Hey, it's Alan and I just wanted to let you know that you can now listen to the Ongoing History of New Music early and add free on Amazon Music, included with Prime. We get brand new episodes two days early and special bonus episodes. It's Ongoing History Unlimited and it's available right now only on Apple Podcasts. Back in 2014, I was invited to the Foo Fighters headquarters. This is 606 Studios, the band's Hangout and Nerve Center in Van Nys, California.
I was there to talk about the new album and TV series Sonic Highways. I got there early before anybody else from the band arrived. And the first to roll up was Taylor Hawkins. He was driving the same beat up 1986 Toyota 4x4 pickup truck that he bought for $400 when he was in high school. Oh sure he could have taken his other vehicle which was a 2005 Subaru Baja. Not a very rock star ride. I said to him when he got out. Taylor smiled. Of course he smiled. And said, hey, he gets the job done.
Taylor was never much for the trappings of rock stardom. Here's a quote. If you want to play music, play because you want to play music, not because you want to be rich and famous. We went inside where I noticed a poster on the wall for an obscure solo album by Queen drummer Roger Taylor. It was a 1981 release entitled Fun in Space. What was that doing here?
That's when Taylor came alive. That's Roger Taylor. Man, he's my favorite drummer ever. Queen was my first concert and I've always been a fan. I mean, just the way he plays. And that's how the conversation went until everyone else arrived and we had to start the interview. But during those 15 or 20 minutes, Taylor made me feel at home. A welcome guest in this sacred and very private food fighter space.
And I forgot I was talking to the drummer of one of the biggest bands in the planet. He was just this goofy, fun, surfer dude who wanted to talk about the music he loved. I think he even went out and made me an espresso. That's what I thought of when I heard the Taylor had died. He wasn't just the foos drummer and a beloved member of the band. He was a nice, normal guy who wanted to do nothing more than be a dad and play rock and roll. Let's spend some time remembering Taylor Hawkins.
This is the ongoing history of new music podcast with Alentross. This is from March 20th, 2022. The food fighters at La La Paloza and Buenos Aires. That's Taylor Hawkins last performance. That's Taylor Hawkins stepping out from behind the drum kit as he often did to sing something for the food fighters. And in this case, as he did many times, he dared to tackle Freddie Mercury. Really, really bold. Queen was his all time favorite band.
Hello again, I'm Alentross and I really wish I didn't have to do this show, but here we are. Once again, one of our favorite musicians has been taken away from us far too soon. Now, I can hear some people saying, why are you talking about a guy who worked for Dave Grohl? Well, if that's you, then you're just not a food fighter's fan. You haven't been keeping up. So let me help you get caught up and explain why we're doing this.
The food fighters are obviously one of the biggest rock bands on the planet. And yes, this is Dave Grohl's band. Yes, he is the chief songwriter. Yes, he's the guy out front. But this group is what they are because of the personalities of the other people in the band. And next to Dave, Taylor was, I dare say, the most important, a fan favorite, beloved by fans.
In a group led by a member of one of the most famous bands of the rock and roll era, Taylor could and was allowed to steal the show from the frontman. And everybody was totally okay with that. Let's go through a list. First, Taylor was a great drummer. The food fighters would not sound like they do with someone else keeping time. Dave, no, so of course, was a hard hitter in the tradition of Led Zeppelin's John Bonham.
Taylor could play just as hard, but his style brought in a few prog rock influences, something that gave the foos something extra. Second, Taylor was Dave's best friend in the whole world. They were brothers from another mother. Dave has said that he'd take a bullet for Taylor. They did everything together. Taylor helped keep Dave grounded and vice versa. And if Dave is in a good place because of Taylor, well, then everything to do with Dave and the food fighters is just fine.
