Watch Taylor Hawkins’ final performance of ‘Everlong’ with Foo Fighters
At the first of two tribute concerts organised for late drummer Taylor Hawkins, Dave Grohl returned to the stage after over five hours of rock performance. Having played the drums, bass, and guitar and sung across nearly the entire concert, Grohl was dripping with sweat and clearly overwhelmed by the experience. The band had just performed ‘My Hero’ with Hawkins’ son Shane – you’ve definitely seen the clip circulating in the last few weeks – but Grohl had one more song he had to play.
It was the song that ends (or occasionally starts) every Foo Fighters show since its original release in 1997, ‘Everlong’. Grohl usually starts the song alone, so it was no surprise what he was going to play when he told the crowd that he had one more. What was surprising is that none of the drummers, or even any of the other Foo Fighters members, joined Grohl during the performance. It was just Dave singing to Taylor in front of thousands of fans.
‘Everlong’ has a history that predates even Hawkins’ own membership in the Foo Fighters. Originally recorded for the band’s second album, The Colour and the Shape, the studio recording of ‘Everlong’ features Grohl himself blasting out the iconic and impossibly difficult drumbeat. Grohl had re-recorded most of the drum parts on the album, causing then-drummer William Goldsmith to quit as a result. Hawkins was hired to tour the album had was present to record the song’s music video, but he didn’t actually play on the version that most people know.
He did gamely bang out the rhythms of ‘Everlong’ at almost every Foo Fighters show he ever played, though. Across his 25-year stint in the band, Hawkins must have played ‘Everlong’ hundreds, possibly even thousands, of times. Each time, he brought the same intensity and precision to the song that Grohl brought in the original recording. Grohl might have recorded the part, but Hawkins made sure that it stuck in the minds of millions of fans.
When the Foo Fighters arrived in Bogotá, Chile, for the South American Lollapalooza festival, it was supposed to be like any other gig. They played the festival’s first night with a triumphant blast of energy that surrounded every Foo Fighters performance. Just as tradition had dictated, the band ended with ‘Everlong’, but nobody on stage or in the crowd knew that it would be Hawkins’ final performance.
Watch Hawkins’ final performance of ‘Everlong’ down below.
