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Oliver Taylor Hawkins, an American musician who lived from February 17, 1972, until March 25, 2022, is most known for being the rock group Foo Fighters drummer, with whom he collaborated on nine studio albums between 1997 and 2021. He was the touring drummer for Sass Jordan, Alanis Morissette, and the progressive experimental band Sylvia before he joined the group in 1997.
Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders, a side project he started in 2004, included Hawkins on drums and singing. Between 2006 and 2019, the group released three studio albums. With Dave Navarro and Chris Chaney from Jane’s Addiction, he founded the supergroup NHC in 2020, where he played the drums and sang lead.
As a member of the Foo Fighters, Hawkins was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2021. He received the 2005 “Best Rock Drummer” award from the British drumming publication Rhythm. On March 25, 2022, he passed away in Bogotá, Colombia, at 50.
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Taylor Hawkins’s Early Life
Taylor Hawkins was born in Laguna Beach, California, and grew up there. Hawkins has two siblings. Their names are Jason and Heather. After finishing Thurston Jr. High, he went to Laguna Beach High School the following year. He worked as a drummer for Sass Jordan after leaving the Orange County band Sylvia (later known as ANYONE). He went to become Alanis Morissette’s drummer.
What Is Taylor Hawkins’s Personal Life?
Hawkins got married to his wife, Alison, in 2005. They have three kids together. After moving out of Topanga Canyon in 2012, they lived in Hidden Hills, California.
In August 2001, Hawkins took too much heroin, which put him in a coma for two weeks. He stayed with Dave Grohl, who plays in Hawkins’ band and is also his best friend, for two weeks until he woke up. Grohl said that while Hawkins was in the hospital, he was ready to quit music. In the 2011 documentary Foo Fighters: Back and Forth, he also said he wrote the song “On the Mend” from the band’s 2005 album In Your Honor about Hawkins while in a coma. In 2018, Hawkins told Beats 1 host Matt Wilkinson about the incident: “I went out to parties a lot. I wasn’t a drug addict, but I did like to party. There was one year when everyone was having too much fun. Thank God, on some level, this guy gave me the wrong line with the wrong thing one night, and when I woke up, I was like, “What the fuck happened?” That was a significant turning point in my life. Hawkins also said that he was sober in the same interview.
Hawkins was afraid of being on stage. In a June 2021 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Hawkins talked about his health “I feel good. I’m good… I get terrible sinus infections. And I just learned from my doctor that I’m in great shape. He did all the tests on my blood and heart and said, “Man, you’re in great shape.” Because you work out a lot, your heart is big. It feels like the heart of a runner.’ And that’s all right. He said the only thing was that he thought I had sleep apnea. And my wife always tells me that I snore and make weird noises while sleeping.
In his 2021 book, The Storyteller, Hawkins called him “my brother from another mother, my best friend, and a man for whom I would take a bullet.”
How Does Taylor Hawkins Progress In His Career?
Hawkins began making music when he was very young. Grohl played the drums for the band Nirvana, led by Kurt Cobain. After Kurt Cobain’s tragic death in 1993, Dave Grohl quickly started Foo Fighters, his band.
At first, there were three people in the band: William Goldsmith on drums, Nate Mendel on bass, and Pat Smear on guitar. But in 1997, Goldsmith quit the bar on his own, and Hawkins was hired to take his place.
Hawkins first played with Foo Fighters on their third album, There Is Nothing Left to Lose, which came out in 1999. The band made the record in the basement of a house in Virginia.
Grohl said that Hawkins was his soul brother because they both loved heavy, old-school rock music. His excellent mood kept the group together when things were hard.
Hawkins and Grohl’s close friendship gave Foo Fighters’ live shows a lot of energy. Hawkins said in an interview that the drums and guitars would fight even during live shows, with Grohl almost playing the drums on his guitar.
How Did Taylor Hawkins Die?
An overdose may have caused Hawkins’ death. The most recent information says that ten different kinds of drugs were found in his body after a forensic investigation.
After his untimely death at the luxury hotel, forensic experts found that Hawkins’ heart was about 600 grams heavier than the hearts of men his age. Investigators confirmed that the 50-year-old’s heart stopped working after he took too much of his mix of psychotic drugs.
The report says that the drummer’s urine traces ten other drugs, like heroin, antidepressants, morphine, and medicines that make you feel high. The terrible thing happened just hours before the Foo Fighters played at the Festival Estereo Picnic in the national city.
Hawkins’ health problems were first brought to light last Friday night. Just hours before performing at the Estereo Picnic Festival in the Colombian city, he said he had suddenly had chest pain. After this, his condition worsened, and the doctors and city emergency workers couldn’t bring him back to life.
What Are The 10 Substances Taylor Hawkins Had In His System Before His Death?
Taylor Hawkins died on March 25, 2022, in South America, where he was on tour. On a Friday, when the Foo Fighters were going to play a concert in Bogota, Colombia, the news came out that he had died. One news source said that emergency workers were sent to the hotel where Hawkins was staying to try to bring him back to life, but they were unable to do so.
The concert was cancelled as soon as people discovered he had died. According to the first toxicology report from Colombia, when Hawkins died, ten different substances were found in his body. Some of them were THC, tricyclic antidepressants, opioids, and benzodiazepines. Later, people said that he died because he had taken too much heroin and antidepressants and went into cardiac arrest.
How Old Was Taylor Hawkins When He Died?
At the age of 50, Hawkins died suddenly at the five-star hotel in Bogota, Colombia, where he was staying in preparation for a performance at a music festival that was scheduled for the weekend.
