(Credits: Spotify)
Mon 9 June 2025 18:30, UK
I don’t know if you’ve heard, right, but Dave Grohl — pretty good drummer! It’s true. At this point, the man has been up front on guitar and vocals for Foo Fighters quite a bit longer than he hasn’t, but it’s clear that his biggest love will always be the sticks and skins. After all, it’s still probably what he does best, but not only that, it’s still probably what he does better than the vast, vast majority of rock drummers who came before and after him. Because Grohl isn’t a pretty good drummer.
The man’s generational, and was from the moment he started tooling around the DC hardcore scene in cult punk band Scream. Even Kurt Cobain himself, a man not given to complimenting the work of other musicians, much less his fellow Nirvana bandmates, admitted that Grohl’s incredible drumming made them a better band as a whole. So, when that band came to a tragic end and Grohl struck out on his own, at the very least, you could count on the drumming of his next project being absurdly good.
Which it absolutely was. The early Foo Fighters records are genuine, bona fide one-man-band projects. Grohl is on guitar, bass, drums, vocals and anything else the song needs. Early on in the project, though, the man had to make a decision: was he going to chance his arm on being a singing drummer, or front the band proper and take up guitar instead? Eventually, of course, he decided to sling on an axe.
This was very much Grohl stepping away from his comfort zone. Unfortunately, that drum-stool-shaped comfort zone was now vacant and deeply uncomfortable for literally any other drummer in rock. The Foo Fighters’ first drummer, Sunny Day Real Estate sticksman William Goldsmith, found this out the hard way and was sent packing shortly after Grohl re-recorded all of his drumlines for their second album The Colour and the Shape.
How did Taylor Hawkins join Foo Fighters?
With their album ready to roll, the band were in desperate need of a drummer to tour it. Grohl called Taylor Hawkins, an acquaintance of his who’d scored a premium gig drumming for Alanis Morissette. Grohl was unsure whether he’d leave such a prime gig, but Hawkins jumped at the chance, saying that he’d always wanted to be a member of a rock band, rather than just the session drummer for a solo act.
Spare a thought for poor William Goldsmith here, who was offered the chance to stay on as a session drummer for the Foos and play live with them, but not in the studio. Then Hawkins was immediately offered full membership in the band once Goldsmith was kicked out. Goldsmith is a really, really good drummer, you guys, Grohl and Hawkins are just a cut above most people who’ve ever picked up the sticks.
Hawkins would find this out himself the moment he started playing for the Foo Fighters as well. Drumlines up to a Dave Grohl standard are rarely simple, and if you want to stay in the Foos, they’ve always got to be up to his standard. A 2006 interview Hawkins conducted with Modern Drummer shows this perfectly. Nearly a decade after he joined the band, there were still numbers a beast like Hawkins found tough.
When asked what the most demanding Foo Fighters songs are to play out, Hawkins responds,”‘In Your Honor’ is a demanding song. ‘Everlong’ is really demanding too, with all the fast 16ths on the hi-hat. I’d say all of the songs are demanding to a certain degree. I want the feel to be right on all of them.” He spends a lot of the interview talking about how precise Grohl is with his drum tracks and going through them beat by beat as well.
Yet, despite his generational drumming ability, the reason that Hawkins’ passing in 2022 was such a horrific gut punch had nothing to do with his musicianship. His golden personality was what marked him out as special to so many people. Grohl has talked about how, yes, drumming in the Foos is a tough gig, but there are thousands of drummers who could do it. What made Taylor Hawkins irreplaceable was his heart and soul.
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