Just over three weeks ago, Taylor Hawkins was working out in a Melbourne hotel gymnasium, a picture of health.
The Foo Fighters were across the ditch to play a typically huge three-hour show in Geelong on March 4. The day prior the band talked to media ahead of the official announcement of their planned return tour of New Zealand and Australia later this year.
Speaking to Stuff via video link, three of the other band members – guitarists Pat Smear and Chris Shiflett, and Foo Fighters head honcho and former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl – spoke of Hawkins, the band’s long-serving drummer who died on Saturday, age 50, being in fine physical health.
“Taylor is in really good shape,” said Grohl, when asked how the band gets through their epic live shows with hit-packed setlists nearly 30 songs in length.
READ MORE:
* Dave Grohl on why it’s fun to play a demon in new Foo Fighters movie
* Foo Fighters: ‘Not everyone’s gonna like everything you do’
* Dave Grohl invites 5-year-old fan on stage during Foo Fighters gig
* Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl gives Australian man his dying wish
Grohl then motioned to his right, to Shiflett, adding: “You’re in good shape. Actually, you, Taylor, and Nate (Mendel), are in really great shape. Me and Pat don’t do anything.”
Shiflett and Smear both agreed that the once notoriously hard-partying Hawkins, who manned the drums for the Foo Fighters for 25 years of the band’s 28-year life, since replacing original drummer William Goldsmith in 1997, was among the better conditioned members of the group.
Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins were great friends and enjoyed playing together since the Foo Fighters leader recruited the former drummer for Alanis Morissette back in 1997.
DAVID MACKAY
Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins were great friends and enjoyed playing together since the Foo Fighters leader recruited the former drummer for Alanis Morissette back in 1997.
The Texas-born California-raised musician – who last year told Kerrang: “I used to do a lot of f…… drugs….I believed the bullshit myth of live fast die young” – had seemingly successfully abandoned his former life of excess after surviving a 2001 heroin overdose that put him into a two-week coma.
“As usual, yesterday, I went down to the hotel gym,” explained Shiflett, of his personal preparation for the Geelong concert at Kardinia Park, adding: “And there was Taylor and Nate (Mendel) and we were all in there together doing our pre-show routine to get through it.”
During the show – which saw the Foo Fighters tear through 20 songs and finish with fan favourite single Everlong – Grohl told the crowd they would be returning to rock both New Zealand and Australia later this year.
They were set to perform here at Wellington’s Sky Stadium on December 15, and Auckland’s Western Springs on December 17.
Those plans will now presumably be scrapped. Fans who got in early to purchase tickets may now be left with a keepsake in the form of a Ticketek email order confirmation. An NFT of sorts, in lieu of actual physical tickets, commemorating a show that never went ahead due to tragic circumstances.
Foo Fighters and rock fans around the world, this writer included, are reeling from the news.
I was among those eagerly anticipating their return to our shores. Growing up I was fortunate enough to see the Foo Fighters perform in Sydney on New Year’s Eve 1995, during their first tour down under, just months after the release of the self-titled debut album.
One of the Foo Fighters most recent press photos, From left: Pat Smear, Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel, Rami Jaffee, and Chris Shiflett.
SUPPLIED
One of the Foo Fighters most recent press photos, From left: Pat Smear, Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel, Rami Jaffee, and Chris Shiflett.
Hawkins wasn’t in the band then, but had joined when I next saw them play two years later at the hot and sweaty Selina’s club at Sydney’s Coogee Bay Hotel, during their tour in support of their second studio album The Colour and the Shape.
“Oh my god. Wow. I do remember that,” said Grohl, of the intimate 1997 gig that opened with both he and Hawkins drum duelling together on separate kits, before Grohl stepped off his seat to pick up his guitar and begin singing the opening number (the name of which escapes me now).
Hawkins, who for a time, much like his predecessor, Goldsmith, would suffer a crisis of confidence playing drums in the same band as Grohl – considered to be among the best in the business – won many Foo Fighters fans over, with his laid back style, big grin, and obvious fun-loving nature.
Among the many interviews that capture the band’s camaraderie and humour, is one that saw Hawkins hilariously level a reporter who asked excitedly whether the band has anything in particular that they demand from promoters while on tour. Responding quicker than one might expect, the carefree Hawkins gave the obvious deadpan one-word answer: “Instruments.”
Other rock listeners, particularly certain strains of Nirvana fans more loyal to Kurt Cobain’s memory and less enamoured with Grohl’s follow-up work, tended to roll their eyes at Hawkins and his surfer dude looks and style – while begrudgingly acknowledging his musical talent.
Hawkins and the Foo Fighters couldn’t have cared less though, and together went on to become one of the biggest bands in the world – selling more than 30 million albums worldwide.
Last year the group, which also contains keyboardist Rami Jaffee, were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame by Sir Paul McCartney.
Share on Facebook «||» Share on Twitter «||» Share on Reddit «||» Share on LinkedIn