With the rock group Foo Fighters, with whom he made eight studio albums between 1999 and 2021, Oliver Taylor Hawkins was an American musician best known for playing the drums. He formerly worked as the touring drummer for Sass Jordan, Alanis Morissette, and Sylvia, a progressive experimental band, before joining the group in 1997.
Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders, a side project he started in 2004, included Hawkins on drums and singing. Between 2006 and 2019, the group released three studio albums. Together with Dave Navarro and Chris Chaney from Jane’s Addiction, he founded the supergroup NHC in 2020, where he also played drums and sang lead.
As a member of the Foo Fighters, Hawkins was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2021. He received the 2005 “Best Rock Drummer” award from the British drumming publication Rhythm. On March 25, 2022, he passed away in Bogotá, Colombia, at the age of 50.
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Early Life
On February 17, 1972, Oliver Taylor Hawkins was born in Fort Worth, Texas. His family moved to California in 1976 and made Laguna Beach their home. Jason and Heather, Hawkins’ siblings, are two. He was a student at Laguna Beach High. He was heavily influenced by Stewart Copeland of the Police and a huge Roger Taylor and Jane’s Addiction fan when he was a teenager.
Hawkins was friends with Yes’ current singer, Jon Davison, as a youngster. Since they were young, the two have known one another and have participated in a number of bands together, the best of which being the cover band Heavy Industry. The band performed at weddings and dances for high schools. After their high school years playing in Heavy Industry, Hawkins and Davison’s paths parted.
As he put it, Hawkins was a member of several awful bands that “tried to sound like Jane’s Addiction.” In order to become the drummer for Sass Jordan, he left the experimental band Sylvia, which was based in Orange County. In order to tour with Alanis Morissette, he later departed Sass Jordan.
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Career
The Canadian musician Alanis Morissette’s “Can’t Not” tour, which took place in 1995 and 1996, had Hawkins as her drummer. Hawkins played for Alanis Morissette for 18 months prior to receiving the fateful call from Dave Grohl. He made appearances in several of Morissette’s music videos, including “You Oughta Know,” “All I Really Want,” and “You Learn.”
The Color and the Shape, the band’s second album, was recorded in the year 1996 in a recording studio by the Foo Fighters. There was a fight between Dave Grohl and the drummer William Goldsmith during the recording process. Grohl entirely redubbed the album with his own drum recordings after hearing Goldsmith’s drum tracks. As a result, Goldsmith disbanded the group.
To ask Taylor Hawkins for a drummer recommendation, Grohl called him. Grohl had no idea that Hawkins would leave her tour with Alanis Morissette, the greatest name in rock at the moment, to join Foo Fighters. Grohl was shocked to hear Hawkins say he wanted the job. On March 18, 1997, Taylor Hawkins formally joined the Foo Fighters.
Ironically, Hawkins’ next move was foretold by Alanis Morissette. They met the Foo Fighters while on tour in support of her massively successful album Jagged Little Pill. Then, a year before Grohl called Hawkins, she said, “Dave’s gonna ask you to join them someday.”
The Foo Fighters performed in clubs or served as openers for bigger, more well-known acts like the Red Hot Chili Peppers in early 1997 while they were still relatively unknown. In 2008, the Foo Fighters, one of the largest rock bands, sold out Wembley Stadium in London for not just one but two nights while performing to an average of 86,000 fans per night. Fast forward 23 years.
Hawkins also sings rock music. He can also play the piano and guitar. He provided lead vocals on the original song “Cold Day in the Sun” from In Your Honor, which was his first lead vocal performance with the Foo Fighters. Most recently, he provided the lead vocals for the Foo Fighters song “Sunday Rain” on their 2017 album Concrete and Gold.
Hawkins sings lead vocals on at least one cover song in many of the live performances of the Foo Fighters. He also contributes to the band’s songwriting. Only Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins have performed lead vocals for the Foo Fighters.
Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders, a side project of Hawkins, put out a self-titled LP in 2006. Hawkins performed with Roger Taylor of Queen and Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers as a member of the SOS Allstars at Live Earth in 2007.
Hawkins can be found on Slash’s 2010 solo album Slash. On the Ozzy Osbourne-featuring song “Crucify the Dead,” he sang background vocals.
Hawkins was a member of Chevy Metal, a cover band that performed obscure songs by ZZ Top, Aerosmith, Deep Purple, Van Halen, Queen, and Black Sabbath when the Foo Fighters were on hiatus. Chevy Metal is still performing at county fairs and pizza joints in the Los Angeles region. Chris Shiflett, a former member of the Foo Fighters, currently plays guitar for Chevy Metal, and Dave Grohl occasionally joins them.
There is Nothing Left to Lose (1999), One by One (2002), In Your Honor (2005), Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace (2007), Wasting Light (2011), Sonic Highways (2014), Saint Cecilia (2015), and Concrete and Gold are the eight albums Hawkins has worked on with the Foo Fighters to date.
Additionally, Hawkins appeared in the documentaries Back and Forth, Sound City, and the HBO series Sonic Highways, which was a companion piece to the same-titled album by the Foo Fighters.
