Taylor Hawkins, the jovial, ferocious drummer for Foo Fighters for a lot more than two a long time, died Friday at the age of 50. The band announced the musician’s loss of life in a statement but did not reveal a cause.
“The Foo Fighters family members is devastated by the tragic and untimely decline of our beloved Taylor Hawkins,” the group wrote. “His musical spirit and infectious laughter will stay on with all of us endlessly.” Foo Fighters are currently on tour in South America and ended up scheduled to execute at Competition Estéreo Picnic in Bogotá, Colombia, at the time of Hawkins’ loss of life, a rep for the band instructed Rolling Stone.
Bogota municipal government issued a statement Friday evening confirming that the city’s unexpected emergency services received a get in touch with about a affected person complaining of “chest soreness,” the Involved Press studies. Ambulances were despatched to the Four Seasons Casa Medina hotel, exactly where the band was remaining. Wellbeing employees “carried out resuscitation maneuvers” on Hawkins but “the individual was declared dead,” Bogotá’s Secretary of Overall health tweeted Saturday early morning.
According to the Legal professional Basic of Colombia, 10 substances were identified in Hawkins, together with antidepressants, benzodiazepines, and opioids. “The Countrywide Institute for Legal Medicine carries on to conduct the necessary professional medical experiments to ascertain the induce of loss of life,” the workplace wrote in a tweet on Saturday. “The Attorney General’s business office will continue on to investigate and will duly advise the results of forensic examinations in thanks time.”
As information of Hawkins’ dying spread, several musicians and celebs took to social media to honor the late drummer. “God bless you Taylor Hawkins. I cherished your spirit and your unstoppable rock electric power,” wrote Rage In opposition to the Machine’s Tom Morello, sharing a image of himself and Hawkins together with Jane’s Addiction’s Perry Farrell. Miley Cyrus, a pointed out Foo Fighters enthusiast, shared a photograph of herself and Hawkins to her Instagram tales, producing, “This is how I’ll normally don’t forget you,” and added that her impending live performance would be devoted to him. Slash wrote that Hawkins’ death remaining him “devastated,” indicating, “I’ve no words to categorical all the thoughts I have about his passing.” Former Desire Theater drummer Mike Portnoy, Ozzy Osbourne and producer Steve Albini were between other people who also shared tributes.
Born in Fort Truly worth, Texas, Hawkins relocated to Laguna Seashore, California with his family members in his early childhood. Subsequent a stint with Canadian singer Sass Jordan in the early Nineties, Hawkins rose to prominence as the touring drummer for Alanis Morissette during the Jagged Very little Capsule era. “The 2nd I read ‘You Oughta Know,’ I was like, ‘I’m in that band!’” Hawkins explained to Rolling Stone very last November. “I just knew.” Hawkins also appeared in the audio movies for the singer’s hit singles “You Oughta Know” and “You Learn.”
Right after inter-studio conflict led to the departure of initial Foo Fighters drummer William Goldsmith through recording classes for the group’s breakthrough second album, The Colour and the Form — forcing frontman Dave Grohl to manage drumming obligations on the document — Hawkins formally joined the band at Grohl’s request in the spring of 1997.
Grohl would later on refer to the drummer as his “best mate and companion in crime” in his 2021 autobiography, The Storyteller: Tales of Lifetime and Tunes. “During his stint as Alanis Morissette’s drummer, prolonged just before he became a Foo Fighter, we would bump into every single other backstage at festivals all in excess of the world, and our chemistry was so apparent that even Alanis herself as soon as requested 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 had been a hyperactive blur of Parliament Lights and air drumming where ever we went.”
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Through his career with Foo Fighters, Hawkins from time to time managed vocal obligations, singing direct on the group’s 2005 solitary “Cold Day in the Sunshine” and “Sunday Rain” from 2017’s Concrete and Gold. Hawkins also routinely sang include songs with the group, both equally for Foo Fighters B-sides and through dwell performances — which includes a powerful rendition of Queen’s “Somebody to Love” for the duration of a January 2021 present for absolutely-vaccinated enthusiasts in Los Angeles.
“He arrived into a band that was quite scrappy, in standard, and variety of acclimated to that for a next, and then was like, ‘Hang on a next, what if we come to be very good?’” Foo Fighters bassist Nate Mendel said of Hawkins in the band’s latest Rolling Stone protect story. “That was Taylor’s issue, like, ‘Why don’t we discover how to be improved as a band and pay extra interest to what we’re executing stay?’” Hawkins also co-starred with his bandmates in the Foo Fighters’ horror-comedy film, Studio 666, unveiled final thirty day period.
Exterior of his do the job with Foo Fighters, Hawkins routinely collaborated with other musicians and teams, launching several side assignments of his have. 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 Habit bassist Chris Chaney. Hawkins would go on to launch three albums below the Coattail Riders banner, tapping artists which include Queen’s Brian Might and Roger Taylor, Elliot Easton of the Autos, Perry Farrell, as effectively as Grohl for collaborations. Hawkins also fronted address band Chevy Metallic with friends Wiley Hodgden and Mick Murphy, with the trio sooner or later releasing an album under the moniker Birds of Satan in 2014.
Most lately, Hawkins joined forces with Chaney and Dave Navarro for NHC — a supergroup fashioned for the duration of pandemic jam classes at Hawkins’ home studio in Los Angeles. “NHC was the initial time any of us have been in a problem writing-intelligent exactly where we just toss the ball,” Hawkins instructed Rolling Stone final year. “It’s like taking part in catch, practically. A producing session or recording session for us is all three of us actively playing enjoying baseball in a yard.” The band’s debut album is slated for release this 12 months.
“The drummer’s seat is the scorching seat,” Hawkins explained to Rolling Stone in 2020. “It’s the initial man to get fired. It is the initially [guy] when every person goes, ‘We sucked tonight due to the fact he sucked.’ The drummer is actually the bathroom of the band, but also the most crucial part on a specified level. Your position is to be the pulse of the band.”
