Dave Grohl has opened up about poaching Taylor Hawkins from Alanis Morissette, sharing that they instantly became “best friends for the rest of our lives”.
Hawkins joined Foo Fighters back in 1997 and remained with the rock giants for eight albums, up until his unexpected death in 2022, aged 50, just before a show in Bogotá, Colombia.
Since the drummers’ passing, the frontman has often spoken out about the grief he felt about the loss of his close friend – including sharing that it made him “question everything about life”.
Now, he has opened up about how he met while Hawkins was touring as part of Alanis Morissette’s touring band, and how their friendship was born immediately.
“Our first record came out around the time Alanis’ first record came out,” Grohl said while on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, where Foo Fighters are performing every night this week. “So we were doing a bunch of those festivals and radio shows and things, but that was the first time I met Taylor, backstage.”
He added: “Here comes this blond, surfer dude, like, ‘Yo, dude, I love your band. You guys are so awesome. Yadda-yadda-yadda’. I knew, right then, I was like, ‘Oh, we’re gonna be best friends for the rest of our lives’.”
Grohl went on to add that it was actually Morrisette who suggested that Hawkins would be a good fit for the Foos, and even asked Hawkins what he was “going to do when Dave asks you to be the drummer?”
Hawkins continued for the duration of Morissette’s ‘You Oughta Know’ tour, before leaving her band in March 1997 and joining Foo Fighters that same month just as the band were finishing the recording of their seminal second album ‘The Colour And The Shape’. The first album he laid down drums for with the band was 1999’s ‘There Is Nothing Left To Lose’.
Earlier this March, Foo Fighters shared some images of the late drummer to mark three years since his passing, writing the simple caption: “Missing you every day”. Tributes also came from Pearl Jam‘s Matt Cameron, Rufus Taylor of The Darkness and more.
Shortly after Hawkins’ death was announced in 2023, tribute concerts in his honour were held in Los Angeles and London later that year, billed by Grohl as “gigantic fucking nights for a gigantic fucking person”.
The show in London was the band’s first public appearance together since the loss and lasted six hours, with an all-star cast including Paul McCartney, Chrissie Hynde, Liam Gallagher, Brian May and Roger Taylor. Violet Grohl also performed, while Hawkins’ son Shane played drums on ‘My Hero’ with Foo Fighters.
A year after Hawkins died, Josh Freese (A Perfect Circle, Nine Inch Nails) became touring drummer with the Foos – until his abrupt departure in May 2025. Ilan Rubin has since become sticksman for the band, having left Nine Inch Nails himself to join the Foos while Freese returned to work with Trent Reznor. The band have dropped two albums since his passing, 2023’s ‘But Here We Are‘ and 2026’s Your Favorite Toy‘.
