Paul McCartney Salutes Taylor Hawkins: ‘A True Rock And Roll Hero’

Tributes continue to pour in for Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, who died suddenly on March 25 in Bogota at the age of 50. Paul McCartney, who inducted the Foos into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year, is the latest to weigh in, calling Hawkins “a true rock and roll hero” who “will always remain in my heart” in an Instagram post.

McCartney had been friendly with the Foos for some time before the band asked him to play drums on the Hawkins-sung track “Sunday Rain” from their 2017 album Concrete and Gold. “This request came from a group with TWO amazing drummers! It was an incredible session and cemented my relationship with Taylor and the guys,” McCartney said.

In 2021, the former Beatle accepted the Foos invitation to induct them into the Rock Hall and sang on their cover of the Fab Four’s “Get Back.” “Taylor provided a powerhouse drum part. I’ll never forget that night, all of which made it much more of a desperately sad shock to hear he had died,” McCartney said. “So, thanks Taylor for sharing some glorious minutes with me.”

In an interview last month with Howard Stern, Hawkins and Dave Grohl discussed the Rock Hall experience. “I thought it was neat the way he did the speech and he sort of made the parallels between Dave being in Nirvana, and that being this crazy tornado, and then out of that, Dave found his way to the Foo Fighters and we slowly kind of made our way up,” Hawkins said. “It’s sort of a similar story like Wings from The Beatles. I always kind of thought of us like Wings a little bit.”

Foo Fighters announced yesterday that they were canceling all upcoming dates in the wake of Hawkins’ death. The group was planning to perform at this weekend’s Grammy awards, but it is unclear if they will make an appearance in any form.

“We will honor [Hawkins’] memory in some way,” CBS executive vice president of specials, music and live events Jack Sussman told Variety. “We want to figure out what is the right thing to do that is respectful to everyone involved. We’re patient. We’ll be planning right up until the very end.”