Get the Monkey, the most current album by Hawkins’ band Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders, was released in November 2019. LeAnn Rimes contributes to the song “C U In Hell” as a guest vocalist, among other singers. The children of Rimes and Hawkins attend the same school and reside in the same neighborhood.
One day, he asked her if she would want to sing on the “psychedelic stoner rock tune” he was writing for the upcoming album. He was shocked to hear her answer “yes.”
According to reports, Rimes sang the song while lying on the studio floor. One of Taylor’s favorite bands from high school, Jane’s Addiction’s Perry Farrell, also contributes vocals to the record. During “I Really Blue It,” Farrell sings.
It begs the question of whether the drummer for one of the most well-known rock bands was really just a disgruntled vocalist given Hawkins’ numerous side ventures, especially those in which he serves as the frontman. Regarding his most recent record, he stated in an interview: “Am I a frustrated frontman? Yes, on a certain level.”
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Personal Life
From 2005 until his passing in 2022, Hawkins was wed to Alison Hawkins. Oliver, Annabelle, and Everleigh are their 3 kids. California’s Hidden Hills is home to the Hawkins clan.
In 2001, Hawkins overdosed on heroin and fell into a two-week coma. He explained that he wasn’t an addict or a junkie after the incident, simply that he had been partying a lot.
Hawkins received a call from his mother in 2005, informing him that a member of Guns N’ Roses had called to ask for him while he was performing with the Foo Fighters in London in support of There Is Nothing Left To Lose. It comes out that Axl Rose was researching people while attempting to put together a new lineup for Guns N Roses. Hawkins was invited to attend the tryouts.
Hawkins contacted Roger Taylor at Queen for guidance. He stated: “I see you and Dave onstage and there’s something you can’t buy there. There’s something between you guys that might not be there with Axl Rose.” Hawkins gave the advice of his former idol and friend some thought before sticking with Foo Fighters.
Death
Hawkins was experiencing chest pain in his hotel room on March 25, 2022, when medical services were called to the Four Seasons Casa Medina in Bogotá, Colombia. When medical workers came, they discovered Hawkins unconscious. They gave him CPR, but at the age of 50, he was pronounced dead at the site. The reason for death was not disclosed.
A preliminary urine toxicology test revealed the next day that Hawkins had ten chemicals in his system at the time of his death, including opiates, benzodiazepines, tricyclic antidepressants, and THC (a psychoactive drug found in cannabis).
According to Colombia’s National Institute of Forensic Medicine, they will “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 will continue to promptly examine his cause of death.
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In a May 2022 Rolling Stone piece, the argument was made that Hawkins was extremely exhausted in the days before he passed away. Chad Smith and Matt Cameron, two of the interviewees, have now retracted the story, claiming that they were misquoted and that their remarks were misconstrued.
On March 25, the Foo Fighters posted a message on Twitter informing followers of Hawkins’ passing and stating that “His musical spirit and infectious laughter will live on with all of us forever.” The band canceled all of its forthcoming performances on March 29.
Hawkins was set to perform with the Foo Fighters on the night of his death as part of their current South American tour at the Estéreo Picnic Festival in Bogotá. It was decided to hold a candlelight vigil for Hawkins on the festival stage.
Hawkins was honored at the 64th Grammy Awards on April 3, 2022, with a quick montage that mixed live footage, backstage home movies, and interviews. The tribute culminated with the audience singing along to the Foo Fighters’ 1998 single “My Hero.”
During her Grammys performance, Billie Eilish paid respect by donning an oversized T-shirt with a photo of Hawkins’ face on the front and his last name inscribed in capital letters on the back.
Tribute Concerts
The Foo Fighters and Hawkins’ family have scheduled two concerts for June 8, 2022, as a memorial to Hawkins. The inaugural performance was held on September 3, 2022, at Wembley Stadium in London. On September 27, 2022, the second concert will take place at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California, and will also feature a large number of special guests in addition to Hawkins’ bandmates.
A repeat of the concert from Wembley Stadium was carried on CBS, and it was streamed live on YouTube and Paramount+. During a performance of “My Hero,” his son Oliver Shane Hawkins honored his father by assuming his father’s drum kit.
where is Taylor Hawkins buried?
The emotions within the band are apparent as the body of Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins has landed in L.A. on the band’s private plane.
At the El Dorado Airport in Bogota, Colombia, on Tuesday, the plain-black coffin was placed into the specially-chartered 757 aircraft; he landed at LAX later that day.
The body was released by Colombian authorities on Sunday after an autopsy was finished. Authorities claimed that just one day after Hawkins’ passing, he had 10 drugs in his system, including benzodiazepines, opioids, and tricyclic antidepressants.
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On the same day that the Foo Fighters were scheduled to play at the Stereo Picnic Festival in Colombia, Hawkins was discovered dead in his hotel room in Bogota on Friday.
The band informed their audience by saying, “The tragic and untimely passing of our beloved Taylor Hawkins has left the Foo Fighters family inconsolable. His contagious joy and musical spirit will always be with us.”
