Foo Fighters drummer, Taylor Hawkins, dies at the age of 50 from a drug overdose, on Friday March 25 in Columbia. Emergency services were called to the hotel in Bogotá, where Hawkins was suffering from chest pain in his hotel room.  Health personnel found Hawkins unresponsive. They performed CPR, but he was declared dead at the scene.  The following day, Colombian authorities reported that preliminary urine toxicology tests indicated that Hawkins had ten substances in his system at time of death, including opioids, benzodiazepines, tricyclic antidepressants, and cannabis.  

 

Sadly this wasnt his first time he got into trouble with drugs. In 2001 Hawkins found himself partying too much and overdosed. He went into a coma for two weeks. Dave Grohl came to the hospital to visit his pal Taylor and warned him not to do this again. As Dave Grohl had already buried his friend and bandmate in Nirvana, Curt Cobain, a couple years prior. He did not want Taylor to go down the same road. He could not face losing another brother. Last Friday all that changed for Grohl, when he lost Hawkins to what he feared most would happen - an overdose.
Pat Smear, guitarist for the Foo Fighters has now lost three bandmates to drugs. First there was Darby Crash when he was in The Germs, then Kurt Cobain, and now Taylor Hawkins. 

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Taylor Hawkins joined Dave Grohl and Foo Fighters in 1997, having previously been the drummer with the Alanis Morissette band from 1995-1997.  As soon as Dave and Taylor laid eyes on each other it was love. Taylor left Alanis for Dave and Foo Fighters.

Taylors death is a huge loss for the music biz, for the Foo fans, the band, the crew, and most of all, my heart goes out to Taylors' wife Allison and children Oliver, Annabelle, and Everleigh. And of course, his best friend, his 'bromance' Dave Grohl. The pain in their hearts must be enormous. 
 

The Foo Fighters were meant to play at the Estéreo Picnic Festival as part of their ongoing South American tour. The festival stage was turned into a beautiful candlelight vigil for Hawkins by the fans after hearing of his death.

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On a personal note...I have photographed Foo Fighters many times.  I've also always been quite partial to drums all my life, so naturally I have always loved to photograph drummers.  
And Taylor was one of my favourite drummers to photograph. My goal is capturing the essence of my subject, so Taylor was a perfect fit for this task. As he was full of good energy, with such a fantastic smile. My lens loved him. Great to shoot.  I will miss him too, as the rockstar drummer in Foo Fighters, that he was.