Taylor Hawkins, 50, complained of chest pains and despite paramedics’ attempts to revive him, he was pronounced dead in his hotel room. Fans gathered on March 25th which also marked the date of the Estereo Picnic Festival in Colombia, where Hawkins was to have performed. Onstage, candles flickered in his memory where the festival headliners the Foo Fighters should have been. The Foo Fighters are a rock and roll hall of fame sextet featuring Hawkins as the drummer.
He was the drummer for 25 years for the band fronted by Dave Grohl, formerly of Nirvana. Officials have not yet released a cause of death, however, there were 10 different substances found in his system in a preliminary urine toxicology test. They included THC, antidepressants, benzodiazepines, and opioids according to the attorney general’s office in Colombia.
Hawkins had recently told Rolling Stone that he was in amazing shape, according to his doctor.
In 2001, his heroin overdose landed him in a coma for two weeks. He declined to comment on his sobriety in that recent Rolling Stone interview, instead stating that he led a really healthy lifestyle. He was married to his wife Allison and had three kids, Oliver, Annabelle, and Everleigh.
He was quoted as saying, “Hopefully this (playing for Foo Fighters) will continue for the rest of my life. But then again if I die onstage, that’ll be fine too. Like dying of a heart attack on drums. It would be kind of poetic, I suppose”.
