Taylor Hawkins Expressed Discomfort About Foo Fighters’ Tour Schedule Before He Died, Friends Claim

The late Taylor Hawkins’ friends were interviewed for a new Rolling Stone article that outlines the Foo Fighters drummer’s final days. It includes interviews with Hawkins’ friends and colleagues, who claim he expressed discomfort about the physically demanding nature of the band’s months-long tour schedule. Among those interviewed were Pearl Jam’s Matt Cameron and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith, who both claimed that Hawkins said he’d spoken with Dave Grohl about his discomfort with the tour schedule in the months before he died in March.

“He had a heart-to-heart with Dave and, yeah, he told me that he ‘couldn’t fucking do it anymore’—those were his words,” Cameron said. “So I guess they did come to some understanding, but it just seems like the touring schedule got even crazier after that.” A Foo Fighters representative told Rolling Stone that Hawkins never raised those issues: “No, there was never a ‘heart-to-heart’—or any sort of meeting on this topic—with Dave and [Silva Artist Management].”

The report also includes claims of a December 2021 incident when Hawkins is said to have lost consciousness on a plane in Chicago. (Responding to Rolling Stone, Foo Fighters’ representative denied that the drummer lost consciousness on the plane.) “He just said he was exhausted and collapsed, and they had to pump him full of IVs and stuff,” Smith said. “He was dehydrated and all kinds of stuff.” Smith claimed that Hawkins later told him, “I can’t do it like this anymore.” 

Smith continued: “That was one of the straws that broke the camel’s back. After that, he had a real important heart-to-heart with Dave and the management. He said, ‘I can’t continue on this schedule, and so we’ve got to figure out something.’” 

Read the article, titled “Inside Taylor Hawkins’ Final Days as a Foo Fighter,” at Rolling Stone. Pitchfork has reached out to Foo Fighters’ representatives.

Hawkins died in March, at 50 years old, while on tour with Foo Fighters in Bogotá, Colombia ahead of a scheduled performance at Festival Estéreo Picnic. Officials in Colombia claimed that 10 different substances were found in his system upon his death and that an ambulance was initially sent due to a report of chest pains. An official cause of death has not been released. The drummer’s last show with the band took place on March 20 at Lollapalooza Argentina in Buenos Aires.

After his death, Foo Fighters called off all of their scheduled tour dates. Soon after, Hawkins and the band won Grammy Awards for Best Rock Album, Best Rock Song, and Best Rock Performance.

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