A new report by Rolling Stone, titled “Inside Taylor Hawkins’s Final Days as a Foo Fighter,” makes the disturbing claim that the legendary drummer was on the brink of exhaustion from playing physically taxing, nearly three-hour shows.
It also alleges that at the time of his death, Hawkins was considering scaling back his Foos duties, or even quitting the band entirely.
“Honestly, I think he was just so tired. Tired of the whole game,” blues singer Sass Jordan, for whom Hawkins drummed in the ‘90s, told Rolling Stone.
Jordan also recalled Hawkins venting to her, “Oh, my f***ing God. I can’t look at the goddamn tour schedule. It gives me anxiety.”
At that time, there were 62 dates on the Foo Fighters’ calendar for 2022, throughout North America, South America, Europe, and Australia.
Rolling Stone conducted more than 20 interviews with Hawkins’s friends and colleagues, among them Jordan, Pearl Jam drummer Matt Cameron, and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith.
Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl and the other surviving Foos declined to be interviewed for the piece; their publicist and management denied the allegations to the magazine’s four reporters, and have not yet responded to media requests for comment.
“There’s only a handful of guys in our profession that still play this intense, high-energy ‘90s rock music,” Cameron explained to Rolling Stone.
Hawkins allegedly “had a heart-to-heart with Grohl” and, told Cameron that he “couldn’t f***ing do it anymore”.
The drummer’s final concert with the Foo Fighters was at Lollapalooza Argentina on March 20, 2022.
Five days later, Hawkins was found dead in his Bogotá hotel room before the band was set to headline the Estéreo Picnic Festival.
Since the Rolling Stone report came out, however, several of the musicians interviewed have claimed that their comments had been taken out of context.
