Taylor Hawkins on the first time he heard Foo Fighters: "I was completely blown to smithereens"
Drummer Taylor Hawkins remembers the first time he heard a Foo Fighters song – and how much he "loved it right away".
Taylor Hawkins has revealed how he felt the first time he ever heard a song by his future band, Foo Fighters.
As the rock heroes now celebrate the release of their 10th studio album, their drummer reveals on the latest episode of Medicine At Midnight Radio on Apple Music Hits the impact that Foos' 1995 debut self-titled LP had on him.
The sticksman for Alanis Morissette at the time, Taylor says the first piece of music he heard from Foo Fighters was first major single This Is A Call – a song that remains his all-time favourite to this day.
"This was the first song I ever heard by the Foo Fighters," he says. "And I was completely blown to smithereens when I heard that. I just couldn't believe how perfect it was. It was Dave [Grohl]'s voice. Obviously, his drumming was great and his guitar playing was awesome, and the songs were fun and energetic and funny without being jokey and fun without being light.
"And This is a Call was just such a call to the Foo Fighter arms," he continues. "And it was definitely the sound of someone going, 'You know what? Fuck that. I'm not going down like this. I'm going to fucking do my thing.' Everyone that heard that first Foo Fighters record, if you are a rock fan, just went, 'Oh yeah, this guy's got a second act.' And I was lucky enough to jump on that second act."
The drummer has also previously labelled Aurora – from 1999’s There Is Nothing Left To Lose album – as another favourite, along with This Is A Call. "I love that side of Dave," Taylor said. "I love it when Dave gets in his almost yacht rock softness in his voice and he double tracks his voice really nice. And that was the first drum track that I ever did for the Foo Fighters that I was really, really proud of, because I only played half the drums on the Nothing Left To Lose record, because it was my first time in the studio and I was just… I didn’t know how to record. Recording drums and playing live are just super different and the mistakes are polarised heavily, once you’re under the scrutiny of the microphones. You had to do it right."