As drummer for the Foo Fighters for over 20 years, Taylor Hawkins drummed his way through his dynamic life.
In this special interview / documentary Hawkins answered what it takes to become a drummer? What inspires someone to pick up a pair of drumsticks in the first place? And just how important is the drummer to a band?
Taylor gave the BBC a guided tour of his drum kit, talking to Radio 6 Music’s Steve Lamacq about his childhood, his influences such as Queen, his favourite drum loops, and what it was like drumming with both Alanis Morissette & Dave Grohl.
In recent years Hawkins invited other stars to sing in the Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders album Get the Money, such as LeAnn Rimes, who sang on one of his songs titled “C U In Hell”. Loudwire named the album one of the 50 best rock efforts of 2019. Other musicians who appeared on his projects included Roger Taylor, Brian May, Dave Grohl, Nancy Wilson, Joe Walsh, Chrissie Hynde, and many more.
In October 2021 Elton John released The Lockdown Sessions, which featured Hawkins playing drums on the song “E-Ticket”. Also in 2021, Hawkins and Jane’s Addiction members Dave Navarro and Chris Chaney formed a supergroup called NHC. Described by Hawkins as being “somewhere between Rush and the Faces”, the band made its live debut in September 2021 at Eddie Vedder’s Ohana festival, with Taylor’s Foo Fighters bandmate Pat Smear on additional guitar. The band recorded an album in 2021, which is due for release in 2022.
Along with other members of the Foo Fighters, Hawkins made his acting debut in the film Studio 666 in 2022, the musical comedy horror created by Dave Grohl tells the story of The Foo Fighters moving into an Encino mansion steeped in grisly rock and roll history to record their much anticipated 10th album.
On March 25, 2022, emergency services were called to the Casa Medina hotel in Bogotá, Colombia, where Hawkins was suffering from chest pain in his hotel room. Health personnel arrived and found Hawkins unresponsive; they performed CPR, but tragically he was declared dead at the scene. The following day, Colombian authorities announced that a preliminary urine toxicology test indicated that Hawkins had ten substances in his system at the time of his death, including opioids, benzodiazepines, tricyclic antidepressants, and THC, the psychoactive compound in cannabis.
On the night of his death, Hawkins was scheduled to perform with the Foo Fighters at the Estéreo Picnic Festival as part of their ongoing South American tour; the festival stage was turned into a candlelight vigil for Hawkins and his now legendary place in music history.