Taylor Hawkins, Foo Fighters drummer, dies at 50 | Hacker News Reader

Taylor Hawkins, Foo Fighters drummer, dies at 50

latimes.com

126 pointsMontagFTB16 comments

Foo Fighters have always meant a lot to me and I am a huge fan of Taylor Hawkins. I’ve been overloaded at work the past few weeks running my company, and have been heavily enjoying Taylor’s side albums these last few weeks.

A friend sent me this poem to help cope with this news, entitled “Encounter”…

—

We were riding through frozen fields in a wagon at dawn. A red wing rose in the darkness.

And suddenly a hare ran across the road. One of us pointed to it with his hand.

That was long ago. Today neither of them is alive, Not the hare, nor the man who made the gesture.

O my love, where are they, where are they going The flash of a hand, streak of movement, rustle of pebbles. I ask not out of sorrow, but in wonder.

                                                        Wilno, 1936

Sweet. More poems, same author: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49457/encounter-56d22...

All of this hits me unexpectedly - the sudden passing of a drummer I grew up listening to, and admired the (for me, then) complexity on timing and playing on songs like "monkey wrench" or "all my life" and 12-14 yo me tried to emulate playing along them with sticks on the couch - and how his energy was present on their recordings.

And the fact that this happened in my city and I learned about it on hacker news.

Damn. I remember when that other guy Dave played with died (Kurt). Had to take the day off high-school. RIP Taylor and blessings to Dave. Can't imagine two loss like that in one lifetime.

Even without directly following Taylor's career outside of the context of Foo Fighters, this one hit harder than expected, made worse by the seemingly sudden nature of it. Sometimes it's easy to forget how much music actually means to us, until the people who made the music pass away, and then it becomes glaringly obvious.

I’m 50. There’s been a rash of these around the same age. It just hits a bit when it’s so close to my age.

Ugh. I’m turning 50 in a few months. That is way too young to die.

Early December at the F1 final race in Dubai, I was looking forward to their concert, but it was canceled at the last minute.

At the time, we just figured covid, but this news makes more sense now...

https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/foo-fighters-f1-a...

RIP

Sounds like Hawkins struggled with addiction to opiates. It seems plausible that this event you refer to could be related to things like overdose or withdrawal. And his death too - overdose or some result of drug abuse taking its toll on critical organs.

It's so shitty that, these days, you need only hear "young-middle-aged male dies abruptly" to think "opioids, probably", and you'll so often be right. (Opioid deaths in women do not get the attention they deserve, I know, especially considering their death rates from this stuff outpaced men's for a good portion of the last 20 years.)

I hope it's not opioids but I have a bad feeling. Rest in power to TH.

Terrible news. He always had a huge smile. He seemed so high on life. What a profound loss.

Wow, really sad. He was a kickass drummer, that's for sure. He was good enough to impress Dave Grohl.

I saw them play live in Seattle and he was so crazy good he almost overshadowed Dave Grohl. I’m shocked at this, the energy he has on stage I thought he was much younger than 50.

Here is a drum documentary by Stewart Copeland (of The Police) that features Taylor in one of the segments: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBmaCGD1FxY

RIP Taylor. Your passion inspired me!

Absolutely nuts at such a young age

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