Taylor Hawkins, Foo Fighters Drummer, Dies At 50
• UPDATED: Music fans around the world are still coming to grips with the news that Taylor Hawkins, the longtime drummer for the Foo Fighters died Friday in Bogotá, Colombia. He was only 50. Various sources are reporting that Hawkins was found unresponsive in his room at the Four Seasons Casa Medina. Foo Fighters were on tour in South America and had played Lollapalooza Argentina in San Isidro, Argentina on March 20, Asuncionico 2022 in Paraguay on March 22 and were scheduled to play Festival Estero Picnic in Bogotá Friday night and Lollapalooza Brasil on Sunday. There were no immediate details about how Hawkins died.
In statement posted to social media, the band stated, “The Foo Fighters family is devastated by the tragic and untimely loss of our beloved Taylor Hawkins, His musical spirit and infectious laughter will live on with all of us forever. Our hearts go out to his wife, children and family, and we ask that their privacy be treated with the utmost respect in this unimaginably difficult time.”
As the AP reports, Hawkins had been the Foo Fighters’ drummer for 25 of the band’s 28 years of existence, replacing original drummer William Goldsmith in 1997, and, after Foo Fighters founder and front man Dave Grohl, Hawkins was probably the most prominent member of the group, appearing alongside Grohl in numerous interviews and playing prominent roles in the band’s videos.
Born Oliver Taylor Hawkins in Fort Worth Texas in 1972, Hawkins was raised in Laguna Beach, CA. He played in the small Southern California band Sylvia before landing his first major gig as a drummer for Canadian singer Sass Jordan. He then spent the mid-’90s as the touring drummer for Alanis Morissette before Grohl asked him to join the Foo Fighters, who last year were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
This marks the second time Grohl has experienced the death of a close bandmate — in 1994, as the drummer for Nirvana, Grohl suffered the loss of the band’s frontman, Kurt Cobain. Now, in 2022, as the frontman for Foo Fighters, Grohl has suffered the loss of his drummer — and the man he described in his 2021 memoir, The Storyteller, as “my brother from another mother, my best friend, a man for whom I would take a bullet.”
Hawkins is survived by his wife Alison, his wife of 17 years, and their three children, Oliver, Annabelle and Everleigh.
• Benztown has made available an Audio Tribute to Taylor Hawkins, produced by Mike Lindsay, written by Bill Royal, and voiced by Greg Simms.
