Foo Fighters Are An Indestructible Music Juggernaut. But Taylor Hawkins’ Death Shows That They’re Human Beings, Too.

Editor's Note: Foo Fighters will no longer perform at the 2022 GRAMMYs, although a tribute to Taylor Hawkins will take place.

It is no slight to Foo Fighters to say they saturated music fans over the past year.

Primarily, they put out their GRAMMY-nominated album, Medicine at Midnight, and Dave Grohl's bestselling memoir, The Storyteller. But then there was everything around those press cycles, which could prove overwhelming to any music lover — the horror movie, Studio 666; the children they invited to shred onstage; the reignited beef with the Westboro Baptist Church. When you factor in the world tour, the Rock Hall induction, the talk-show appearances, and the golden throne, it's hard to imagine even the most hardcore fan needing more Foo Fighters in 2022.

But in a Rolling Stone cover story from last year, Grohl underlined how all this prolificity wasn't just for its own sake — it came from broken hearts and a need to pick up the pieces. "We were people coming from bands that ended prematurely, that were not finished making music," he said, nodding to the deaths of Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, Grohl's former band, and Darby Crash of the Germs, the pioneering punk band co-founded by Foos guitarist Pat Smear. "So we imagined this to be some sort of continuation, and that our band was about life. So why not celebrate it every way that we can?"

So the Foos raged against the dying of the light for a quarter century as ambassadors of rock innocence and goodwill. And then a stunning loss — of Taylor Hawkins, the smiley, good-natured drum godhead in the back — gobsmacked the music community.

Hours before the 12-time GRAMMY winners were set to take the stage at Festival Estéreo Picnic in Bogotá, Colombia — and a little more than a week before they were to perform at the 2022 GRAMMY Awards — the band tweeted an announcement that left rock fans reeling. "The Foo Fighters family is devastated by the tragic and untimely loss of our beloved Taylor Hawkins," it read. "His musical spirit and infectious laughter will live on with all of us forever." The drummer was 50.

While no cause or location was immediately given, the Bogotá municipal government revealed he passed away in his hotel room. And according to the Metropolitan Police of Bogotá, "The cause of death has yet to be established," but "According to those close to him, the death could be related to the consumption of drugs."

Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason jr. shared his condolences to Hawkins' family and fans in a statement. (At the 2022 GRAMMY Awards, Foo Fighters are nominated for Best Rock Performance for "Making a Fire," Best Rock Song for "Waiting on a War" and Best Rock Album for Medicine at Midnight.)

With Hawkins' death, the Foo Fighters' unstoppable train ground to a halt. Just days ago, one could reliably pick up their phone and see Hawkins' goofy grin, his surfer-boy looks, his acrobatics behind the kit. Being a Foo Fighters fan meant always guessing — what would they get up to this week? Rip into a Bee Gees cover, turning Madison Square Garden into a massive dance party? Release an album of speed-metal songs under an alias? Now, no matter what Foo Fighters do next, they'll never be the same.

Hawkins was born in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1972, and raised in Laguna Beach, California. In the early 1990s, he worked with Canadian singer Sass Jordan, before rising to the global stage as Alanis Morrissette's touring drummer during her Jagged Little Pill era. After Foo Fighters' then-drummer William Goldsmith left the band during the sessions for 1997's The Colour and the Shape, Grohl offered the drum throne to Hawkins.

In his memoir, The Storyteller, Grohl expressed how dearly he loved Hawkins. "Part Beavis and Butthead, part Dumb and Dumber, we were a hyperactive blur of Parliament Lights and air drumming wherever we went," he wrote, saying they had become "practically inseparable."

On classic Foos records, from 1999's There is Nothing Left to Lose to 2011's Wasting Light and right up to Medicine at Midnight, Hawkins pulled off a nearly impossible balance — not copying or upstaging the other famous drummer in the band, but remaining totally distinctive and recognizable. At first, though, Hawkins felt like he couldn't possibly measure up to Grohl, who is widely considered one of the greatest drummers of all time.

"And at one point, I just said to Dave, 'Listen, dude, I just don't think I can do this,'" Hawkins recalled to Rolling Stone. "And what he said chokes me up a little. He's like, 'You're gonna play some drums on this.' I did half the drums on it, because he f***in' held my hand through it, like an older brother, best friend does. That's why we're here today."

Few drummers can make a song pump and slam like Grohl. But Hawkins — influenced commensurately by Queen's Roger Taylor and the Police's Stewart Copeland — had a bouncy, dynamic style all his own. And with Grohl's support, he became not only a worthy member of Foo Fighters, but the heart of its propulsion system.

Despite Grohl initially singing all the vocals and playing all the instruments on Foo Fighters records, his accompanists have never been anonymous action figures on stage. Hawkins, guitarists Pat Smear and Chris Shiflett, bassist Nate Mendel, and keyboardist Rami Jaffee — all of them bound by a manic sense of brotherhood — are just as crucial to the band's sound and appeal. Both live and in the studio, the Foos brought heavy artillery — an album could be an HBO special, a concert an overwhelming spectacle that leaves you laughing, dancing and crying.

That reliability and ubiquity can be a double-edged sword. It engenders the notion that the Foos will always be here: You can potentially check out for a few years and come back — they'll be waiting for you. But as we learned with beloved artists (and human cartoon characters) Prince and Tom Petty, the musician who's seemingly always on screen can be gone in an instant. Touring around the world with a permanent smile doesn't mean one doesn't have their own inner demons and can't be yanked off the planet — from all of us.

It's unknown what the future of Foo Fighters may entail. For now, the band has sent their love to Hawkins' wife, children and family, adding: "We ask that their privacy be treated with the utmost respect in this unimaginably difficult time."

There are reams of songs, albums, skits, and YouTube videos by which to remember Hawkins, but by all rights, we should have decades more of them. This cruel fact casts the recent ubiquity of Foo Fighters in a different light. This yearslong music and media cycle — which would work almost any other band to the point of exhaustion — wasn't just for attention; it was to have as much fun and make as much music as humanly possible. Because as Grohl and company know from experience, tomorrow isn't guaranteed.

"I don't want to f***ing die! I know it's inevitable, but I don't want to," Grohl told Rolling Stone.  "That's gonna be such a drag. I'll fight it as long as I can." In the same interview, Smear characterized Foo Fighters as "life-lovers" — contrasting their philosophy with Cobain's "I hate myself and I want to die" theatrics. For Foo Fighters, life sprung out of grief and pain. And that's audible at the very heartbeat of the band — the one Hawkins provided.

"I think Taylor really underestimates his importance in this band," Grohl added. "Maybe because he's not the original drummer, but, my God, what would we be without Taylor Hawkins? Could you imagine? It would be a completely different thing … Taylor's insecurity pushes him to overachieve."

For the jubilant, outrageous, tortured Hawkins, rock was the juice of life. Tragically, we'll never see Hawkins' bared teeth and shock of blonde hair behind Foo Fighters again. But his life, legacy and passing prove once and for all: Strip away the memes and the noise, and you've got human beings just trying to work through agony and find their way to joy.

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