Foo Fighters Drummer Taylor Hawkins Useless at 50

Taylor Hawkins, the jovial, ferocious drummer for Foo Fighters for more than two many years, died Friday at the age of 50. The band introduced the musician’s dying in a assertion but did not expose a lead to.

“The Foo Fighters relatives is devastated by the tragic and premature decline of our beloved Taylor Hawkins,” the team wrote. “His musical spirit and infectious laughter will are living on with all of us forever.” Foo Fighters are at this time on tour in South The us and have been scheduled to perform at Festival Estéreo Picnic in Bogotá, Colombia, at the time of Hawkins’ demise, a rep for the band instructed Rolling Stone.

Bogota municipal authorities issued a statement Friday evening confirming that the city’s crisis solutions obtained a simply call about a individual complaining of “chest ache,” the Associated Push studies. Ambulances ended up sent to the 4 Seasons Casa Medina resort, where by the band was remaining. Well being personnel “carried out resuscitation maneuvers” on Hawkins but “the client was declared dead,” Bogotá’s Secretary of Wellness tweeted Saturday morning.

In accordance to the Legal professional Standard of Colombia, 10 substances were being observed in Hawkins, which includes antidepressants, benzodiazepines, and opioids. “The Nationwide Institute for Authorized Medication continues to carry out the essential professional medical reports to determine the induce of demise,” the office wrote in a tweet on Saturday. “The Lawyer General’s business will carry on to examine and will duly notify the findings of forensic examinations in owing time.”

As information of Hawkins’ death spread, several musicians and famous people took to social media to honor the late drummer. “God bless you Taylor Hawkins. I beloved your spirit and your unstoppable rock power,” wrote Rage Versus the Machine’s Tom Morello, sharing a picture of himself and Hawkins along with Jane’s Addiction’s Perry Farrell. Miley Cyrus, a observed Foo Fighters supporter, shared a photograph of herself and Hawkins to her Instagram tales, composing, “This is how I’ll often don’t forget you,” and extra that her forthcoming concert would be committed to him. Slash wrote that Hawkins’ dying still left him “devastated,” stating, “I’ve no terms to express all the thoughts I have about his passing.” Former Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy, Ozzy Osbourne and producer Steve Albini ended up amid other individuals who also shared tributes.

Born in Fort Really worth, Texas, Hawkins relocated to Laguna Seashore, California with his loved ones in his early childhood. Next a stint with Canadian singer Sass Jordan in the early Nineties, Hawkins rose to prominence as the touring drummer for Alanis Morissette all through the Jagged Tiny Capsule period. “The second I read ‘You Oughta Know,’ I was like, ‘I’m in that band!’” Hawkins informed Rolling Stone last November. “I just understood.” Hawkins also appeared in the audio movies for the singer’s strike singles “You Oughta Know” and “You Master.”

Soon after inter-studio conflict led to the departure of primary Foo Fighters drummer William Goldsmith through recording sessions for the group’s breakthrough second album, The Color and the Condition — forcing frontman Dave Grohl to handle drumming duties on the record — Hawkins formally joined the band at Grohl’s ask for in the spring of 1997.

Grohl would afterwards refer to the drummer as his “best buddy and husband or wife in crime” in his 2021 autobiography, The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Tunes. “During his stint as Alanis Morissette’s drummer, extensive just before he became a Foo Fighter, we would bump into every other backstage at festivals all about the earth, and our chemistry was so evident that even Alanis herself as soon as asked him, ‘What are you likely to do when Dave asks you to be his drummer?’” Grohl wrote. “Part Beavis and Butthead, part Dumb and Dumber, we were a hyperactive blur of Parliament Lights and air drumming anywhere we went.”

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During his vocation with Foo Fighters, Hawkins often handled vocal responsibilities, singing direct on the group’s 2005 one “Cold Day in the Sun” and “Sunday Rain” from 2017’s Concrete and Gold. Hawkins also commonly sang include tracks with the group, both of those for Foo Fighters B-sides and throughout dwell performances — together with a effective rendition of Queen’s “Somebody to Love” during a January 2021 show for entirely-vaccinated followers in Los Angeles.

“He arrived into a band that was quite scrappy, in general, and variety of acclimated to that for a next, and then was like, ‘Hang on a second, what if we grow to be very good?’” Foo Fighters bassist Nate Mendel mentioned of Hawkins in the band’s the latest Rolling Stone deal with story. “That was Taylor’s thing, like, ‘Why don’t we find out how to be much better as a band and shell out much more awareness to what we’re doing reside?’” Hawkins also co-starred with his bandmates in the Foo Fighters’ horror-comedy movie, Studio 666, unveiled last month.

Exterior of his operate with Foo Fighters, Hawkins on a regular basis collaborated with other musicians and groups, launching quite a few side assignments of his very own. In 2006, he embarked on a solo occupation with Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders, reuniting with his former Morissette touring bandmate and Jane’s Addiction bassist Chris Chaney. Hawkins would go on to release three albums below the Coattail Riders banner, tapping artists such as Queen’s Brian May perhaps and Roger Taylor, Elliot Easton of the Vehicles, Perry Farrell, as effectively as Grohl for collaborations. Hawkins also fronted deal with band Chevy Steel with mates Wiley Hodgden and Mick Murphy, with the trio finally releasing an album underneath the moniker Birds of Satan in 2014.

Most recently, Hawkins joined forces with Chaney and Dave Navarro for NHC — a supergroup fashioned for the duration of pandemic jam sessions at Hawkins’ dwelling studio in Los Angeles. “NHC was the initial time any of us have been in a scenario creating-smart in which we just throw the ball,” Hawkins instructed Rolling Stone final 12 months. “It’s like taking part in capture, actually. A composing session or recording session for us is all 3 of us taking part in playing baseball in a backyard.” The band’s debut album is slated for release this year.

“The drummer’s seat is the hot seat,” Hawkins instructed Rolling Stone in 2020. “It’s the initially male to get fired. It is the to start with [guy] when anyone goes, ‘We sucked tonight because he sucked.’ The drummer is really the bathroom of the band, but also the most vital component on a sure level. Your position is to be the pulse of the band.”