Oliver Taylor Hawkins (February 17, 1972 – March 25, 2022) was an American musician who was best known as the drummer of the rock band Foo Fighters. Joining the band in 1997, Hawkins quickly became one of the group's most recognizable faces. He remained the band’s drummer for over 25 years until his sudden death in 2022. Hawkins recorded eight studio albums with Foo Fighters between 1999 and 2021.[1] Before joining the band, he was a touring drummer for Sass Jordan and Alanis Morissette, as well as the drummer of the progressiveexperimental band Sylvia.[2]
Hawkins was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021 as a member of Foo Fighters.[5] He was voted "Best Rock Drummer" in 2005 by the British drumming on magazine Rhythm.
After touring through the spring of 1996, Foo Fighters entered a Seattle studio with producer Gil Norton to record their second album.[13] Conflict during recording reportedly erupted between Dave Grohl and drummer William Goldsmith, eventually causing Goldsmith to leave the band.[14] The band regrouped in Los Angeles and almost completely re-recorded the album with Grohl on drums.[13] The album, The Colour and the Shape, was released on May 20, 1997.[15] Grohl called Hawkins, an acquaintance at the time, seeking his recommendations for a new drummer to join the band.[16] Grohl was under the impression that Hawkins would not want to leave Morissette's touring band, given she was a bigger act than Foo Fighters at the time.[16] To Grohl's surprise, however, 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.[16] The band announced Hawkins would be its new drummer on March 18, 1997.[17] Hawkins first appeared with the Foo Fighters in the music video for the 1997 single "Monkey Wrench", although the song was recorded before he joined the band.[18]
In addition to his drumming with the Foo Fighters, Hawkins provided vocals, guitar, and piano to various recordings. He performed the lead vocal on a cover of Pink Floyd's "Have a Cigar".[19] Two versions of the song were released, one as the B-side to "Learn to Fly" and another on the Mission: Impossible 2 soundtrack album. He later sang lead vocals on "Cold Day in the Sun" from In Your Honor, which was later released as a single, as well as a cover of Cream's "I Feel Free", which appeared as the B-side of "DOA" and on the EP Five Songs and a Cover. Hawkins also sang lead vocals for the band's cover of Joe Walsh's "Life of Illusion".[20] Later, he sang lead vocals for "Sunday Rain", a track on the Foo Fighters' 2017 album Concrete and Gold.[21] He sang lead vocals on some songs during Foo Fighters live shows, particularly covers, such as Van Halen's "Ain't Talkin' 'bout Love"[22] and Queen's "Somebody To Love", the latter of which he performed during what became his final concert with the band.[23] He also contributed to the band's songwriting, and was listed as a co-writer on at least one song on every Foo Fighters album from There Is Nothing Left to Lose to Medicine at Midnight.[24]
Hawkins' final performance with the Foo Fighters before his death was at the Lollapalooza Argentina festival on March 20, 2022.[25] Hawkins posthumously won three Grammys with the Foo Fighters on April 3, 2022.[26]
Hawkins was commissioned to complete an unfinished recording of a song by Beach Boys' drummer Dennis Wilson titled "Holy Man" by writing and singing new lyrics. The recording, which also featured contributions from Brian May and Roger Taylor of Queen, was issued as a single for Record Store Day in 2019.[34]
While the Foo Fighters were on break in 2013, Hawkins formed a rock cover band called Chevy Metal.[35]
Hawkins appeared on Slash's solo album Slash,[36] released in 2010, providing backing vocals on the track "Crucify the Dead", featuring Ozzy Osbourne.
In 2013, he made his acting debut in the role of Iggy Pop in the rock film CBGB.[37] Hawkins recorded the drums on Vasco Rossi's last song, "L'uomo più semplice". This song was released on January 21, 2013, in Italy.[38][39]
In March 2014, Hawkins announced his new side project called The Birds of Satan. It 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, with a release party at 'Rock n Roll Pizza' featuring the Foo Fighters guesting on some of the cover tracks.[40]
In an interview with Radio X, Hawkins revealed that his initial idea with his solo projects was to duet with female singers.[41]
Hawkins invited other stars to sing in the Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders album Get the Money, such as LeAnn Rimes, who sang on one of his songs titled "C U In Hell".[42]Loudwire named the album one of the 50 best rock efforts of 2019.[43] Other musicians who appeared on his projects included Roger Taylor, Brian May, Dave Grohl, Nancy Wilson, Joe Walsh, Chrissie Hynde, and many more.[44]
In 2021, Hawkins and Jane's Addiction members Dave Navarro and Chris Chaney formed a supergroup called NHC.[4] Described by Hawkins as being "somewhere between Rush and the Faces", the band made its live debut in September 2021 at Eddie Vedder's Ohana festival, with Taylor's Foo Fighters bandmate Pat Smear on additional guitar.[4] The band recorded an album in 2021, which released in 2022.
Along with the other members of Foo Fighters, Hawkins starred as himself in the comedy horror film Studio 666, released on February 25, 2022.[46] He posthumously appears on select tracks on Ozzy Osbourne's 2022 album Patient Number 9 and Iggy Pop's 2023 album Every Loser.