Third, everybody respected Taylor. When he died, tributes came in from everyone from Ozzy Osborne to Stevie Nicks, to Travis Barker, to Tom Morello to Liam Gallagher. And fourth, everyone just liked him. He had this image, which I can tell you from personal experience, was very accurate. He was this fun, goofy, surfer dude looking puppy dog of a person who was always. And I mean always smiling, his enthusiasm was infectious, and he knew he'd won the lottery by landing a job in the food fighters.
I quote, if you get lucky like me, you may make a really good living, and that is luck and hard work. And all the hard work in the world does not mean it's necessarily going to happen either. In other words, he wasn't just some guy keeping time for some rock band. He was pretty special. He had a great life and a great career. And we need to remember that.
Here's another vocal performance from Taylor. In 1999, while the foods were working on the, there is nothing left to lose album, they took some time to indulge in their love of classic rock by recording a cover of Pink Floyd's Have a Sagar from 1975. Taylor sings lead, and some of the guitar is provided by Brian May of course. I just knocked out, and I felt the sound. You gotta get it out of my mouth, you want it to be. So how we go, we go.
Food fighters, covering Pink Floyd with Taylor Hawkins singing. Let's go through Taylor's life. He's a Texas boy born in Fort Worth on February 17, 1972. His family moved to California when he was about four. In 1982, when he was 10, he attended his first concerts, and that was Queen. And that was it for Taylor. I quote, after that concert, I didn't think I slept for three days. It changed everything.
And I was never the same because of it. It was the beginning of my obsession with rock and roll, and I knew I wanted to be in a huge rock band. That was the year he also started playing drums, and he always gave credit to his mom for encouraging him to dream big. His first group was in Orange County, a fit called Sylvia. And here he is along with the rest of the group, talking about his early days.
You know, there wasn't really much of a scene of any sort where I lived. Everybody played reggae music. Which was where? Orange County, the Good and Beach, California. And everybody liked reggae. So hard rock was really frowned upon. You were a hesher. You were from the valley. You're not cool. You aren't a surfer. Surfer. It's so weird. It is what it is. So my punk rock became Rush and Queen and stuff, because I had to hide those records from my brother and his friends.
If he didn't listen to level 42, he'd get his ass kicked. It's not level 42. It's like 80s new wave and stuff. Which actually I love all that stuff. And I liked all that. But I also liked Rush and Queen and stuff, because I didn't want to be the guy on the poster. I did. So I mean, there wasn't really much. So my bands were not really have, I had bands kind of. But there were more bands that just played in garages that rarely ever played.
I played in a cover band for a while, sort of. That's when I realized you could actually make money playing music. I got played a wedding and we didn't get paid. And my mom went down to the people. The guy that worked. Where are the guys who worked in the... Where did they go? I got them. I got them money. Amazing. Yeah, my mom got her money for us. But that was the first time I got paid to play music. I got them in the room. So I figured at best, you know.
And LA was kind of close, you know. But it seemed so far away, you know. And it wasn't until when I got in high school, I heard Jane's addiction. And it was funny, because up until then, all I was listening to was music from five or ten years before. Queen and police and whatever, all that sort of classic rock and early new wave stuff or whatever.
And then when I heard Jane's addiction, because I was really... It was all warrant and all that kind of crap, you know, like whatever they call hair metal now. Which was just like, blah, blah music, you know. And then I heard Jane's addiction and it was like, dude, I could play. Like, dudes in the poster. But they were a mess and they were disgusting and they were awesome and they were scary. And I just became a complete, like, disciple of them. Same story.
I mean, it's just that Jane's is your punk rock. Yeah, I guess so. I guess they... Yeah, I mean, I went to John Hansen for theater. They did seven nights up here in LA and I was just like, a... Perry Farrell came out on stage with green dreadlocks and a woman's hat on and he told the first guy in the front row to s**t. The second he came out on stage, I was like, these guys were crazy. They're the best at that time for me.
Eventually, he got a gig in the backup band for Canadian singer Sass Jordan. Let's let Taylor tell that story. Hey! I got a friend here tonight. Let's tell you a quick story, okay? Back in 1994, I was looking at this music store and I met this guy and he said, hey, you know, you're working at a music store. That's... That's what you want to do with your life. And I said, no, I want to be a big rock band. So he said, well, I know this cool, cool chick and she's going on tours.
