The music world faced tragic news over the weekend when it was revealed Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins died at 50 years old. In light of that, Rolling Stone shared the full transcript of their last in-person interview with Hawkins, which took place in June 2021. Portions of the conversation were included in a September 2021 cover story on Foo Fighters.
During the interview, Hawkins tells a story of Grohl encouraging him shortly after he joined the band, when Hawkins wasn’t confident he was good enough to be in the group; Hawkins’ first album with the band was 1999’s There Is Nothing Left To Lose, as he replaced previous drummer William Goldsmith. Part of this story was included in the aforementioned Rolling Stone feature, but Hawkins’ newly shared full quote offers more context.
Hawkins started the story by discussing Goldsmith’s departure and expressing the lack of faith in himself he was feeling, saying:
“William [Goldsmith] tried to record drums for that second record. We all know it didn’t work out for various reasons. He just wasn’t really ready. But Dave didn’t fire him. Dave said, ‘I want you to stay in the band.’ And he didn’t, and that’s all on him. Dave feels bad about the way it happened. He’s expressed it plenty of f*cking times. But I feel bad that Dave gets the… Dave, he shouldn’t be demonized for that, because all he was trying to do was make sure his band could still exist. And the version that they had, he knew it wasn’t good enough. And I was so scared when we went to go do Nothing Left To Lose. I had red light fever so bad. […] Because the last guy f*cking… So how am I going to make it through this? And I didn’t know how to.
And the producer, Adam Kasper, was like, ‘Oh, can Dave just play drums?’ I could just hear it in his face. I mean, he was a nice guy, but he had Dave Grohl. He’s like, ‘Why is this kid trying to learn to play to a click track right now in front of me? Let’s get this record done.'”
Hawkins continued by describing an emotional and meaningful conversation he and Grohl had:
“And at one point I just said to Dave, ‘Listen, dude, I just don’t think I can do this.’ And I was battling the demons a bit back then as well. I was just so scared. And he said, it kind of chokes me up, he just held my hand through it, and he’s like, ‘You’re going to play some drums on this.’ [At this point, Hawkins’ eyes visibly tear up.] And I did half the drums on it, because he f*cking held my hand through it, like that older brother, best friend does.
So there you go. That’s why we’re here today, because he knew he wanted me there with him as a friend, as a family member, as his younger brother that he can f*cking rubber-finger any time he wants, that ultimately totally looks up to him and wants to make him happy. And also, he knew that there was just something we create on stage. And I know that.”
There Is Nothing Left To Lose went on to become the band’s second top-ten album and spawn “Learn To Fly,” one of the band’s signature songs and their first single to chart on the Billboard Hot 100.
Read the full interview here.
