Taylor Hawkins

To anyone who knows my often dubious taste in music, and my love in particular for American rock bands, it probably makes no sense that the Foo Fighters represent a very small part of my collection. In fact, I have one of their albums and it’s been so long since I played it, I don’t know which one it is. That they don’t cut it for me is my problem, not theirs, because apart from the actual music I love everything about them.

I’ve adored Dave Grohl as the drummer in Nirvana and Them Crooked Vultures and as an all round lovely bloke who does lovely things. The only other member of the band I know is the phenomenal drummer Taylor Hawkins, whose death has been announced.

Hawkins came across as a lovely bloke, too, which seems to be a requirement of being in the band, and whilst I am no drumming expert, those who are experts rate him as one of the greats.

That he has died at the age of 50 is beyond tragic. 50 is no age these days, certainly not for a charismatic musician at the peak of his powers.

My social media pages and timelines have in recent times become an echo chamber, due to the sheer level of on-line hate and negativity, some by people who should know better but most who don’t. So I am not interested in idle speculation as to his passing. This is not the time, maybe there is never a time. And above all, his family and friends need time to process this sad event.

There will be thousands of people, maybe millions, who will be devastated by this news and despite the fact the hardly any of them will have known Hawkins it is understandable and right. That’s how the music and the musicians who play it affect us. I recall how shattered I was when I woke to the news that John Lennon had died, when I woke to the news that the Beach Boys’ Carl Wilson had died, when I woke to the news that Steely Dan’s Walter Becker had died. In some way, I never got over their deaths, each bringing to the end the great bands they founded.

It is too early to speculate how the Foos might carry on. This is the start of the grief process. This is one of the great tragedies in rock music history. And all we can do is wish that Taylor rests in peace.