The Foo Fighters Song Taylor Hawkins Thought Was the Hardest to Perform
With Taylor Hawkins’ skills, it’s hard to imagine a song he couldn’t play, let alone a Foo Fighters song. Yet Hawkins found some of the band’s music challenging. Here’s the Foo Fighters song Hawkins thought was the hardest to perform.
Taylor Hawkins joined Foo Fighters in 1997
In 1995, Hawkins became Alanis Morissette’s touring drummer. He backed the singer during her 18-month tour supporting Jagged Little Pill.
“It was so much fun,” Hawkins told Kerrang. “She gave me a lot of space to do what I wanted. It was probably the biggest album of the year, and there was a lot of pressure on her. She was having to learn to be this leader on the job, which isn’t easy. But it was really one of the most fun times of my life.”
However, fate threw a spanner into the mix. Hawkins met Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, and it was life-changing for the pair. Grohl said it was like meeting a long-lost brother.
Hawkins told NME, “When we met, we just thought, ‘We’re brothers from another mother!’ It was instantaneous – so much so that Alanis Morrisette just said, ‘What are you going to do when Dave asks you to be the drummer in the Foo Fighters?'”
Then, suddenly in 1997, Foo Fighters’ drummer left. Hawkins decided to call Grohl and audition. After three seconds of playing, Grohl knew he wanted Hawkins in the band.
Hawkins revealed the hardest Foo Fighters song to play
When Hawkins joined Foo Fighters, it was intimidating. How do you be the drummer for one of the best drummers of the 1990s? However, he found his place in the band.
Since then, Foo Fighters have recorded 10 studio albums and have done countless other projects, including their recent horror film, Studio 666. They also have more Grammy awards than any other American band.
However, despite all of Hawkins’ experience performing and recording, he never thought he was the best drummer. When he talked to Rolling Stone during his last in-person interview in 2021, he revealed that he had more to learn. He also said which Foo Fighters song is the hardest to play.
“‘Rope,’ because I sing and play drums on it,” Hawkins explained. “I sing and play drums on a lot of stuff, just background vocals, but because that’s a kind of a duet in the verses, and the groove has got that weird.… Just for some reason, my brain and my mouth and my leg and my hands, they’re not talking to each other correctly.
“Like the computer has a glitch right there. I need to go to the Genius Bar and get that fixed somehow.”
The Drummer said he had to be sober to play shows
Hawkins said he had to be sober while performing. Speaking about his stage fright, Hawkins said Grohl had to drink a bit before performing with Foo Fighters. Hawkins couldn’t do that.
“He just drinks [laughs], which helps too, I’m sure,” Hawkins said. “I can’t do that and play drums. I can’t do that.” Rolling Stone asked if he had to be sober to play drums. “Oh, my God, dude,” Hawkins replied. “You see what I do. Yeah, for good results, yeah. I mean, some people are fine.”
The publication added that weed surely affected his perception of time too. “Oh, my God, dude, that would be the worst,” Hawkins responded. “I’ve made that mistake before, dude, back in the day, back in the Nineties.
“Because when you’re in high school, you sit in your jam room with all your buddies and you get f***ing baked and you do bong rips and you jam out to f***ing Zeppelin songs or Jane songs or Police songs or whatever. And you write your songs and you’re all tripped out.
“You don’t want that onstage. I don’t know motherf****** who can. Some people do, and more power to them. But f*** that s***.”
Despite what Hawkins thought about his abilities, he was a great drummer. Fans will miss him.
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