{"id":359187,"date":"2026-03-22T11:00:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T11:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/359187\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T11:00:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T11:00:18","slug":"foo-fighters-say-taylor-hawkins-is-still-a-member-of-the-band","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/359187\/","title":{"rendered":"Foo Fighters Say Taylor Hawkins Is Still a Member of the Band"},"content":{"rendered":"

Late Foo Fighters<\/a> drummer Taylor Hawkins<\/a> is still part of the band, his former colleagues agree.<\/p>\n

In a new interview with The Guardian<\/a>, guitarists Pat Smear and Chris Shiflett and bassist Nate Mendel said Hawkins \u2014 who died<\/a> in 2022 at the age of 50 \u2014\u00a0made such a seismic impact on the band that he’s effectively still with them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was weird Taylor wasn\u2019t there; super weird that he was there,\u201d Smear said of the recording sessions for Foo Fighters’ upcoming album Your Favorite Toy<\/a>, adding that Hawkins was \u201cmanifested in his absence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mendel said Hawkins is “part of the band still … and he made an imprint early on that still sticks with how we are as a band. A conversation that went something like: Hey, what if we don\u2019t suck anymore?\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0Underrated Foo Fighters: The Most Overlooked Song From Each Album<\/a><\/p>\n

How Taylor Hawkins\u00a0Helped Foo Fighters ‘Embrace That Classic Rock Thing’<\/p>\n

Shiflett explained that Hawkins’ addition to the band allowed Dave Grohl<\/a> to embrace his frontman status and let Foo Fighters blossom into the titanic rock band they are today.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was his idea: \u2018We have to be a tight unit so Dave can be the guy out front, and we\u2019re the ones holding it down,\u2019” the guitarist said. “Taylor made Dave feel OK about being a frontman leading the show.”<\/p>\n

He continued: “Even when I joined the band [in 1999], there was still that residue of ’90s indie-rock guilt about success. Like when we did our first arena tour: should we be doing this? Taylor was like: \u2018Fuck yeah, we should! We need bigger lights. We\u2019re playing London? Let\u2019s get Brian May<\/a> to play a song with us. Let\u2019s embrace that classic rock thing.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

What Josh Freese and Ilan Rubin Did for Foo Fighters<\/p>\n

Following Hawkins’ death, Foo Fighters quickly recruited drummer Josh Freese, who toured with them from 2023 until his abrupt dismissal<\/a> in mid-2025. Freese then rejoined Nine Inch Nails<\/a> (with whom he’d previously played from 2005 to 2008), while\u00a0NIN drummer Ilan Rubin migrated<\/a> to Foo Fighters.<\/p>\n

Rubin\u00a0proved to be the perfect addition to the lineup, Smear explained. \u201cAs soon as we got Ilan, I was looking at Dave and thinking, \u2018Wow, this is the first time I\u2019ve seen him genuinely happy in a year.'”<\/p>\n

READ MORE: 11 Rock Bands That Got Rid of Their Drummers in 2025<\/a><\/p>\n

Asked if it\u2019s true that Freese wasn\u2019t told why he\u2019d been fired, Mendel replied: \u201cYeah. We made a decision that it was best for all parties. To get into the personal details [with Freese], of why that didn\u2019t necessarily sync up, just didn\u2019t seem like it was going to benefit anybody. Some things are OK to be like: this is what\u2019s best for us, and we\u2019re going in a different direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Mendel\u00a0hailed Freese for \u201ccoming into a situation and doing exactly what needs to be done musically to make it work\u201d in terms of keeping the band together after Hawkins\u2019 death.<\/p>\n

Foo Fighters will release\u00a0Your Favorite Toy on April 24.<\/p>\n

See how we’ve ranked every Foo Fighters album below:<\/p>\n

Foo Fighters Albums Ranked <\/p>\n

From the one-man-band debut to their sprawling, chart-topping classics, a look at the studio releases by Dave Grohl and band.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gallery Credit: Corey Irwin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins is still part of the band, his former colleagues agree. In a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359188,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,61,60,278,43],"class_list":["post-359187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}