She's going to Europe to open up her aerospace med and she's a Canadian. She said, he said, what name is Sass Jordan? I don't know, does anybody know what that is here? I think you do. Okay, well, this woman... Some gif s**t like me, 22-year-old who didn't know s**t, a green horn on the road, top of behind me being a rock and roll band. She gave me my first rock and roll check and check, not check, check. And tonight I get to play with her again. I play with her a long time.
Can you guys say hello, Sass Jordan? Say hi, Sass Jordan right now! This is the third eye thing, man. Let me tell you, Sass. Yes, Dave. I'll roll its lead to the food Friday. So if the word for Sass Jordan, Taylor Rockets want to be in the mood right now! Damn true. So everybody say, thanks Sass! Stand out of thanks Sass! That Sass Jordan job morphed into a gig with Alannis Morissette after she blew up with her jagged little pill album in 1995.
If you saw her, can't not tour, Taylor was the drummer. He was 23 at the time. He appeared in several videos. And when she made her debut on David Letterman in 1995, Taylor was in the band. We can see him on TV. I'm a man in the band. I'm a man in the band. I'm a man in the band. I'm a man in the band. I'm a man in the band. During the time Taylor was Alannis Morissette's drummer, he kept crossing paths with the food fighters who were playing the same summer festivals.
And they'd hook up backstage. He and Dave connected immediately. It got to the point where Alannis asked, when are you just going to quit and join the food fighters? Which is exactly what happened. It turned out that Dave wasn't happy with his drummer William Goldsmith. Things had not gone well during the recording sessions for the second food's album, The Color in the Shape. Dave even went in and re-recorded all of Goldsmith's parts.
You can imagine how well that went over. So a change was needed. Dave called up Taylor and said, hey, you know of anyone who I could hire to be the drummer for the food fighters? And Taylor replied, yeah, me. Oh sure, Alannis is bigger than the food fighters right now, but I want to be in a real band. I don't want to be in a group backing up a solo artist. So on March 18, 1997, it was announced that Taylor was officially a food fighter. Now, let's think about that for a second.
Taylor jumped ship from playing for the biggest act in the world at the time. To what was, let's be honest, an up-and-coming rock band featuring the drummer from Nirvana. Okay, no pressure, but by this time, Taylor and Dave had become such good friends that had just worked. Taylor also brought in a style that was different for the food fighters. It's subtle, but if you take a critical listen, you can tell that Taylor was brought up on a certain type of Prague rock.
His heroes were Neil Pirate of Rush, Stuart Copeland of the police, and Phil Collins when he was with Genesis. Other influences include Stephen Perkins of Jane's Diction, Great Drummer, Ringo Star, and of course Roger Taylor of Queen. Taylor's first album as a food was, there is nothing left to lose, which was released on November 2, 1999. There are 11 songs on the album, and Taylor is a co-writer of all of them.
When David Letterman returned to TV after heart surgery, the band he wanted on that first show back on February 21, 2000 was the food fighters. A good example of the kind of game Taylor Hawkins brought to the food fighters. Back with more of his story in just a sec. Just to show you how special a place Taylor Hawkins had within the food fighters, he is the only guy other than Dave Grohl to sing lead on a food song.
We already heard him rip through the food cover of Have a Sagar, but there were more examples in the years to come. Here's one from the In Your Honor album from 2005. The song is Cold Day in the Sun and was eventually released as a single. Okay, so it wasn't a standalone single, it's what's known as a double A side. Two songs released at the same time, both with equal emphasis. Radio stations were encouraged to play both.
