Taylor Hawkins, for 25 years the drummer for Foo Fighters and best friend of frontman Dave Grohl, has died during a South American tour with the rock band. He was 50.
There were no immediate details on how Hawkins died, although the band said in a statement Friday that his death was a “tragic and untimely loss.”
Foo Fighters, who were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame last year, had been scheduled to play at a festival in Bogota, Colombia, on Friday night. Hawkins’ final concert was Sunday at another festival in San Isidro, Argentina.
“His musical spirit and infectious laughter will live on with all of us forever,” said a message on the band’s official Twitter account that was also emailed to reporters. “Our hearts go out to his wife, children and family.”
Police vehicles, an ambulance and fans were gathered outside the hotel in northern Bogota where Hawkins was believed to have been staying.
“It was a band I grew up with. This leaves me empty,” Juan Sebastian Anchique, 23, told The Associated Press as he mourned Hawkins outside the hotel.
Local health officials said Saturday that Bogota’s emergency regulatory center had received a report of a patient with chest pain Friday night. Health officials responding to the scene performed the respective resuscitation maneuvers, but they were unsuccessful and the patient died.
“The District Department of Health mourns the death of this talented musician and drummer, widely recognized internationally for his work,” the Bogota District Health Secretariat said in a statement. “In addition, the entity sends its message of condolences to the family, colleagues and followers.”
The U.S. Embassy in Bogota expressed its condolences in a tweet.
After Grohl, Hawkins was the most recognizable member of the group, appearing alongside the lead singer in interviews and playing prominent, usually comic, roles in the band’s memorable videos and their recent horror-comedy film, “Studio 666.”
Hawkins was Alanis Morrissette’s touring drummer when he joined Foo Fighters in 1997. He played on the band’s biggest albums including “One by One” and “On Your Honor,” and on hit singles including “My Hero” and “Best of You.”
In Grohl’s 2021 book “The Storyteller,” he called Hawkins his “brother from another mother, my best friend, a man for whom I would take a bullet.”
“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. “We are absolutely meant to be, and I am grateful that we found each other in this lifetime.”
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. In 2018, Grohl told CBS News that after Cobain’s death: “I went through a really dark period where I couldn’t really even listen to the radio because it broke my heart just to hear music.”
Tributes poured out on social media for Hawkins on Friday night, ranging from Ozzy Osbourne to Miley Cyrus to Smashing Pumpkins.
“God bless you Taylor Hawkins,” Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello said on Twitter along with a…
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