As drummer for the Foo Fighters, Taylor Hawkins has powered some of the most iconic rock songs of all time. Earlier this month, he released Get The Money – a new record which features appearances from Dave Grohl, Duff McKagan, Chrissie Hynde, Roger Taylor, LeAnn Rimes and more. Here, he looks back on his incredible career...
I had to get this record out of my system...
“I’m really proud of it. Foo Fighters is my day job – my Dave job! – and I’d be gutted without it, but this is a whole other side of me. I’m not precious, I see my own music almost like clip art – I’ll just lift things! In the first song, Crossed The Line, I sing ‘the best of you’ as a wink to the boys, and then, ‘Sometimes you’ve got to play the game!’ which is a Queen lift, and then, ‘It’s been a long time since we rock‘n’rolled’ – obviously, that’s Zeppelin. When I get a moment outside of the Foo Fighters, I have to get these songs out.”
I’ve become more confident with singing…
“On the first album, my voice was a low rumble…(Laughs). At first you go, ‘Can I sing? What is a good singer?’ I think John Lennon’s the greatest singer of all time, but he wouldn’t win on The X Factor – Neil Young, Perry Farrell, Dave Grohl, Kurt Cobain never would have. The first few years, I looked awkward because I didn’t know what I was doing. Now it’s like, ‘Give me a mic, let me shake my ass up on stage!’ I love doing it. I don’t see the City Of London Choir knocking on my door anytime soon though…”
My daughter is already a music exec…
“I was driving with her and These Dreams by Heart came on the radio and she said, ‘You should get her on your record’ – my middle child is A&Ring! So, I got a hold of Nancy Wilson and she was down for it. I sent her the song and she was at my house the next day recording vocals!”
I owe a lot to Alanis Morissette…
“If it wasn’t for her I wouldn’t be talking to you. She was my first professional gig, I didn’t drum on Jagged Little Pill, but I jumped on the tour and played drums – it was an 18 month fucking banger of a tour. My liver paid the price...”
On the next Foo Fighters record...
“We’re really just jumping into the fire on this one. We didn’t do any pre-production, Dave just wanted to get started and he had a bunch of demos. I don’t like to give stuff away, but if you’re a fan you’ll be like, ‘Woah, Dave’s definitely on another trip on this one, completely!’”
I first met David Bowie when…
“Alanis did a show with him. I was warming up for it when I saw this figure in the corner smoking a cigarette. I look over and Bowie’s watching me play... I was like, ‘Holy shit! Hey!’ He said, ‘Come on, man, keep playing.’ When I put my sticks down I did the typical, ‘It’s an honour’ thing and he was lovely – he said, ‘You’re really good, you should probably have a good career’ and walked away. I was like, ‘Fucking A!’ Two weeks later we did the BRITs and I bumped into fucking Bowie again. He said, ‘We keep running into each other, don’t we?’ Years on from that, he was playing at the Wiltern in LA. Me and my wife were late and walking down the aisle and, as he was singing, he pointed to me as if he was looking at his watch to say, ‘You’re late’. That was the last time I ever saw David Bowie. Whether he just thought I was a late fan or knew it was me, I’ll never know. I always liked to think he knew it was me...”
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