In this case, the other song was No Way Back. Cold Day in the Sun features a switch up. It's Taylor on vocals and Dave on drums. And Taylor also wrote the lyrics. Taylor got a couple of other chances to sing lead with the foods. When the band covered I Feel Fine from Cream, it was Taylor Up Front. There was a cover of a Joe Waltz song entitled Life of Illusion. And if you go to the 2017 album Concrete and Gold, there's a song entitled Sunday Rain, featuring a lead vocal from Taylor.
When Dave was off doing other things, Taylor kept busy with a variety of outside projects. The first came in 2006 when he formed a band called Taylor Hawkins and the Co-tail riders. And that name tells you everything about his sense of humor and humbleness. His bandmates included some crack session musicians who could handle everything from jazz to Christian music. There were three Co-tail riders albums. This is a track from the second one, Red Light Fever,
which was recorded at the Foo studio and released in 2010. It's called Way Down. The better one, the better one is time. Over the course of the three Co-tail riders albums, Taylor was joined by his hero, Roger Taylor from Queen. His bandmate Brian May also showed up, so did Nancy Wilson of Heart, Joe Walsh of the Eagles, Chrissy Hinder, the Pretenders, even Country star Leanne Rhymes. And like his boss and friend, Taylor was always willing to help out other bands.
He performed on a co-heating Cambria album and even toured with them a bit. Eric Avery, who played bass in Jane's Edition, recorded a solo album entitled Help Wanted. That's Taylor playing drums. When fellow Foo fighter Chris Schiflett wanted to record a solo album under the name Jackson United, who was playing drums, Taylor Hopkins. He also showed up in records by Slash, Ozzy Osborne, and Elton John.
And get this, he was commissioned to complete an unfinished recording left behind by Beach Boy Dennis Wilson called Holy Man. Wilson drowned in a diving accident back in 1983. Taylor added some music, wrote some new lyrics, sang the song, and he was backed up by Roger Taylor and Brian May. The song appeared as a record star release in 2019. The one you love is everywhere. Here's the way you live, you can fall. That's actually pretty sweet and deserves to be heard more.
Taylor Hopkins, along with Roger Taylor and Brian May have queen finishing up a song written decades ago by Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys. Still more in Taylor coming up. Here are a few more things about Taylor Hopkins we need to talk about. In addition to the Co-tail riders, there was SOS All Stars. This was a one-off drummers group, but together for the live earth show in London in 2007. He was joined by Roger Taylor, of course, and Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
In 2014, he formed a side project called The Birds of Satan, a very prog rock band that introduced itself with a 10-minute epic song entitled The Ballad of The Birds of Satan. That record also featured appearances by Dave, Pat Smirr and Fouze Keyboardist, Rami Jaffy. His most recent project was called NHC. Taylor was the H in those initials, of course. The N was Dave Navarro of James Addiction, and the C comes from Chris Cheney, also of James Addiction.
Taylor said that this band landed somewhere between Rush and the Faces. Here's a sample of them. This is called Feed the Cruel. Does it feel the same? Memories play games? Are you guilty? Pleasure to sleep in the path to be the same? There are traces lost. For the recent early 2022, that's Taylor Hawkins and NHC, his Fouze Fighter side project, with Feed the Cruel. Okay, here's the part when we must talk about how Taylor left us.
The Fouze fighters were touring South America, and were about to perform at the Estarial picnic in Bokatak, Columbia, on Friday, March 25, 2022. An ambulance was called to the four seasons Casamadena that evening. A guest was reported to be having severe chest pains. A private doctor tried to help, but he couldn't do anything. And by the time the EMS crew arrived, Taylor was already gone.
A cache of drugs was found. A preliminary toxicology report said that there were 10 different substances in Taylor's system, ranging from weed and opioids to antidepressants. Now, a lot of those would have been prescription medicines. Let's keep that in mind. The early report also said that Taylor's heart was enlarged. At 600 grams, it was twice the size of a normal heart for a person of his size and age.
And in large heart isn't a disease unto itself. Instead, it's a symptom of some other condition, ranging from high blood pressure to coronary artery disease to thyroid disorders. It might have even been a congenital thing we don't know. And it's usually very treatable. But if it's not treated, it could also lead to heart failure, blood clots, and even sudden cardiac arrest when the heartbeat is fatally disrupted.
