Dave Grohl Calls Meeting Taylor Hawkins ‘Love At First Sight’

Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins was only 50 years old when he passed away suddenly.

The band announced the news on Twitter, saying, “The Foo Fighters family Is devastated by the tragic and untimely loss of our beloved Taylor Hawkins,” the band wrote in a brief statement. “His musical spirit and infectious laughter will live on with all of us forever. Our hearts go out to his wife, children and family, and we ask that their privacy be treated with the utmost respect in this unimaginably difficult time.”

This loss hits especially hard for frontman Dave Grohl, who was had previously been the drummer for Nirvana when Kurt Cobain died in 1994.

In his 2021 book, “The Storyteller,” Grohl 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.”

“I am not afraid to say that our chance meeting was a kind of love at first sight, igniting a musical ‘twin flame’ that still burns to this day," Grohl continued. “Together, we have become an unstoppable duo, onstage and off, in pursuit of any and all adventure we can find.”

In a segment for 60 Minutes, Grohl recalled the first time he had met Hawkins. Before joining up with the Foo Fighters, Hawkins had served as the drummer for Alanis Morrissette’s “Jagged Little Pill” and “Can’t Not Tour.” Hawkins joined the rock band for their third studio album, 1999’s “Nothing Left To Lose” and stayed with the band until his death.

“Oh my god. The first time we met, we were at some radio show backstage, and he came up with a beer in his hand,” Grohl recalled. “He’s like, ‘Hey, man, what’s up? I’m Taylor, I play with Alanis Morissette. Dude, I love your record, it’s so cool!’ He was such a spaz.”

“I was like, ‘Wow, you’re either my twin or my spirit animal, or my best friend!’” he joked. “In the first 10 seconds of meeting him. And, of course, I’d seen him play the drums, and I thought he was an amazing drummer.”

Although they became fast friends, Grohl never imagined that Hawkins would eventually join the Foo Fighters.

“When it was time to look for a drummer I wish that he would do it but I didn’t imagine he would leave Alanis Morissette because at the time she was the biggest artist in the world,” he recalled. “So when I call him and said, ‘Hey, I’m looking for a drummer’ he said, ‘You know I’m your guy.’”

“And I think it had more to do with our personal relationship than anything musical,” Grohl ventured. “And, to be honest, it still does. Our musical relationship, the foundation of that is our friendship, and that’s why when we jump up on stage and play, we’re so connected because we’re like best friends and it’s great.”

Fans have been combing through Dave Grohl’s 2021 book to try to find any passages relating to Hawkins as they try to make sense of his untimely death.

“Tearing through the room like an F5 tornado of hyperactive joy was Taylor Hawkins, my brother from another mother, my best friend, a man for whom I would take a bullet,” Grohl wrote. “Upon first meeting, our bond was immediate, and we grew closer with every day, every song, every note that we ever played together.”

“I am not afraid to say that our chance meeting was a kind of love at first sight, igniting a musical ‘twin flame’ that still burns to this day,” he continued. “Together, we have become an unstoppable duo, onstage and off, in pursuit of any and all adventure we can find. We are absolutely meant to be, and I am grateful that we found each other in this lifetime.”