Hawkins was once guest editor of Rhythm and interviewed Collins, Copeland, Taylor, and Perkins for the issue.[47]
It was thanks to Rush that I got into Genesis. After listening to Neil, I bought the Seconds Out live album, which was released in 1977. It's just amazing. Not only hearing Phil Collins playing the drums, but also singing. He gets a really bad rap from some people for 'daring' to take over after Peter Gabriel quit, but you just hear the way he sounds here. The beauty of this album is that it's got songs from ...Trick of the Tail, the first album Genesis did without Gabriel. Collins is an incredible drummer. Anyone who wants to be good on the drums should check him out – the man is a master.[51]
Hawkins's first two major inspirations were Roger Taylor and Stewart Copeland. He reported that listening to these two drummers' different styles showed him a wide spectrum of drumming style. He also mentioned that he would play along with songs on the radio or records, like Queen's News of the World, to enhance his skills when he was young.[55][56]
Equipment
During his career, Hawkins used a variety of different brands, including Ludwig Drums, Tama Drums, and, most notably, Gretsch Drums, which he endorsed and played from 2005 until his death. He was also known to use Zildjian Cymbals.
Hawkins overdosed on heroin in August 2001, which left him in a coma for two weeks.[60] Hawkins' bandmate and best friend,[61]Dave Grohl, was beside his hospital bed in London for two weeks until he woke up.[62] Grohl said he was ready to quit music while Hawkins was in the hospital.[62] He also revealed in the 2011 documentary Foo Fighters: Back and Forth, that he wrote the song "On the Mend" from the band's 2005 album In Your Honor about Hawkins while he was in a coma.[63] Speaking to Beats 1 host Matt Wilkinson in 2018 about the incident, Hawkins said: "I was partying a lot. I wasn't a junkie, per se, but I was partying. There was a year where the partying just got a little too heavy. Thank God on some level this guy gave me the wrong line with the wrong thing one night and I woke up going, 'What the fuck happened?' That was a real changing point for me." In the same interview, Hawkins also said he was sober.[64]
Hawkins suffered from stage fright.[65][66] Speaking about his health in a June 2021 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Hawkins said: "I'm healthy. I'm good... I get sinus infections really bad. And I just found out from my doctor, got all my blood tests and my heart everything checked and he goes, 'Dude, you're in amazing shape. Your heart's big, because you exercise a lot. It's like a runner's heart.' And that's fine. The only thing is, he said, 'I think you have sleep apnea.' And my wife's always saying you snore and you fucking make weird noises while you're sleeping and stuff."[66]
Death
On March 25, 2022, Hawkins was in Bogotá, Colombia, where he was scheduled to perform with the Foo Fighters later that evening. After Hawkins complained of chest pains, emergency services were called up to his room at the Four Seasons Casa Medina hotel.[67] Health personnel arrived and found Hawkins unresponsive; they performed CPR, but he was declared dead at the scene, aged 50.[68][69] His cause of death was not immediately revealed.[70]
It was reported that Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee was one of the last people to speak to Hawkins while he was still alive, just hours before his death, in a phone conversation to Hawkins' hotel room.[71][72]
The following day, Colombian authorities announced that a preliminary urine toxicology test indicated that Hawkins had 10 substances in his system at the time of his death, including opioids, benzodiazepines, tricyclic antidepressants, and THC.[73][74][75]
Colombia's National Institute of Forensic Medicine stated that they would "continue the medical studies to achieve total clarification of the events that led to the death of Taylor Hawkins", and the attorney general's office would continue to investigate his cause of death in a "timely manner".[73]
A May 2022 article from Andy Greene and Kory Grow in Rolling Stone made the case that Hawkins was suffering from extreme exhaustion in the period leading up to his death, and allegedly asked that no more dates be added to the scheduled tour.[76] However, two of the interviewees, Chad Smith and Matt Cameron, have since disavowed the article, stating that they were quoted out of context and that their comments were misrepresented.[77] Noting that official autopsy results had not, at that time, been made public, the Green–Grow article went on to state that "his friends believe[d] he wasn't using hard drugs recreationally at the time of his death" and that the post-mortem forensics performed indicated that the mass of Hawkins' heart was "about double... normal size", raising the possibility that "it could have collapsed" apart from any contribution of drugs in his system."[76][needs update]
Tribute concerts
The Foo Fighters announced the death of Hawkins in a Twitter statement on March 25, writing that "His musical spirit and infectious laughter will live on with all of us forever."[70] On March 29, the band cancelled all their upcoming shows.[78] On the night of his death, Hawkins was scheduled to perform with the Foo Fighters at the Estéreo Picnic Festival in Bogotá as part of their ongoing South American tour.[58] The festival stage was turned into a candlelight vigil for Hawkins.[79]
The guest list reunited, in whole or in part, several of Hawkins' favorite bands, including Queen and Rush.[85] Some had not played together for a long time, including Dave Grohl's supergroup Them Crooked Vultures (12 years) and the James Gang (16 years).[86]
^Needs, Kris (February 2021). "Heart of Darkness". Classic Rock. p. 56. [Siouxsie and the Banshees] were an infuence on so many people. I discovered Juju in my early 20s and went: "Oh my god". [...] The way Budgie played drums was so influential – the tribal thing he was doing was so innovative.