Now, it is true that Taylor once did like his drugs. He ingested some heroin at a party in London back in 2001 and landed in a coma for two weeks. Dave Grohl sat with him the entire time. Taylor said that incident scared him straight, but he never did really elaborate on a sobriety. He has, however, spoken out about drug use. Let me leave you with this quote from Taylor. This is from the interview I did with the band at 606 Studios in 2014.
I've seen you guys. I don't know how many times. And there has never been a time where I've looked at you and thought to myself, there are five guys on stage having more fun than anybody should ever be allowed to have. I mean, the joy that comes off the stage from you guys at every single gig. But isn't this great? Isn't this awesome what we get to do for a living? It's unbelievable. It's a pretty good way to live. We get paid tons of money to go play rock and roll.
Was that a bomber? No, it's just break it down. Rock is broken down. That's the simplest, simplest terms. I mean, there's all sorts of little things happening all the time, but basically when you come down to it, yeah, we're really lucky. It's awfully soon to ask this question, but we're all thinking what do the food fighters do now?
We don't know. The food fighters have canceled all their shows for the rest of 2022. There'll be a period of healing and grieving and reorganizing. And then we'll see. Let's be very clear. Taylor Hawkins will never be replaced in the food fighters impossible. The chemistry and the friendship he brought to the group was essential to the family nature of the foods.
How does Dave growl soldier on without his best friend? Shades of Kurt all over again. In fact, it might be even worse because Dave wasn't really close to Kurt. He was just a guy in his band. He was really, really close to Taylor.
And it's not just Dave. Pat smear was a touring guitarist with Nirvana when Kurt died. And before that, he was in the germs and the day before John Lennon was shot in 1980, singer Darby crash died of a heroin overdose. So this is the third time Pat smear has gone through something like this. How does Dave pat on the rest of the band step on stage and not feel Taylor's presence looking behind them? Or will they just have to suck it up and keep going?
There were two ways of looking at this. First, there's the human element. Okay, sure Dave can find someone to keep time for the band, but he'll never ever have that same Lenin McCartney Keith Mick, Laurel and Hardy relationship he had with Taylor.
Taylor also had a special relationship with the fans. They loved him. Comparisons are being drawn with Led Zeppelin. When John Bonham died on September 25, 1980, there was no question that the band was done. Without Bonzo, there was no Led Zeppelin. So the group folded. Another comparison is with Rush. Now the group had already retired when Neil Purt died, but his death put an end to any possible talk of a reunion.
And imagine being the person selected to be the next food fighter's drummer. The pressure would be insane. Who could handle that? There's only one guy I can think of. He's already in the band. Place drums. Those the songs pretty well. But we also have to look at this from a business point of view. The food fighters are a multi million dollar machine, a corporation that employees dozens of people and has commitments for tours and appearances and albums.
Dave is not a quitter. Dave is not the kind of guy who can sit still and he knows he has responsibilities that involve many other people. He's going to have to consider the case of the Rolling Stones. Charlie Watts was a founding member of the band. He'd been with the group since 1962. When he died in 2021, it took a couple of weeks for Steve Jordan to be drafted into his spot.
There were gigs to be played. So do the foods continue in Taylor's honor? Or do they honor him by saying that there are no food fighters without him? At some point, there will be a very, very tough band meaning that will determine the future of so many people and so much music. There are hundreds of ongoing history podcasts available on all the podcast platforms. Feel free to download as many as you want. That's encouraged.
We can also connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok and on email will be answered have sent to Alan and Alan Cross.ca. Thanks to Juleblanc for some research help. Technical productions by Rob Johnston. I'm Alan Cross. I'm Crue Williams, the host of Deadman's Curse. This season, we retraced the steps of fortune seekers looking for a mother load worth billions who never came back.
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