Why John Lennon was “the greatest singer” of all time, according to Taylor Hawkins
What is it that makes a singer great? If it only came down to technical proficiency, then Plácido Domingo would be the perfect frontman. But that’s not entirely how it works. It’s about finding the right character for the song, imbuing it with individualism, and projecting a degree of passion just as much as it is about actually being in tune and hitting the notes. Taylor Hawkins, as a premiere purveyor of attitude and swagger, knew this very well.
The late Foo Fighters star was no stranger to belting a few notes down a microphone himself. He sang tracks like ‘Sunday Rain’ and ‘Cold Day in the Sun’ for the group, frequently throwing his locks back to perch over his drumkit and throw some backing vocals Dave Grohl’s way, too. When it came to this tricky task, he had a few singing spirit guides in mind.
When discussing how his singing voice grew more confident over time, he reflected on The AfterShow, “On the first album, my voice was a low rumble… At first, you go, ‘Can I sing? What is a good singer?'” It’s far from an easy question to answer, but when you hear it, you really hear it. And for Hawkins, tracks like ‘Don’t Let Me Down’ ram it down your throat.
This led him to opine, “I think John Lemon’s the greatest singer of all time, but he wouldn’t win on The X Factor.” Lennon almost avoided being note-perfect by design. He sought out a certain ruggedness to rough up his pop licks.
As the bespectacled Beatle once said himself, “Lack of feeling in an emotional sense is responsible for the way some singers do our songs. They don’t understand and are too old to grasp the feeling. Beatles are really the only people who can play Beatle music.”
He’s not alone in this poignant department, though, and Hawkins rattled off a few other singers of the same ilk, stars who could make you weep or sweep you off of your feet but would get a red X from Simon Cowell before the second chorus, commenting, “Neil Young, Perry Farrell, Dave Grohl, Kurt Cobain never would have [won the X Factor].”
Aside from the likes of Al Green, Aretha Franklin and a few other folks with pristine vocal pipes, there are few chart-toppers who would actually win competitions. You don’t have to be a product of the X Factory to move people. This was an empowering sentiment that helped to give Hawkins plenty of confidence. “The first few years, I looked awkward because I didn’t know what I was doing,” he said. “Now it’s like, ‘Give me a mic, let me shake my ass up on stage!’ I love doing it. I don’t see the City Of London Choir knocking on my door anytime soon, though.”
In the end, he was even confident to tackle truly testing tracks like Queen’s classic ‘Somebody to Love’. And on the Taylor Hawkins & The Coattail Riders, Get the Money, he even duetted with the likes of Joe Walsh, Roger Taylor, Nancy Wilson, Perry Farrell, Chrissie Hynde, and LeAnn Rimes.
