Friday evening, a few hours ahead of Foo Fighters taking the stage in South America, the band announced on social media that longtime drummer Taylor Hawkins passed away at the age of 50. More details have emerged regarding the circumstances surrounding his death.
Taylor Hawkins Complains of Chest Pains
Official reports indicated that the drummer was complaining to hotel staff about chest pains. The Bogota Municipal Government said the city’s emergency center received a report of a patient with chest pain and sent an ambulance on Friday evening.
Toxicology Results Find Several Substances Present in Taylor Hawkins’ Body
Paramedics attempted to revive Hawkins but there was no response and he was declared dead at the scene in his hotel and then Saturday evening, in a statement from Colombia’s Attorney General’s office, they would release the initial findings of the preliminary urine toxicology test that claimed to have found at least 10 substances in the drummer’s body, including pot, opiates benzos and antidepressants.
The statement said, “The National Institute of Forensic Medicine continues to conduct the necessary medical studies to ascertain the cause of death. The Attorney General’s office will continue to investigate and will duly inform the findings of the forensic examinations in due time.”
Foo Fighters Find Peace Following Success
By the late 1990’s, Foo Fighters would establish themselves as one of the most popular alternative rock acts on the scene. Having come off the success of their third album, There’s Nothing Left to Lose, in 1999, it appeared the band had finally found some peace.
Their sophomore record in 1997, The Color and The Shape, was a huge success, but it was also a tumultuous period for the group. The recording sessions dragged on, while drummer William Goldsmith departed on bad terms after having his drum parts re-recorded by Grohl without his knowledge. In addition, guitarist Pat Smear left the band during tour and was replaced by Franz Stahl.
Foo Fighters spent nearly 2 years on the road, supporting their second album and when it came time to write their third record, There’s Nothing Left to Lose, Stahl didn’t gel with the band and was fired. The band recorded their third record as a 3-piece and enlisted guitarist Chris Shiflett to join them on tour as their new lead guitarist.
Work began on Foo Fighters fourth record in August 2000 with Dave Grohl and drummer 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 Suffers Near-Fatal Drug 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 and it resulted in the band canceling the remainder of their European tour dates.
“The most important thing is that the songs feel right and the recordings feel good.” – Dave Grohl
Once Hawkins recovered, the band retreated to his studio in California to work on their next album but the band wasn’t gelling from the start. In 2002, Grohl admitted to Billboard Magazine just how tense and unsuccessful those early sessions were.
“At the time we were making an album that wasn’t working… After about 3.5 months, I realized it didn’t sound familiar… Didn’t feel right… The most important thing is that the songs feel right and the recordings feel good… We were so focused on production because our intent was to make this big rock record but your energy tends to wane after 3 months. Spontaneity and energy have a lot to do with rock and rock records shouldn’t take long to make.”
Foo fighter’s fourth album was the first time Chris Schiflett was in the studio with the band and he revealed in the 2011 documentary, Back and Forth, “It was bizarre. It was my first record with the band. I just show up to the studio every day. I was sort of confused. It’s really weird. I’m never really playing on this and you know I show up at noon every day and I just kind of sit here and eat food and drink coffee and then I go home. What is this?”
The band spent time in several studios between October 2001 and February 2002 and these sessions alone cost the band over $1M in production costs. By February of 2002, the band would submit their finished material to manager John Silva, who wasn’t very enthusiastic about what he heard. According to Mendel, Silva would tell the band, “Well, we could put this out but I don’t know if we’ll be able to sell any of them.”
The Million Dollar Demos
At this point in time of the record’s production, “Times Like These” and “Low” had not yet been written. The album submitted to their manager would be known as the Million Dollar Demos and the recordings would be scrapped by the band and they would take a break lasting several months. Time apart allowed Dave Grohl to play drums on Queens of the Stone Age’s record, Songs for the Deaf and tour with the band.
Grohl’s time with Queens of the Stone Age created some resentment amongst his bandmates, who felt like they were left waiting for their leader, especially drummer Taylor Hawkins.
Tension Amongst the Band Ahead of Coachella
By April of 2002, Foo Fighters were going to be performing at Coachella, as was Queens of the Stone Age. Grohl performed one night with Queens of the Stone Age and played with the Foo Fighters the other night. The Foos reconvene ahead of Coachella to rehearse and there was a lot of tension in the room. Grohl was disappointed that Hawkins hadn’t seen him play with Queens of the Stone Age, while Taylor was still reeling from his overdose.
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. Afterwards, Dave and Taylor talked about going back to Dave’s home in Virginia to record some new songs.
“I had some ideas for songs so I invited Taylor back to my house and in those two weeks we recorded the whole record.” – Dave Grohl
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.”
“We recorded the instrumental and I had no idea how I was going to sing it.” – Dave Grohl
Foo Fighters released One By One on October 22, 2002. The first single from the album was “All My Life”, which came out 6 weeks before the record’s release. Grohl told Kerang the origins of the song, “It went through a few different versions. At first it was really dissonant and noisy. The middle section sounded like wipeout. It was just nuts. We recorded the instrumental and I had no idea how I was going to sing it. Again, this was another one that our manager said, ‘That’s the song,’ and we said, ‘Really? You think that’s the one people will like?'”
The song ended up topping the Alternative Rock Charts and peaked at No. 3 on the Mainstream Rock Charts, in addition to winning a Grammy in 2003. The follow-up single, “Times Like These” was written during the sessions at Dave’s house in Virginia. It was written about the band’s hiatus in early 2002. It peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Charts and gave the band one of the most popular songs in their catalog.
The album produced two other singles, “Low” and “Have It All”. The video for “Low” was banned by MTV because it was deemed too controversial.
“…One cost a million dollars and sounded like crap while the one we did in my basement for half an hour, became the biggest effing song the band ever had.” – Dave Grohl
Grohl looked back at the difference between the Million Dollar Demos and the final album in the Back and Forth documentary, “We had already spent three months and a million dollars on something we threw away. The difference between ‘All My Life’ and ‘All My Life’ was that this one cost a million dollars and sounded like crap while the one we did in my basement for half an hour, became the biggest effing song the band ever had.”
The album ended up peaking at No. 3 on the US Album Charts and has sold over a million copies and went platinum.
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