The one “weird” Foo Fighters song Taylor Hawkins struggled to play live
Anyone who played drums for Foo Fighters had to know what they were getting themselves into. Considering Dave Grohl’s tremendous attention to detail and exceptional technical finesse behind the kit with Nirvana, it was inevitable that anyone playing drums for him needed to be a well-oiled machine, or else Grohl would overdub the drums himself. While Taylor Hawkins would rise to the challenge repeatedly during his lifetime, he admitted one song gave him trouble in the group’s later years.
If Grohl had wanted to, though, he could have made Foo Fighters into his unique solo outfit. Although he may be responsible for coming up with most of the constructions of the songs, Grohl always wanted to keep a band atmosphere in the group, creating a fantastic guitar trio with both Chris Shiflett and Pat Smear on both sides of the stereo image.
When the band started touring with drummer William Goldsmith, though, Grohl knew that the former Sunny Day Real Estate didn’t have what it took to make The Colour and the Shape. After re-recording most of the drum tracks behind Goldsmith’s back, Grohl was told that the drummer would leave the band, not wanting to sacrifice his integrity for a good record.
While Grohl was left without a heartbeat for the band, Hawkins fit in like a glove once he came aboard. Coming from Alanis Morrissette’s touring band, Hawkins was born from the same drummers that Grohl loved, playing with the same intensity as someone like John Bonham or Stewart Copeland of The Police.
Although Hawkins would say that he had a tough time adjusting to the studio during the recording of There is Nothing Left to Lose, he would turn into the driving force behind the band, usually locking in Grohl’s rhythm guitar perfectly. Then again, the hangups were just around the corner, with Hawkins and Grohl exploding in a huge argument that nearly ended the band on the album One By One.
Once they reconciled their differences, Grohl considered taking the unconventional approach for their subsequent records. After making a two-sided record with both electric and acoustic instruments on In Your Honour and doubling down on Echoes Silence Patience and Grace, Grohl had the idea of making Wasting Light on tape in his garage with former Nirvana producer Butch Vig.
While Hawkins could be counted on to create a fantastic take, he said that he didn’t look forward to playing the lead single ‘Rope’ live. When talking about the songs, Hawkins talked about the song giving him trouble, telling Rolling Stone, “I sing and play drums on a lot of stuff, just background vocals, but because that’s a kind of a duet in the verses, and the groove has got that weird.… Just for some reason, my brain and my mouth and my leg and my hands, they’re not talking to each other correctly”.
Despite the strange timing of the track, the song would become a late-career triumph for the group, paving the way for even further sound explorations on tracks like ‘Walk’ and ‘These Days’ from the same record. While Hawkins may not have had the easiest time translating ‘Rope’ to the stage, the track is one of the best examples of the band still taking risks decades after their formation.
Wasting Light was a departure from the Foos’ growing esteem. They rejected the stuydio and, instead, headed back to their garage to record the LP. “In my hotel room in Perth, Australia, on a Them Crooked Vultures tour, it all came to me,” explained Grohl. “I was sitting writing a new song and I thought, ‘OK, we should make a documentary about the recording of this new album and make it a history of the band too. Rather than just record the album in the most expensive studio with the most state-of-the-art equipment, what if Butch and I were to get back together after 20 years and dust off the tape machines and put them in my garage?’ I literally backed the minivan out of the garage, pulled the lawnmower out, put a drum set in it and set up mics. We soundproofed the garage door so that my neighbours wouldn’t call the f–king cops.”
The music video for ‘Rope’ also gained a lot of attention as it produced a feeling of claustrophobia. The Foos frontman told MTV News: “The video for ‘Rope’ was meant to really just look like the band performing the song in a really tight, claustrophobic space, not unlike our rehearsal space. I think practicing in this little rehearsal space that we have really influenced that idea, and we actually set up just as we do in rehearsal for the video.”
