Foo Fighters released their self-titled debut record in 1995. In reality, it was a Dave Grohl solo record, as he played most of the instruments on the album and wrote the material by himself over the past several years.
From Dave Grohl Solo Project to Foo Fighters
As Grohl inked a record deal and looked to promote the album, he needed a band to support him. He ended up recruiting the rhythm section of the band, Sunny Day Real Estate, which included bassist Nate Mendel and drummer William Goldsmith and brought in old Nirvana guitarist Pat Smear. Foo Fighters hit the road for the next 2 years, promoting their first album.
By 1996, the band headed into the studio to record their first proper album as a band and their sophomore effort. The Color and The Shape with producer Gil Norton but the sessions were fraught with internal problems. Norton ran a tight ship and referred to Mendel and Goldsmith as “the rhythmless section”.
“It just seemed that everything I did wasn’t good enough for him or anyone else.” – William Goldsmith
During the recording of the album, Goldsmith became insecure and felt unwanted in the band. He told the Miami New Times in 1998, “Dave had me do 96 takes of one song and I had to do another 13 hours worth of takes on another one. It just seemed that everything I did wasn’t good enough for him or anyone else. I think that everyone at the label wanted Dave to play drums on the record and the producer wanted him to play drums on the record and it felt like everyone was trying to get me to quit.”
William Goldsmith Quits the Band
In early 1997, Grohl returned to the studio with several new songs including “Everlong”. Goldsmith hadn’t yet returned from Seattle to LA, where the recording sessions were happening. Due to the recording of the group’s second album dragging on, Grohl recorded the drums on the new songs he had written and re-recorded some of Goldsmith’s parts without telling him. Once Goldsmith got wind of this, he quit the band, despite Grohl wanting him to tour with the group.
Born in Texas, drummer Taylor Hawkins moved to California at the age of 5. He had an older brother who introduced him to bands like Queen, Boston, the Eagles and The Police. While Hawkins initially learned the guitar, a neighbor had a drum kit and gave him some basic lessons. Hawkins soon started focusing more on drums.
Hawkins joined his first band Sylvia, which was an experimental psychedelic rock band. By the mid-90’s, he started becoming a session drummer, first playing with Sass Jordan before being approached about auditioning for a new Canadian artist named Alanis Morissette.
“I was lucky enough to get the gig playing with Alanis… so we started rehearsing… I got these three songs on a cassette… I heard “You Oughta Know”. I heard “You Learn” … I just knew it… so we started rehearsing and then the first song came out and it just went completely bananas.”
“We got along like brothers from the second we met. We were best friends from that moment.” – Dave Grohl
Grohl met Hawkins for the first time in December of 1995, “We got along like brothers from the second we met. We were best friends from that moment.” Taylor commended in the book, This Is a Call, “I was this little dork playing in this backup band and the first thing that struck me was that Dave was really nice and fun to hang out with.”
Hawkins was a huge fan of Nirvana and Foo Fighters’ first record and he noticed a camaraderie and likeness between himself and Grohl. They reconnected in the summer of 1996 when both Alanis Morissette and Foo Fighters were playing shows together in Europe.
The following year in 1997, Grohl was without a drummer and he called up Hawkins to see if he knew any good drummers. Grohl recalled that conversation with Hawkins, “He said, ‘Eff yeah, I’ll do it.’ I reminded him we weren’t selling out stadiums like Alanis and he said, ‘I don’t care man, I just want to be in an effing rock band’.”
“…You couldn’t find a better drummer.” – Dave Grohl
“He’s an amazing drummer and we have two different styles and so he does his thing and I do my thing and he adds so much to the songs that it’s like sometimes too much… I can see like other drummers being in the band, feeling weird, feeling intimidated and whatever but we do two totally different things and I think we have mutual respect for each other and it’s just, it’s awesome… you couldn’t find a better drummer.”
The onboarding process for Taylor Hawkins wasn’t smooth though. The first day of rehearsals, guitarist Pat Smear announced that he was quitting the band, telling Grohl and company they should consider just being a three-piece. The band was in a tough spot having already booked a tour. Smear was tired of life on the road. He was older than the other members and in his own words, he was “lazier than the other members of the band”.
Franz Stahl Replaces Pat Smear
The band managed to talk Smear into staying in the band for another six months until they found a replacement, which they did in Grohl’s old Scream bandmate, Franz Stahl.
Taylor Hawkins’ first show with Foo Fighters was on April 19, 1997 at a secret gig in Santa Monica at the Alligator Lounge.
