The first album Foo Fighters’ Taylor Hawkins ever bought
The late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins had a vital obsession that was essential to his daily routine. Ever since his first exposure to the band that influenced him most, they soundtracked every step of his journey and were a constant presence for Hawkins. To anyone with any knowledge of Hawkins, it’s no surprise to discover the band in question is Queen.
During an interview with Q in 2005, Hawkins explained how his first taste of the band came on the same day he went to watch King Kong in the cinemas as a young child, and ever since that incident, they were interlinked for him.
Hawkins explained: “On the drive home with my parents, I heard ‘We Will Rock You’ on the car radio. Somehow, in my mind, there was now a correlation between King Kong and the sound of Roger Taylor’s drums. Somehow, they fitted so well with the image of this monster stomping through the city that I couldn’t separate the two.”
Hawkins had yet to start playing music at this stage, but he was already cast under a spell thanks to Taylor’s divine drumming. However, understandably, as a young child, he didn’t have a source of income and couldn’t buy Queen records, but fortunately, he had an elder sister who had a portal to their material.
He recalled to Q: “A few years later, when I started playing drums myself, I heard my sister’s copy of The Game, and that’s when I really started to listen. From here, I went back and discovered the others: A Night At the Opera, New Of The World, Jazz, which I still love because it sounds so cool and weird.”
Although his sister allowed him to listen to The Game, which included the hit singles ‘Another One Bites To Dust’ and ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’, Hawkins needed a copy he could call his own. “The first album I purchased with my own money? I think it was Queen. It was either ‘The Game’ or the Star Wars soundtrack – one or the other,” he later told NME.
Despite The Game acting as his first introduction to Queen, it wasn’t his favourite album by the legendary rock group. In the same interview with Q, he revealed: “I decided the other day that if I had to pick my favourite Queen album ever, it would still be Queen I. ‘Great King Rat’, ‘Liar’, ‘Keep Yourself Alive’… I love those songs and the album as a whole vibe.”
Heartwarmingly, Hawkins’ unashamed love of Queen was a source of pride for Brian May and Roger Taylor. Following the drummer’s death, May described him as “the greatest Queen fan in the world” to Planet Rock and claimed the late talent “single-handedly made Queen cool to a new generation”.
The guitarist added: “He and Pat Smear gave us an award at some ceremony – I can’t even remember what it was now – but it became obvious at that point really early on that they knew everything. They knew more about us than we knew! It’s always been a great thing.”
Listen to The Game below.
