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News Mar 25, 2022
Taylor Hawkins performs in London in 2018. | Photo courtesy of Ralph_PH/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
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Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins died Friday, the rock band announced on social media. He was 50.
The cause of death was not announced.
Hawkins was in Bogotá, Colombia, where the band was scheduled to perform Friday night at the Festival Estéreo Picnic.
“The Foo Fighters family is devastated by the tragic and untimely loss of our beloved Taylor Hawkins,” an announcement on the band’s social media accounts read.
“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.”
Born Feb. 17, 1972 in Fort Worth, Texas, Hawkins’ family moved to Laguna Beach in 1976, where Hawkins grew up, graduating from Laguna Beach High School in 1990.
Hawkins played in the Orange County-based band Sylvia before becoming the drummer for Canadian rock singer Sass Jordan. From June 1995 until March 1997, Hawkins was Alanis Morissette’s drummer on the tour supporting her 1995 album “Jagged Little Pill” and her 1996 “Can’t Not” Tour.
Hawkins began his association with Foo Fighters in February 1997 when he replaced William Goldsmith as their drummer for their second album, “The Colour and the Shape.”
Following the album’s release, frontman Dave Grohl called Hawkins to seek recommendations for the band’s new drummer. Grohl was under the impression that Hawkins would not leave Morissette’s touring band, because she was a bigger act than Foo Fighters at the time.
To Grohl’s surprise Hawkins volunteered to join the band himself, explaining that he wanted to be a drummer in a rock band rather than for a solo act. The band announced Hawkins would be the new drummer on March 18, 1997.
In 2004, Hawkins formed his own side project, Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders, in which he played drums and sang.
Hawkins recorded the drum tracks for the 2007 Coheed and Cambria album “Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow” as the band’s regular drummer, Chris Pennie, was not able to record due to contractual reasons.
While the Foo Fighters were on break in 2013, Hawkins formed a rock cover band called Chevy Metal.
Hawkins announced his new side project called The Birds of Satan in March 2014, which features Hawkins’s drum technician and bandmate from Chevy Metal, Wiley Hodgden on bass guitar and vocals as well as guitarist Mick Murphy also of Chevy Metal. The band’s self-titled debut album was released in April 2014,
Hawkins was a 26-time Grammy nominee with 11 victories.
Hawkins, who lived in Hidden Hills, is survived by his wife, Alison, and their three children.
