Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins suddenly died in late March 2022 while touring South America, plummeting his bandmates and the music world at large into grief. There were tribute concerts held in Hawkins’ memory, and his memory is still very much alive a year-plus after his tragic passing.
There are also tangible traces of Hawkins on Ian Hunter’s album Defiance Part 1, out today (April 21) via Sun Records. Hawkins is posthumously featured on three tracks — “Angel,” “Kiss N’ Make Up,” and “This Is What I’m Here For” — as relayed by Rock Cellar Magazine.
Hunter, formerly of Mott The Hoople, shared with the outlet how Hawkins’ contributions came to be.
“COVID was keeping people in their houses,” he said. “The Rant Band didn’t have any studios in their houses, but there were a lot of people who did have studios in their houses. Jeff Beck had his own place, Taylor’s got his studio and he’s also got the Foo’s studio. I was writing songs and they were doing nothing.”
Hunter continued, “Slash was the first one, Billy Gibbons was the second one. There’s a photographer, Ross Halfin, and he takes photographs of a lot of these guys. And he was putting the word out, too. Johnny Depp got involved. With Johnny came Jeff Beck. It just kind of developed and as it developed, I got excited so I kept writing. We wound up with 20-odd songs. But basically, it was because of COVID. No one would have been around [otherwise]. All these people would have been out touring.”
Meanwhile, Foo Fighters are embarking on their first album rollout since Hawkins’ death. The band signaled the next iteration by dropping “Rescued” earlier this week and announcing their But Here We Are album due out on June 2.
It’s still unknown whether Hawkins will feature posthumously on But Here We Are or who handled the drums for the project, but it’s hard to believe that the Foos won’t pay homage to Hawkins somehow.
Defiance Part 1 is out now via Sun Records. Find more information here.
