Published by Cel Manero from Global One Media Inc.
“Taylor’s loss was never supposed to happen,” Grohl reflected.
Dave Grohl has opened up in detail for the first time about the death of his close friend and Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, reflecting on the profound effect it had on him.
Hawkins died on March 25, 2022, in his hotel room at the Four Seasons Casa Medina in Bogotá, Colombia, just before the Foo Fighters were set to headline the Estéreo Picnic festival. Colombian authorities never released an official cause of death for the 50-year-old musician, but early toxicology reports showed he had ten substances in his body, including opioids, benzodiazepines, antidepressants, and THC.
“The Foo Fighters family is heartbroken over the sudden loss of our cherished Taylor Hawkins,” the band said in a statement following his passing. “His musical talent and joyful spirit will always remain with us.”
Even four years later, Grohl admits that he struggles to fully come to terms with the loss.
“Losing Taylor shouldn’t have happened,” he told MOJO magazine. “It completely upended our lives and made me question everything about existence… it felt so unfair.”
Grohl has previously discussed how music helped him process the grief after losing Nirvana bandmate Kurt Cobain. In particular, he funneled his emotions into what became the first Foo Fighters album.
“I decided to pull myself together, record some demos at home, and then book a studio session for myself,” Grohl said in 2009. “It was a cathartic process—I needed to break free from the place I’d been stuck in.”
After Hawkins’ passing, Grohl once again turned to music as a way to cope with his feelings.
“I think I was scared of silence, scared of having to face my emotions,” he told MOJO. “I probably needed more quiet, more introspection. Music wasn’t just a distraction—it was a way to lean on a crutch when I felt broken.”
For a period, he worked daily in his home studio, creating instrumentals ranging from styles reminiscent of Led Zeppelin’s Presence to the raw energy of Bad Brains’ 1982 ROIR cassette. These solo sessions ultimately became the foundation for a new Foo Fighters album.
“There was no initial plan to make a record,” Grohl told MOJO. But after a year of writing, he revisited the “40 or 50 instrumentals” he had recorded and began to envision what the band’s twelfth album should be.
“There was one sequence of eight demos that were punchy, fast, and energetic,” he recalls. “I thought, this is exactly what we need.”
The follow-up to 2023’s But Here We Are, the Foo Fighters’ latest album Your Favorite Toy, is set for release on April 24 via Roswell Records/Columbia Records. Grohl describes it as a “powder keg,” a collection of songs that has helped the band regain their sense of direction after such a devastating loss.
“After going through death or extended grief, you have to start over in the context of this new life,” Grohl explains. “The day after Kurt died, I woke up, made coffee, and realized, this is my first cup of coffee without him. You go through life again, but with a new perspective.”
“When Nirvana ended, I wasn’t finished,” the Foo Fighters frontman said in 2009. “I still feel that way today.”
“We knew we had to do this,” Grohl adds. “Because it had saved us once before.”
