Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins’ Friendship Through the Years: From Bandmates to Best Friends

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Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins' Friendship Through the Years: From Bandmates to Best Friends

More than coworkers. Taylor Hawkins and Dave Grohl played together in Foo Fighters for 25 years, but their friendship also flourished outside the studio. When the duo first met in the mid-1990s, Grohl was already world famous as the drummer for Nirvana. In April 1994, however, the band's career came to a tragic end when frontman Kurt Cobain died by suicide at age 27. The Ohio native later initially thought he wouldn't play music again after the loss of his bandmate, but by late 1994, he had started work on the project that would become Foo Fighters. Hawkins, meanwhile, was working as a drummer for Alanis Morissette, whose debut solo album, Jagged Little Pill, blew up after its release in June 1995. The late musician and Grohl kept bumping into each other on the tour circuit. When Foo Fighters' original drummer, William Goldsmith, left the band during the recording of their debut album, The Colour and the Shape, Grohl tapped Hawkins as his replacement. "Upon first meeting, our bond was immediate, and we grew closer with every day, every song, every note that we ever played together," Grohl wrote in his 2021 memoir, The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music. "I am not afraid to say that our chance meeting was a kind of love at first sight, igniting a musical 'twin flame' that still burns to this day. Together, we have become an unstoppable duo, onstage and off, in pursuit of any and all adventure we can find." [jwplayer EvMgtVgr-zhNYySv2] Though the Queens of the Stone Age collaborator was impressed by Hawkins' percussion skills, he was equally as intrigued by his personality. “When he joined the band, his drumming was the least important factor," Grohl told NME in February 2021. "I just thought, 'I want to travel the world with this guy, I want to jump on stage and drink beers with this person.' That was my biggest concern.” The two men were still traveling the world together playing music until Hawkins' death in March 2022 at age 50. The Texas native was found dead in a hotel room in Bogotá, Colombia, while the Foo Fighters were in the country for the South American leg of their tour. The band announced the news in a statement shared via social media. “The Foo Fighters family is devastated by the tragic and untimely loss of our beloved Taylor Hawkins,” the band wrote at the time. “His musical spirit and infectious laughter will live on with all of us forever. Our hearts go out to his wife, children and family, and we ask that their privacy be treated with the utmost respect in this unimaginably difficult time.” A cause of death was not immediately determined, but Colombian authorities released a preliminary toxicology report claiming that Hawkins had 10 substances in his body at the time of his death, including marijuana, opioids and antidepressants. Keep scrolling for a look back at Grohl and Hawkins' friendship through the years. [podcast_block]

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1995

Grohl first met Hawkins while he was touring with Morissette for her album Jagged Little Pill. "The first time we met, we were at some radio show backstage, and he came up with a beer in his hand," the Them Crooked Vultures member later told radio station 95.5 KLOS. "He's like, 'Hey, man, what's up? I'm Taylor, I play with Alanis Morissette. Dude, I love your record, it's so cool!' He was such a spaz. I was like, 'Wow, you're either my twin or my spirit animal, or my best friend!' In the first 10 seconds of meeting him. And, of course, I'd seen him play the drums, and I thought he was an amazing drummer."

Hawkins didn't join the Foo Fighters for another two years, but the "Ironic" songstress could already see the writing on the wall. "We would bump into each other backstage at festivals all over the world, and our chemistry was so obvious that even Alanis herself once asked him, 'What are you going to do when Dave asks you to be his drummer?'" Grohl wrote in his autobiography.

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1997

Hawkins officially joined Foo Fighters while the band was finishing its debut album, The Colour and the Shape. The release was nominated for Best Rock Album at the Grammys in 1998.

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February 2001

The band took home their first two Grammys, winning Best Rock Album for There Is Nothing Left to Lose and Best Short Form Music Video for "Learn to Fly."

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August 2001

After a heroin overdose, Hawkins fell into a coma for two weeks. The incident greatly affected Grohl, who once again considered leaving behind his career as a musician. "When Taylor wound up in the hospital, I was ready to quit music," he told The Guardian in 2011. "Because, to me, it felt like music equaled death. I started praying. I've never been to church in my life, and I'm walking back from Taylor's hospital to our hotel every night, praying out loud in the streets of London."

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2002

Hawkins considered quitting Foo Fighters after recovering from his overdose. “I told Dave, ‘I’m outta here. I’ll sell my house, maybe I could get my job back with Alanis, or deliver pizza or sell weed,'" he recalled to Louder in 2019. He ultimately stayed with the group to finish One by One, which spawned two of the band's biggest hits. “That’s when I felt it had finally cemented in a band, at least for me," Hawkins added.

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2005

Grohl attended his bandmate's wedding to Alison Hawkins. In an interview published before the nuptials, the Sonic Highways director joked that the employees at the Dolce & Gabbana store initially didn't know he was there to shop because he had run an errand beforehand. "I'm holding this paper bag filled with three pounds of coffee, and I'm standing there waiting to pay for the suit and the security guy comes up and says, 'Who is this for? Who is this for?' He thought I was a delivery man," Grohl told Q magazine.

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October 2014

Grohl praised Taylor's drumming in an interview with 60 Minutes, saying that he doesn't mind giving up the sticks when someone so skilled is behind the kit. "When you have a drummer like Taylor Hawkins in your band, I don't necessarily miss being the drummer, because I have the greatest drummer in the world," he told Anderson Cooper. "But I do miss my head in the middle of all that noise."  

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November 2019

Taylor joked that he knew his place in Foo Fighters after nearly 25 years of playing with the group. “It’s Dave’s band. He’s in charge," he told Louder. "I don’t know how to boss Dave Grohl around. He only knows how to boss me around. He comes in, says ‘What have you got?’ Then he does what he does, I take it and say ‘Thank you.’”

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October 2021

The Foo Fighters were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility. At the induction ceremony, they were joined on stage by Paul McCartney. That same month, Grohl gushed about his friendship with Hawkins in his book, The Storyteller. "We are absolutely meant to be, and I am grateful that we found each other in this lifetime," he wrote of his bandmate.

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March 2022

Foo Fighters gave their final performance with Hawkins at Lollapalooza Argentina.