“He sounded like a sheep”: Taylor Hawkins on the rock icon he thought sounded terrible
Having worked alongside Dave Grohl as the drummer with Foo Fighters for almost three decades, Taylor Hawkins would have had a fine idea of what it takes to be an incredible artist, performer and all-round musician. Hawkins joined the group in 1997 during the recording of the band’s second album, The Colour and the Shape, and would have been present for the band’s meteoric rise in stature, witnessing Grohl and the rest of the band grow in confidence with every subsequent release.
However, he wasn’t there for the first album, which Grohl completed by himself. While many consider it to be an excellent early demonstration of Grohl’s supreme talents, he ultimately hadn’t yet found himself fully as a songwriter after the collapse of his former band, Nirvana, and there was still plenty of room for growth. With Hawkins coming in partway through the sophomore release, Foo Fighters were ultimately already a decent amount of the way towards establishing their sound and feeling confident in their presentation by this point.
Likewise, Hawkins may have had to take some time to fully discover himself as a drummer and come to a decision on where he can improve and focus his energy to become the best version of himself as a musician. This can be applied to any artist when they first become part of a new project, and while some may settle in quicker than others, some take much longer to adjust and truly find a sound that they’re comfortable with producing.
Grohl isn’t the sort of person who took ages to settle into a sound, but Hawkins did believe that one of the band’s greatest influences had a much harder time adjusting their sound before they began releasing a string of classic records. Ultimately, if one member of the band isn’t up to scratch, then it’s going to prove impossible to garner recognition for all the right reasons, and if the vocalist is struggling to match the energy of the rest of the band, then you’re opening yourself up to all sorts of problems.
Despite being regarded now as one of the finest and most original rock bands of all time, Queen struggled to settle into their sound when they first started out, and having heard some of the earliest demos that the band produced, Hawkins believed that Freddie Mercury was far from the exceptional performer that he became known for being when the band first formed.
In an interview for Classic Rock, Hawkins revealed that he was privy to hearing some of Mercury’s earliest recordings, and that it certainly wasn’t pretty. “I’ve actually got a bootleg of him singing with a very early band, from about 1969, and he really couldn’t sing,” he revealed. “Roger Taylor, whom I’ve gotten to know well, confirmed that when Queen started Freddie sounded terrible – apparently, he sounded like a sheep – because of the overactive vibrato in his voice. But in a short space of time, he taught himself, and did it amazingly.”
Of course, once it came to the band releasing their debut album in 1973, things were considerably different, and Mercury had fully discovered his voice and learned how to use it to its greatest effect. Able to command an audience and captivate them with his powerful and staggering range, Mercury is undoubtedly one of the finest vocalists to have ever lived, despite his ovine beginnings.
