Inside Taylor Hawkins' Final Days as a Foo Fighter - Rolling Stone

March 22, 2022, was a muggy day in Asunción, Paraguay’s capital city. Thunderstorms had ruined the grounds of the Asunciónico festival, forcing Foo Fighters to cancel their headlining concert there that night, but severe weather couldn’t stop hundreds of fans from gathering around the Sheraton, where the group was staying. Taylor Hawkins, the band’s charismatic drummer and singer, known for his athletic performances and surprising vocal agility, was hanging out in the lobby when the sound of a drum set came crashing through the din, playing his parts to “The Pretender” and “Everlong.” The sound piqued his interest, so he ventured out to find the source.

In the throng, nine-year-old Emma Sofía Peralta, who first picked up a pair of drumsticks at age seven, stationed herself behind her drum kit near a barricade with the hopes of catching the attention of her heroes, Dave Grohl and Hawkins. “That day was about to become the worst day of my life,” she says, referring to the canceled concert over Zoom (with translation help from her dad, Julius), “and suddenly it became the best day of my life.” Once outside, Hawkins scanned the crowd looking for the young drummer. After addressing the fans, announcing that Foo Fighters would surely return to Asunción, he posed for a photo with the girl , crouching next to her and flashing the sort of warm, toothy smile that established him as one of the most beloved drummers in rock. But multiple friends tell Rolling Stone that he felt conflicted about being on the road. Three days later, he was dead — an official cause of death is still unknown.

In the month and a half since Hawkins’ death, Rolling Stone has interviewed 20 people, including several of the drummer’s best friends, about his career, legacy, and outlook near the end of his life. Prior to Foo Fighters’ supersized post-pandemic comeback — which kicked off last June with vax-mandatory gigs in L.A. and New York’s Madison Square Garden — Hawkins felt hesitant about returning to the road and wasn’t sure he’d be able to remain a full-time member if they continued to tour at this pace, these friends say. Even though he kept himself in decent shape, according to his friends, he felt vexed by the physicality required to play nearly three-hour concerts night after night. (Rolling Stone repeatedly asked Hawkins’ family members and bandmates for interviews for this story. Hawkins’ family declined to comment. Foo Fighters and their management did not want to be interviewed. But through a representative, they dispute Hawkins’ friends’ characterizations of how he was feeling.)

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