Taylor Hawkins on his favourite rock drummers
Sitting at the foot of a drum kit in a band led by one of music’s most iconic drummers is no mean feat. However, Taylor Hawkins’ star shone wide and bright from well out of the shadow set by his band leader, Dave Grohl. While mastering the fundamentals and providing the Foo Fighters with the perfect blend of energy and groove, Hawkins was a charismatic performer above all and had a dynamic stage presence despite being back of stage.
Hawkins defied conventions and proved drummers were more than just timekeepers, for their role in the band was the subject of plenty of jovial abuse down the years. But Hawkins’ achievement was largely due to his aforementioned charisma and penchant for getting behind the microphone.
While it’s not entirely uncommon for drummers to provide backing harmonies, examples of them singing lead are fleeting and left limited realms of influence for an eager vocalist like Hawkins. While the Eagles’ Don Henley is one of the most notable examples, he didn’t quite scratch the itch like Queen’s Roger Taylor.
Hawkins once said to Sammy Hagar: “One of my heroes when I was a kid was Roger Taylor from Queen, and I always thought it was cool because he always sang a song on the record. He had the highest voice kind of in the band, and he just, you know, behind a big drum set, I said, ‘Uh, he’s cool. I want to be like him”.
He continued, “his playing was laid back, loose and – I use this term loosely – punk rock because he did have that sort of rough edge to his drumming, too. And he always put on a real show – he was a very theatrical drummer.”
Hawkins’ public adoration for Taylor reveals he was just another music fan whose taste was steeped in history and signposted by the gods of classic rock. But as the drummer of one of the world’s most recognisable bands, Foo Fighters, he had an unknown responsibility as the torchbearer for his contemporaries. It was a responsibility he didn’t take lightly, and he was eager to share the names of his fellow drummers alongside Taylor in monologues of praise: “Jon Theodore from Mars Volta is definitely one of the best around and Roger Taylor, who’s playing again, is still one of my favourite rock drummers of all time” he told Rhythm Readers Poll in 2005.
He continued, “Fab Moretti also deserves some love…The Strokes’ new album is going to blow you away and he has really stepped things up this time round with some amazing and very interesting drum parts”.
The Strokes album in question was their 2006 First Impressions of Earth record, which opens with a stunning drum beat from Moretti, strikingly similar to that of Roger Taylor in Queen’s ‘Under Pressure’ – a track Hawkins used to sing regularly during Foo Fighters live sets.
It seems that no matter what corners of innovation were presented to Hawkins, he always had Taylor in the rearview mirror. From the very outset of his life, Taylor was a beacon under which so many of his decisions would be made. “I wanted to be Roger Taylor, I wanted to be in Queen, I wanted to play stadiums when I was ten years old,” he told Hagar.
Of course, it wasn’t long until that was the case and his name was being similarly heralded as a major pillar of influence for the future of rock and roll drumming.
