Colombian authorities have released a preliminary report following the death of Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins in a Bogotá hotel room. They were on tour in South America. They played a festival in San Isidro, Argentina, on Sunday and had been scheduled to play at another in Bogotá, Colombia, on Friday night.
Police vehicles, an ambulance and fans were gathered outside the hotel in northern Bogota where Hawkins was believed to have been staying.
There were no immediate details about how Hawkins died, though the band said in a statement on Saturday that his death was a “tragic and untimely loss”.
The drummer passed away in the middle of a tour, and the fans were informed of the news via Twitter and concert screens. No cause of death is revealed and forthcoming performances have been cancelled for now.
Since his death was announced, those who knew Hawkins have shared tributes to him and offered their condolences to his family and bandmates.
Who was Taylor Hawkins?
Born Oliver Taylor Hawkins in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1972, Hawkins was raised in Laguna Beach, California.
He played in the small Southern California band Sylvia before landing his first major gig as a drummer for Canadian singer Sass Jordan. He then spent the mid-1990s as the touring drummer for Alanis Morissette before Grohl asked him to join the Foo Fighters.
How did Foo Fighters admit him?
Hawkins was the Foo Fighters’ drummer for 25 of the band’s 28 years, taking over from original drummer William Goldsmith in 1997.
But when William Goldsmith departed the band around the completion of the second album, The Colour and The Shape, that’s exactly the position that Taylor Hawkins found himself in. He forged a friendship with Dave Grohl via coinciding festival performances, the two drummers hitting it off musically
Hawkins once described Grohl’s leadership (with clear respect) as a ‘benign dictatorship’, adding that he had learned to keep his mouth shut until Dave was looking for input.
But as time went on, it’s clear that Hawkins stretched out into the role, helping to move Foo Fighters’ music – at least from a drumming perspective – away from the post-grunge and alt-rock beats of the 90s into a fusion of progressive timings and stadium clarity while maintaining the timeless position of a live drummer in a rock band.
He may have joined Foo Fighters as the drummer, but he was a songwriter, stadium-level vocalist (as proved many times), and alongside Dave Grohl, the second strongest personality in
Foo Fighters. It’s the second time Grohl has experienced the death of a close bandmate. Grohl was the drummer for Nirvana when Kurt Cobain died in 1994.
Hawkins is survived by his wife, Alison, and their three children Oliver, Annabella and Everleigh.
What is his cause of death?
The report said that ten psychoactive substances and medicines were detected in Hawkins’s system “including THC (marijuana), tricyclic antidepressants, benzodiazepines and opioids”.
Earlier, the Bogota Government issued a statement saying the city’s emergency centre received a report of a patient with “chest pain” and it sent an ambulance but a private ambulance had already arrived at the hotel in northern Bogota.
Health workers tried to revive Hawkins but were unable to do so. It has led to speculation that he may have died of a heart attack.
Published By :- Tarsem Singh
Edited By :- Khushi Thakur
