This past weekend on Friday, March 25th, the rock commiunuty was turned on its head once again. In the past few years we have suffered many great losses in our communnity . It started with the tragic lost of David Bowie bacck in 2016 . Since then we lost Chris Cornell in 2017, Eddie Van Halen in 2020 and most recentrly Charlie Watts last year. Last Friday, we lost another innovator . Taylor Hawkins , the drummer for the Foo Fighters passed away at the age of 50. He was born Oliver Taylor Hawkins in Fort Worth, Texas on February 17th, 1972. After gruadting Laguna Beach high school , he started his career playing for local Orange. county bands like Sylvia and becoming the drummer for British-born Canadian rock singer Sass Jordan. His first big break came however in 1995 when he joined Alannis Morisette as her drummer for her Jagged Little Pill until 1997. That same year, he would then join Foo Fighters where he replaced original drummer William Goldsmith. Hawkins drummer came be heard on the bands second album The Colour and The Shape and spawned classic hits like "Everlong", "My Hero" and "Monkey Wrentch" talk about a solid debut. He played on every Foo Fighters album since then including modern classics like One By One, Wasting Light and Sonic Highways which in my opinion are the bands best work. Taylor's drumming was both explsoive and fundemntal that made up the Foo Fighter's sound. From interviews and tributes, Hawkins was not only a gifted musician but his personality was contagious. His love for music was always present and he knew how to have a good time. It saddened me when I heard the news of his passing. When Tom Petty died back in 2017, the media was quck to jump to conclusions and it wasn't proven true . Sadly, that became a reality. So it only made sense for me to be in denial about Hawkings passing. But, once again , it became reality. Hawkings was truly an amazing and charismatic drummer and a true gem that was taken from us far too soon. He was only 50. He had so much left to give this world. Fly high Taylor Hawkings . My condelences to his family, freinds and of course Dave and the band.
