And tributes poured in immediately in the music world. The legendary Ozzy Osbourne, for example, hailed in him “a great person and an amazing musician“, and punk rocker Billy Idol called the news “tragic“. Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello praised “the unstoppable rock power” of the deceased. Finally, the rock band Nickelback said to themselves “totally in disbelief at the news of the death of Taylor Hawkins“.
The drummer had joined in 1997 the Foo Fighters, a group brought together three years ago by Dave Grohl, ex-drummer of Nirvana. Following the death of Kurt Cobain, he had indeed developed his own concept, immediately thinking of Taylor Hawkins to join them.
“When I called him and said, ‘Listen, I’m looking for a drummer,’ he said, ‘You know I’m your man. I think it had more to do with our personal relationship than something musical.“, he had told on a Californian radio last year. During their first meeting, he had felt the immediate alchemy. “I said, ‘well, you’re my twin or my spirit animal, or my best friend’, and we’ve only known each other for ten seconds! And of course I had seen him play drums and thought he was an amazing drummer“. A friendship abruptly ended this Friday, by the death of one of the greatest rock musicians of his time.