Dave Grohl says Taylor Hawkins' death "made me question everything about life"

19 March 2026, 11:08 | Updated: 19 March 2026, 11:14

Dave Grohl and the late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins. Picture: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for LOVE ROCKS NYC/God's Love We Deliver , Lester Cohen/WireImage/Getty

By Jenny Mensah

The Foo Fighters frontman has opened up about losing the band's beloved drummer in 2022 and admitted there was no plan to record again at first.

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Dave Grohl has admitted he still has a hard time "making sense "of Taylor Hawkins' passing.

The Foo Fighters drummer died in March 2022, aged 50, while the band were on tour in Bogotá, Colombia and four years on the Foos frontman has opened up about the tragedy.

In an interview with MOJO, Grohl said that “losing Taylor was never meant to be,” adding: “That threw our world upside down and made me question everything about life, that it was so unfair.

"I still have a hard time making sense of it.”

The Learn To Fly rocker also revealed that the band had “no plan” to record after Hawkins’ death, but realised that making music was “something we needed to do”.

Referencing his Nirvana bandmate Kurt Cobain's death by suicide in 1994, Grohl added that music “had saved us once before”.

Read more:

How Taylor Hawkins got the call to join Foo Fighters

Tribute concerts were held for Hawkins in London and Los Angeles, before the band went onto release But Here We Are in 2023, which was dedicated to the drummer and well as Grohl's mother Virginia Grohl, who had sadly died in August the same year.

They toured the record with new drummer Josh Freese, who was then let go from the band and replaced by Ilan Rubin.

Now, the Foos are preparing to release their 12th studio release, Your Favorite Toy, which includes the title track and previously released single Asking For A Friend.

Grohl admitted to the outlet that "there was no plan to make an album," but after a year of writing and listening back to the “40 or 50 instrumentals” he realised that he'd made several “punchy, fast, energetic” recordings, which felt like the beginnings of a new record.

Speaking to Radio X's Chris Moyles, Grohl admitted that when he decided to make an album the process "went fast, but it's a long. It's a long period of, like, messing around with song ideas and different melodies until finally you get to the point where it's like, ooh, okay, we have some good stuff. Let's do it really quickly."