The drummer who taught Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins everything they knew: “My earliest real drum influence”
It’s not a stretch to suggest that Foo Fighters had two of the world’s best drummers in one band.
Dave Grohl and the late Taylor Hawkins are among the best to have picked up the sticks. Powerhouse percussionists, Grohl’s position as rock royalty was first entered into lore as he took his stool behind the kit for Nirvana. Meanwhile, Hawkins worked with Alanis Morrisette before allowing Grohl to step up to the mic as he took over the role with the Foo Fighters.
Since that moment, the duo has easily been seen as one of the best double-act drummers in modern memory. Hawkins would sometimes take on vocals, and Grohl would sometimes get behind the kit, making use of their extraordinary talents. It makes sense, too, considering how closely aligned their influences were.
Grohl is noted as one of the biggest fans of The Beatles, the rock world knows, and Hawkins matches his pop-rock sensibilities with a particular affection for Queen and Phil Collins. Both men also regularly cited Rush’s Neil Peart as a percussionist they aspired to be. But with both men experiencing their formative years in the 1980s, it makes sense that there is another drummer who stands out as their first drumming hero: Stewart Copeland.
Copeland’s name is too often left out of the discussion of who is the greatest drummer of all time. Ginger Baker, Keith Moon, and, of course, John Bonham usually dominate the conversation because of their powerful style and infamy. Other more recognisable names are Peart, with his precision, Hal Blaine for his prolificacy, Ringo Starr for his popularity, and a whole host more for a few different reasons. But Copeland’s uniqueness should be thrown into the mix.
A master of odd time signatures and perhaps most famous for berating Sting for being so out of time for the majority of The Police’s career, Copeland is a thinking man’s rock star. For Grohl and Hawkins, he was a legendary figure who helped to shape their own playing. “I grew up listening to The Police, man”, reflected Grohl when assessing the legendary musician’s output.
Grohl says: “One of the craziest things that this band has ever done is bring Stewart with us on a private jet from New York to Los Angeles; we had Stewart come out and play ‘Next To You’ with us, which was super fun”.
“Then we got on the private plane,” noted Grohl, clearly enamoured with the situation, “And I just kinda sat there and thought ‘what the fuck am I doing with my life right now?’ Just to sit and listen to the stories of ‘the band’ and that was something I will never forget.”
“He was probably my earliest, like, real drum influence,” Hawkins told Metal Hammer while reflecting on the Police percussionist’s wide-ranging influence over his career. “He was my first drum hero and that had a lot to do with my brother, who’s five years older than me – I still have the Police Around the World video, which I remember him getting me as a kid when I was first learning to play.”
It might seem a stretch to line up The Police and Foo Fighters, but, in truth, Copeland can be seen as a huge influence on the group’s two drummers because of his complete refusal to take on drumming as a background role. Copeland was always keen to push the instrument to the front of the stage metaphorically, and Grohl and Hawkins were beneficiaries of that. Without Copeland, they might have stayed in the shadows forever.
