Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins sadly passed away on Friday, March 25th, 2022. The band confirmed the passing away of Taylor Hawkins in a statement that was shared on their official social media. The drummer was 50 years old and was found in his hotel room at the Four Seasons Casa Medina in Bogota.
The official statement from the band read that The Foo Fighters family is devastated by the tragic and untimely death of their beloved Taylor Hawkins. The band also added that Taylor Hawkins’ spirit and infectious laughter would continue to stay with the band and the Foo Fighters forever. The statement concluded as they stated that they prayed for Taylor Hawkins’ wife and children and asked everyone for some privacy and urged everyone to treat the family with the utmost respect in such a difficult situation.
The Foo Fighters, who were scheduled to perform at the Picnic Stereo Festival in Bogota, Colombia, decided to back out. They had recently performed at the Lollapalooza Chile and Lollapalooza Argentina and were supposed to head to Lollapalooza Brazil on Sunday. The authorities have not confirmed the cause of Taylor Hawkins’ death, but the Bogota secretary of health reported that emergency responders had received a report on Friday about a patient with chest pain at a hotel.
After receiving the report, an ambulance was sent immediately, and on reaching, a private health provider had already been providing treatment, but their efforts to revive the drummer did not work. The Colombian Attorney General’s office said that the urine toxicology test had found ten substances, including tricyclic anti-depressants, opioids, benzodiazepines, marijuana, heroin, etc. According to the autopsy, the drummer's heart weighed twice as much as the average man's and he died of heart failure after bingeing on a cocktail of drugs. Bogota Mayor Claudia Lopez said in a statement that the world of music and Bogota are mourning the loss of Taylor Hawkins.
Taylor Hawkins, who was the drummer for Alanis Morissette, joined Foo Fighters in 1997 after frontman Dave Grohl asked him to and had shared previously in a 2014 interview for "60 Minutes" that he had to take his own time to find his place in the band, but Dave never made it hard for him. Dave added to Taylor that when a band has a drummer like him, he does not miss being the drummer and called him much more than a technically minded drummer he is.
Dave Grohl was previously the drummer of Nirvana when Kurt Cobain passed away in 1994 due to suicide. According to Foo Fighters bassist Nate Mendel, Taylor Hawkins stepped in when the band was pretty scrappy and acclimated to that, and after Taylor started drumming, the band gained confidence and wondered if they could be good. In his memoir, Dave Grohl describes Taylor Hawkins as his best friend and partner in crime and someone who brightened the room with his presence.
According to previous reports, the drummer has a history of drug abuse and, back in 2001, overdosed on heroin, following which he was in rehab for a week. Taylor Hawkins’ body will fly to the United States after the Colombian authorities release it, and the family and friends are preparing for the funeral. The band members, including Dave Grohl, Chris Shiflett, Nate Mendel, Rami Jaffee, Pat Smear, and Samantha Sidley, have returned to the United States and were spotted at the airport in a very heartbroken state.
Foo Fighters recently won the award at the iHeartRadio Music Awards 2022 in the category of Rock Artist of the Year and Rock Song of the Year (Waiting on a War) and released their horror-comedy "Studio 666" back last month, in which band members poked fun at each other while being in a haunted house they had rented to work on their 2021 album "Medicine at Midnight". The band was announced as the recipient of the first-ever global icon award at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2021 and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Illustrator Alison and three children, Oliver, Annabelle, and Everleigh, survive Taylor Hawkins.
Rest in Peace Taylor Hawkins.
