“Give us more, you haven’t given us enough!” Hawkins demanded of Dave Grohl, the lead singer of the Foo Fighters, during what would be their last concert together: Lollapalooza Chile 2022. Grohl accompanied him with drumsticks playing the mythical exchange of roles: from vocalist to drummer and vice versa. Together they embodied one of the most beautiful brotherhoods in the world of rock: Foo Fighters (FF) had two great percussionists and it worked perfectly.
The arrival of Hawkins to the band, in 1997 (two years following being consolidated), more than to solve a group need, was perhaps a personal feat. He offered himself when he learned that Grohl, considered one of the best drummers in the world −for his role in Nirvana−, was looking for someone to take the place behind the cymbals, drums and pedals of FF, the group he had just founded. “I was a little nervous at first, but I got over it (…) Nobody can play better than Dave Grohl,” Hawkins confessed in an interview with the American media OC Weekly.
The link between the two, which was triangulated with that of the public at concerts, was perhaps the greatest cause of the band’s success and the most evident reflection of their talent on drums. For Sebastián Regino Casas, latam country manager at WK Records, vocalist for Johnie All Stars and inveterate music lover, “Hawkins managed to decipher the ideas that Grohl had in his head when playing the drums, and apart from that, he proposed much, much more” .
You haven’t given us enough!
Hawkins looked comfortable in excess. He stood still, his eyes constantly on the audience, while the burst of each song came. A torn scream, a guitar drag or a prolonged silence gave him the signal. Finally, his turn: his eyes closed, his mouth open showing his teeth as a sign of savagery, the rest of his body electrified and hitting the drums. Suddenly, he woke up from that intense dream and met the eyes of Grohl, who had followed him with the guitar, all the time, without -perhaps- he noticing.
The intensity and the excess clouded him. Death had already passed him very close 21 years ago (in 2001), when a heroin overdose, following a presentation at the V Chelmsford Festival (United Kingdom), left him in a coma for regarding two weeks.
“Everyone has their own path and I took mine too far,” he told Kerrang!. “I believed in the bullshit myth of living hard, living fast, and dying young. I’m not here to preach regarding not using, because I loved doing it, but I got out of control for a while and it almost got me.”
While he was hospitalized, his friend Grohl wrote a song for him, “On the Mend”, but never told him it was for him. “It’s a love song regarding a friend who is dying. I thought you’d notice, but we’ve never talked regarding it. It’s not that I want to do it either, I want to talk regarding other things, “he said in the documentary Foo Fighters: Back and Forth (2011).
He died in Bogota
Hawkins missed out on the stage at Festival Estéreo Picnic this weekend. He died on March 25 in the country’s capital, a few hours before the concert, trapped, now, irremediably.
According to preliminary information provided by the Attorney General’s Office, following a first forensic medical study, they found 10 types of substances in his body, including: THC (marijuana), tricyclic antidepressants, benzodiazepines and opioids. However, at the close of this article, the specific cause of death had not been established.
Outside the Hotel Casa Medina, where he died, some followers left bouquets of flowers, candles and banners with messages that remember him. “Hawkins was a reference for all drummers, his punch, his sound, his attitude towards the instrument were brutal. One of the most representative drummers of this era is leaving, ”says Jose Lopera, drummer and composer of La Estelar.
Foo Fighters symbolizes the golden age of rock and roll and, despite the passage of time, it is still a reflection of the 90s, a disenchantment between brothers. “Our musical relationship, the basis of this, is our friendship, which is why when we jump onstage and play, we’re so connected, because we’re like best friends,” Grohl told radio station KLOS of Hawkins.
It was not a band of strangers (there are six members in total), so recovering from the loss, and determining the continuity or not of the group, will involve more than looking for a replacement for the drummer. Regino comments: “This death implies stopping making music with your brother, with your soulmate. You really can’t tell what will happen.”
