighters on 1999’s There Is Nothing Left To Lose, the first of his eight studio albums with the band. As a musician, he was someone who absolutely threw himself into every drum take and live performance. At the same time, he shared a brotherly closeness with Grohl. “My job in this band is to play drums,” he told MOJO in 2020, “and sing some backup vocals here and there, and make Dave laugh.”