A new bombshell report by Rolling Stone, titled “Inside Taylor Hawkins’s Final Days as a Foo Fighter,” makes the disturbing claim that the legendary drummer was on the brink of exhaustion from playing physically taxing, nearly three-hour shows, and at the time of his death was considering scaling back his Foos duties or even quitting the band entirely. Hawkins died at age 50 on March 25, just hours before the Foo Fighters were scheduled to play Festival Estéreo in Bogotá, Colombia.
“Honestly, I think he was just so tired. Tired of the whole game,” blues singer Sass Jordan, for whom Hawkins drummed in the ‘90s, told Rolling Stone. Jordan also recalled Hawkins venting to her, “Oh, my f***ing God. I can’t look at the goddamn tour schedule. It gives me anxiety.” At that time, there were 62 dates on the Foo Fighters’ calendar for 2022, throughout North America, South America, Europe, and Australia.
Rolling Stone conducted more than 20 interviews with Hawkins’s friends and colleagues, among them Jordan, Pearl Jam drummer Matt Cameron, and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith. Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl and the other surviving Foos declined to be interviewed for the piece; their publicist and management denied the allegations to the magazine’s four reporters, and have not yet responded to Yahoo Entertainment’s request for comment. While Jordan has retweeted Rolling Stone’s article in a seeming show of support, both Cameron and Smith have blasted the publication — alleging that they were misled to believe they were contributing to a celebratory Hawkins retrospective, not an exposé.
“Taylor was one of my best friends and I would do anything for his family. I was asked by Rolling Stone to talk about Taylor for a tribute article and I certainly didn’t expect it to be a piece about his last days. Had I known that, I never would have talked to the magazine, and I apologize for any pain my participation in the article may have caused his family and his musical friends. I miss him every day,” Smith exclusively told Yahoo Entertainment. Cameron posted a statement on Instagram expressing similar regret: “When I agreed to take part in the Rolling Stone article, I assumed it would be a celebration of his life and work. My quotes were taken out of context and shaped into a narrative I had never intended. … I am truly sorry to have taken part in this interview and I apologize that my participation may have cause harm to those for whom I have only the deepest respect and admiration.”
The Foo Fighters were one of the first actively touring bands to get right back onstage once COVID restrictions eased up in 2021, starting with a six-song set at SoFi Stadium’s Vax Live all-star event on May 2, followed by a full 23-song show at the 610-capacity Canyon Club in Agoura, Calif., to celebrate the “reopening” of Los Angeles County nightlife on June 15. Rolling Stone actually interviewed Hawkins at his L.A. home that June morning, at which time he confessed that he was “really nervous” about the intimate club gig. “I have major stage fright, major, major, major. Like today is like, I’m in hell right now,” he said. Hawkins also mentioned that he had sleep apnea and an enlarged heart (or “a runner’s heart”) and was “trying really hard to figure out how to continue to keep the intensity of a young man in a 50-year-old’s body, which is very difficult.” However, he assured the publication that he’d recently had “everything checked” by a doctor and was told he was in “amazing shape.”