CALIFORNIA: Taylor Hawkins, the hard-hitting and charismatic drummer for Foo Fighters for more than two decades, has died at the age of 50, according to a statement from the band.
“The Foo Fighters family is devastated by the tragic and untimely loss of our beloved Taylor Hawkins,” read the message, which was posted to band’s social media. “His musical spirit and infectious laughter will live on with all of us forever,” it added.
— Foo Fighters (@foofighters) March 26, 2022
There were no 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 at a festival in Bogota, Colombia, on Friday night. Hawkins’ final concert was Sunday at another festival in San Isidro, Argentina.
Police vehicles, an ambulance and fans were gathered outside the hotel in northern Bogota where Hawkins was believed to have been staying. Authorities in Colombia have not commented on Hawkins’ death.
After Grohl, Hawkins was the most recognisable member of the group, appearing alongside the lead singer in interviews and playing prominent, usually comic, 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 biggest albums including One by One and On 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”.
Born Oliver Taylor Hawkins in Fort Worth Texas in 1972, Hawkins was raised in Laguna Beach, California. He played in the small Southern California band Sylvia before landing his first major gig as a drummer for Canadian singer Sass Jordan.
He also co-starred in Foo Fighters’ recently released horror-comedy film Studio 666 in which a demonic force in a house where the band is staying seizes Grohl and makes him murderous.
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.
