Prince Harry Once Smacked Foo Fighters Drummer Taylor Hawkins Right Across the Face
The music world is mourning after Taylor Hawkins, drummer of the Foo Fighters, died prior to a performance abroad. The sad news of Hawkins’ death was shared on March 25. He was 50.
Many fellow musicians and stars from around the globe have been paying tribute and sharing memories of Hawkins. And now a story about Prince Harry and Hawkins has surfaced. The rocker previously recalled what happened when he and the royal hung out. And he shared why Harry smacked him right in the face.
The Foo Fighters released a statement following Taylor Hawkins’ death
The rock group had been in Bogotá, Colombia, to play a concert. But just hours before the Foo Fighters were set to go on stage, Hawkins was found dead in his hotel room at the Four Seasons Casa Medina.
The band posted on Twitter: “The Foo Fighters family is devastated by the tragic and untimely loss of our beloved Taylor Hawkins. His musical spirit and infectious laughter will live on with all of us forever. Our hearts go out to his wife, children and family, and we ask that their privacy be treated with the utmost respect in this unimaginable difficult time.”
The Foo Fighters’ performance was canceled. And candles were placed on the venue’s stage where they were set to play as a vigil for Hawkins.
Prince Harry once met the Foo Fighters — and slapped Hawkins
The Foo Fighters have toured all around the world, including the U.K. And that’s where they met Prince Harry.
The Express noted that during an interview on Howard Stern’s SiriusXM show in 2014, the group’s lead singer Dave Grohl revealed: “We have hung out with [Harry] before. He smacked Taylor in the face one time.” Grohl then turned to his bandmate and asked: “How hard was that smack in the face?”
Hawkins explained: “We were playing somewhere in England and we had just flown over and I literally had two hours sleep. We were doing a show in some ambassador’s backyard or something, and [Harry] walked in and he had a bunch of his people around him. And he goes ‘How are you doing?’ and I’m like ‘I can’t wake up. I’m so tired [but] I’ve got to play.'”
Hawkins then made a gesture imitating the Duke of Sussex slapping him across the face saying: “And he goes ‘BAM!'”
Hawkins told Stern exactly how he reacted after that. “I went, ‘You motherf***er!'” the musician recalled. “And he went, ‘Are you awake now?’ And I’m like ‘Yeah.’” Hawkins added: “I mean I got slapped in the face by the prince. That’s OK if you think about it. But in the moment I was like ‘He f***ing slapped me.’”
What Hawkins’ preliminary toxicology screening shows
No cause for Hawkins’ death was immediately available. But officials in Colombia said several drugs were found in his system, including “THC, tricyclic antidepressants, benzodiazepines and opioids,” according to HuffPost.
An official statement read: “The National Institute of Forensic Medicine continues the medical studies to achieve total clarification of the events that led to the death of Taylor Hawkins.”