The band got off the road in 1998 to promote their second album and Grohl gave some insights into where the band’s third album could go, “Now I’m looking forward to our next record more than I ever have been. For a while I was thinking, ‘God, what are we going to do for our next record? Taylor plays piano and guitar and writes songs and sings. Nate writes stuff, just going to be the freak out record.”
Chris Shiflett Joins the Band
While the album was recorded as a three-piece, in the documentary Back and Forth, Hawkins revealed he pushed for the band to remain as a three-piece on the road as well but Grohl wanted more guitars. Guitarist Chris Shiflett was added to the band.
The same year, there was talks of Sunny Day Real Estate reuniting and bassist Nate Mendel, at one point, told Grohl that he was leaving the band to go back to his old outfit. It was a rash decision by Mendel who ultimately changed his mind and opted to stay in Foo Fighters.
Guitarist Franz Stahl’s time in the band was short-lived when he was fired by Grohl. The chemistry just didn’t seem to be there when they started working on their third album.
Grohl joked in the documentary Back and Forth that so many people had come and gone in Foo Fighters that he would frequently get asked in media interviews who was in the band.
“That’s why we’re here today, because he knew he wanted me there as a friend and as a family member, as his younger brother.” – Taylor Hawkins
Taylor Hawkins admitted he was extremely nervous drumming on the band’s third album, telling Rolling Stone, “I was so scared when we went to do “Nothing Left to Lose”. I had red light fever so I did half the drums on the album because Dave effin held my hand through it. That’s why we’re here today, because he knew he wanted me there as a friend and as a family member, as his younger brother.”
In other interviews, Hawkins admitted that he didn’t really feel comfortable in the studio with the band until they recorded their follow-up album One By One. Work began on Foo Fighters’ fourth record in August of 2000 with Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins coming up with song ideas. The band spent the remainder of the year and a good chunk of 2001 on the road.
Taylor Hawkins Has Near-Fatal Overdose
By the summer of 2001, the band hit some rough times. While on tour in the UK, Hawkins suffered a near fatal drug overdose. He spent 2 weeks in a coma, resulting in the band canceling the remainder of their European tour dates.
Once Hawkins recovered, the band began work on their next album but the band wasn’t gelling.
In 2002, Grohl admitted to Billboard Magazine just how tense and unsuccessful those sessions were, revealing, “At the time we were making an album that wasn’t working… After about 3.5 months, I realized it didn’t sound familiar.”
The album submitted to their manager would be known as the Million Dollar Demos and the recordings were scrapped by the band. They took a break lasting several months. Time apart allowed Dave Grohl to play drums on Queens of the Stone Age’s new record and tour with the band.
By April of 2002, Foo Fighters were going to be performing at Coachella, as was Queens of the Stone Age. Grohl would perform one night with Queens of the Stone Age while the other night would see him play with Foo Fighters. The Foos reconvened ahead of Coachella to rehearse and there was a lot of tension in the room. Grohl was disappointed that Taylor Hawkins hadn’t seen him play with Queens of the Stone Age, while Taylor was still reeling from his overdose.
Tension Amongst Bandmates Threatens the Band’s Future
A fight erupted between the bandmates and the pair vowed that Coachella would be their final gig together but the gig at Coachella went really well and Hawkins felt that Grohl seemed like a new frontman. Dave and Taylor talked about going back to Dave’s home in Virginia and recording some new songs.
Grohl told Billboard Magazine, “I had this window after Queens’ tour and I had some ideas for songs so I invited Taylor back to my house and in those two weeks we recorded the whole record. We did all the basic tracks in 10 days then we called up Nate and Chris and I said, ‘I think we made the record.’ They came back and put their parts on it and it was done.”
Taylor Hawkins’ Untimely Death
Taylor Hawkins was a member of the band until his untimely death on March 25, 2022. He spoke to Rolling Stone for the final time in June 2021, talking about sobriety and his stage fright, “Oh yeah, I have major stage fright, major major major.”
In the same interview, Taylor admitted that he’s sober when he’s playing on stage. When the interviewer asked if he was fully sober in his life, he responded by saying, “I don’t want to get into all that. I just lead a really healthy lifestyle. I’ve been down that road with people so much. That’s kind of been an arc of my life so much. You know, my life has been there plenty of times so I get it. I don’t want that to be the centerpiece of my story.”
Taylor Hawkins passed away at the age of 50 and while the cause of death hasn’t been revealed, the preliminary findings have indicated that he had at least 10 substances in his system, including pot, opiates, benzos and antidepressants. It also came out that Hawkins’ heart was twice the size of that of a normal man weighing around 600 grams when a normal man’s heart weighs around 300 to 350 grams.
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