Taylor Hawkins, the longtime drummer for the rock band Foo Fighters, has died at 50
By ANDREW DALTON AP Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES -- Taylor Hawkins, for 25 years the drummer for Foo Fighters and great friend of frontman Dave Grohl, has died for the duration of a South American excursion with the rock band. He was 50.
There have been few on the spot info on how Hawkins died, even though the band stated in a announcement Friday that his demise became a “tragic and untimely loss.”
Colombia's Prosecutor's Office launched a declaration Saturday announcing toxicological assessments on urine from Hawkins' frame preliminarily observed 10 psychoactive substances and drugs, inclusive of marijuana, opioids, tricyclic antidepressants and benzodiazepines. It did now not offer a purpose of demise and investigations are continuing.
Foo Fighters had been scheduled to play at a festival in Bogota, Colombia, on Friday night time. Hawkins' very last concert turned into Sunday at some other pageant in San Isidro, Argentina.
“His musical spirit and infectious laughter will live on with everyone for all time,” stated a message at the band's professional Twitter account that became additionally emailed to journalists. “Our hearts go out to his wife, kids and family.”
The Bogota municipal government issued a announcement Saturday that the metropolis's emergency center had obtained a record of a affected person with “chest pain” and sent an ambulance, though a private ambulance had already arrived on the hotel in northern Bogota.
Health workers tried to revive him, however had been unable to achieve this.
“It changed into a band I grew up with. This leaves me empty,” Juan Sebastian Anchique, 23, advised The Associated Press as he mourned Hawkins outdoor the inn.
The U.S. Embassy in Bogota also expressed its condolences in a tweet.
After Grohl, Hawkins become the maximum recognizable member of the group, performing along the lead singer in interviews and gambling distinguished, commonly comic, roles within the band's memorable movies and their current horror-comedy film, “Studio 666.”
Hawkins was Alanis Morissette's touring drummer when he joined Foo Fighters in 1997. He performed at the band's largest albums along with “One via One” and “In Your Honor,” and on hit singles like “Best of You.”
In Grohl’s 2021 book “The Storyteller,” he referred to as Hawkins his “brother from every other mother, my high-quality pal, a person for whom I could take a bullet."
“Upon first assembly, our bond was on the spot, and we grew closer with every day, every song, each word that we ever performed together,” Grohl wrote. “We are genuinely supposed to be, and I am grateful that we observed each other in this lifetime.”
It’s the second time Grohl has experienced the demise of a close bandmate. Grohl changed into the drummer for Nirvana when Kurt Cobain died in 1994.
Tributes poured out on social media for Hawkins.
“God bless you Taylor Hawkins,” Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello said on Twitter in conjunction with a picture of himself, Hawkins and Jane's Addiction singer Perry Farrell. “I loved your spirit and your unstoppable rock electricity.”
“What an first-rate skills, who didn’t additionally need to be so type and beneficiant and funky however changed into all the ones things too besides,” tweeted Finneas, Billie Eilish's brother, co-writer and producer. “The world was so lucky to have his presents for the time that it did.”
At the competition wherein Foo Fighters were scheduled to carry out, news of the death leaked out slowly, said Diego Báez, a 33-yr-old fan.
A live performance organizer first introduced the overall performance changed into cancelled for clinical motives. Minutes later, enthusiasts learned from social media of Hawkins' demise.
“Some cried. Others had been unhappy, astonished, moved. It become a totally powerful second,” Baéz stated.
A display screen projected the words “Taylor Hawkins for all time” whilst the track “My Hero” played.
Born Oliver Taylor Hawkins in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1972, Hawkins become raised in Laguna Beach, California. He played inside the small Southern California band Sylvia before touchdown his first principal gig as a drummer for Canadian singer Sass Jordan.
Hawkins told The Associated Press in 2019 that his early drumming impacts https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=thorss.sonic-2-vo included Stewart Copeland of The Police, Roger Taylor from Queen, and Phil Collins, who he stated become “one in every of my favourite drummers ever. You realize, human beings neglect that he was a first-rate drummer as well as a sweater-wearing excellent man from the ’80s, poor fella."
When he spent years inside the mid-Nineties drumming for Morissette, he became inspired broadly speaking by the playing of Jane's Addiction's Stephen Perkins.
“My drums were set up like him, the entirety,” Hawkins advised the AP. "I turned into still form of a copycat at that point. It takes a while and takes a little even as to type of establish your own type of favor. I didn’t sound exactly like him, I sound like me, but he become a huge, massive have an effect on.”
He and Grohl met backstage at a display while Hawkins changed into nonetheless with Morissette. Grohl's band would have an opening soon after whilst then-drummer William Goldsmith left. Grohl known as Hawkins, who was a massive Foo Fighters fan and right now regular.
“I am no longer afraid to say that our threat assembly turned into a type of love at the beginning sight, igniting a musical ‘twin flame’ that still burns to these days," Grohl wrote in his book. “Together, we have grow to be an unstoppable duo, onstage and rancid, in pursuit of any and all adventure we will discover.”
Hawkins first appeared with the band inside the 1997 video for Foo Fighters' maximum popular music, “Everlong,” despite the fact that he had but to sign up for the organization whilst the music changed into recorded. He would, but, pass on to pound out epic versions of it hundreds of times because the climax of Foo Fighters' concerts.
In another spotlight of the institution's stay suggests, Grohl might get behind the drums and Hawkins would grasp the mic to sing a cowl of Queen's “Somebody to Love.”
“The best part of getting to be the lead singer of the Foo Fighters for only for one music is I absolutely do have the best rock ‘n’ roll drummer on earth earth,” Hawkins said earlier than the music in a March 18 live performance in Chile.
Grohl may be heard telling him to close up.
Hawkins additionally costarred in Foo Fighters' currently released movie, “Studio 666,” in which a demonic force in a house wherein the band is staying seizes Grohl and makes him murderous. Hawkins and the other individuals of the band are killed off one by one. The premise got here out of their paintings on their 10th studio album at a home in Los Angeles.
He also drummed and sang for the aspect-venture trio Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders. They launched an album, “Get the Money,” in 2006.
Hawkins is survived by means of his wife Alison and their 3 kids.
Associated Press Writers Astrid Suarez and Manuel Rueda contributed to this document from Bogota, Colombia.
Follow AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter:https://twitter.com/andyjamesdalton
