Dave Grohl says ‘world is not the same’ since death of Foo Fighters bandmate
By Carla Feric, Press Association Entertainment Reporter
Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl has said the “world is not the same” as he remembered late drummer Taylor Hawkins as an “incredible human being”, following his death aged 50.
Hawkins, who had played in the American rock band for more than two decades, died suddenly in 2022 while the group were on the South American leg of their world tour.
Grohl, 57, has said continuing on as a band after his death was “really complicated” and that they “talk about him every day”, as he spoke to host Zane Lowe on his Apple Music show.
He said: “We had Taylor Hawkins as our drummer for 25 years and, beyond being an amazing drummer, he was this incredible spirit.
“He was this incredible human being and he was our brother. He was our best friend. So continuing on after Taylor was really complicated, not just for us, but for any drummer that was going to come in to like, you know, fill his shoes.”
Grohl went on to say that the interview was taking place on what would have been Hawkins’ 54th birthday.
He continued: “We wake up in the morning and everybody just texts about how much we miss him and how the world’s not the same without him, but we still feel him very much.
“We always talk about him every f****** day. In everything we do we want to have that energy – we want to have that energy for Taylor.”
The Foo Fighters were formed in 1994 and comprised of Grohl, Nate Mendel, Pat Smear, Chris Shiflett and Rami Jaffee.
The group was joined by American drummer Ilan Rubin in 2025 in Hawkins’ absence.
The band has been active for over three decades, and their latest album Your Favourite Toy is due to be released in April.
Grohl said: “I got to this place where I was like, so what’s the intention? What’s the ambition? Like what are we? It’s our 12th record.
“We’ve been a band for 30 years and as people, we’re evolving and we’re growing. Where do we go from here? What do we do?”
He said the group wanted to make new music which would “make us jump around and smile and scream”.
He added: “For the last year and a half I was spending a lot of time in my studio just writing and experimenting and demoing things and I’d come up with maybe like 30 or 40 different ideas.
“One night I was listening to all of these ideas and just randomly there were these 10 songs in a row in my playlist that were all just like noisy, loud bangers. Up-tempo, like back to the old days.
“I was like, ‘wait a minute, maybe this is the record’.”
The Foo Fighters, known for popular singles such as Everlong and Best Of You, have won 15 Grammy Awards and had six number one albums in the UK.
The full interview with Grohl can be heard on Apple Music.
