Foo Fighters drummer dies at 50
Hawkins joined in 1997; band was on tour in South America
LOS ANGELES — Taylor Hawkins, the drummer for Foo Fighters for 25 years and best friend of frontman Dave Grohl, has died during a South American tour with the rock band. He was 50.
There were few immediate details on how Hawkins died, although the band said in a statement Friday that his death was a “tragic and untimely loss.”
Foo Fighters had been scheduled to play Friday at a festival in Bogota, Colombia. Hawkins’ final concert was March 20 at a festival in San Isidro, Argentina.
“His musical spirit and infectious laughter will live on with all of us forever,” said a message on the band’s official Twitter account that was also emailed to reporters. “Our hearts go out to his wife, children and family.”
The Bogota municipal government issued a statement Saturday that the city’s emer- gency center had received a report of a patient with “chest pain” and sent an ambulance. A private ambulance arrived as well, it said.
Health workers tried to revive him, but were unable to do so. It said the cause of death was under investigation.
Police vehicles, an ambulance and fans were gathered outside the hotel in northern Bogota where Hawkins was believed to have been staying.
The U.S. Embassy in Bogota also expressed its condolences in a tweet.
After Grohl, Hawkins was the most recognizable member of the group, appearing alongside the lead singer in interviews and playing roles in the band’s memorable videos and their recent horror-comedy film, “Studio 666.”
Hawkins was Alanis Morrissette’s touring drummer when he joined Foo Fighters in 1997. He played on the band’s best-received albums including “One by One” and “In Your Honor,” and on hit singles including “My Hero” and “Best of You.”
In Grohl’s 2021 book “The Storyteller,” he called Hawkins his “brother from another mother, my best friend, a man for whom I would take a bullet.”
“Upon first meeting, our bond was immediate, and we grew closer with every day, every song, every note that we ever played together,” Grohl wrote. “We are absolutely meant to be, and I am grateful that we found each other in this lifetime.”
Tributes poured out on social media for Hawkins on Friday night.
Born Oliver Taylor Hawkins in 1972 in Fort Worth, Hawkins was raised in Laguna Beach, Calif. He played in the small Southern California band Sylvia before landing his first major gig as a drummer for Canadian singer Sass Jordan.
He and Grohl met backstage at a show when Hawkins was still with Morrissette. Grohl’s band would have an opening soon after when then-drummer William Goldsmith left. Grohl called Hawkins, who was a huge Foo Fighters fan and immediately accepted.
“I am not afraid to say that our chance meeting was a kind of love at first sight, igniting a musical ‘twin flame’ that still burns to this day,” Grohl wrote in his book. “Together, we have become an unstoppable duo, onstage and off, in pursuit of any and all adventure we can find.”
He also drummed and sang for the side-project trio Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders. They released an album, “Get the Money,” in 2006.
Hawkins is survived by his wife Alison and their three children.