YOU know about the multiverse theory,
right? It's the model of existence that
says for every decision anyone makes, a
new universe spins off from our own
where a whole new reality unfolds. Well,
in a universe very much like our own (in fact it's
almost exactly the same) you haven't heard of
Taylor Hawkins; and neither has anyone else
unless they happen to be obsessive fans of
Canadian singer-songwriters. So we should be
thankful in a small way for the tiny fluctuations
of fate that conspired to make Taylor the
drummer in one of the world's best rock bands
rather than just a jobbing
muso on the payroll of horse-faced irony misunderstander,
Alanis Morissette.
  If a chance bonding session
between Taylor and Grohl
hadn't have happened
backstage at a Neil Young-
headlined festival in Europe,
not only would Taylor, by his
own admission, probably be
selling drums in a music shop
somewhere, but the whole
nature of the Foo Fighters would
be enormously different. Taylor,
the chipper and likeable rhythm
keeper, is probably the second
most famous member of the
band, you see, which would seem
weird if the story of this group
wasn't already so strange and
convoluted. The tub thumper, put simply, is
Dave's best friend: the frontman sees a lot of
himself as a younger man in the young Hawkins.
This quirk of fate has been both fortuitous and
unfortunate for him, however, as he admits
himself. Taylor loves playing in the group - and
is obviously still to this day in love with being in
such a cool band - but it almost led to his death
a handful of years ago when he slipped into the
grasp of painkiller addiction. But his journey
began with a childhood obsession with music
that his other school mates didn't understand.
  like Nate and Chris, Taylor says that he
almost fell into picking up his instrument by
accident. Sitting in his house in LA, he explains:
"There was always music playing in my family
house. It always struck me emotionally, and I'm
sure a lot of people can say that, but some of my
earliest memories are of music. I remember
being three or four years old and we had a
record player out on the back patio playing
music. I mean, who remembers being three? We
listened to the Jackson 5
and the hits of the 70s.
But it all hit me emotionally, even
soundtrack stuff like.Star Wars. It had an impact
on me; I don't know why."
  Through the tried and tested route of an elder
brother and sister's record collection, the young
Hawkins learned to love the 70s greats of
mainstream rock such as Queen and Boston. It
was this childhood love that made the fact that,
he played with Brian May on 'One By One' and
played live with Roger Taylor all the more
special years later: "I've hung out with those !
guys quite a lot and it's pretty awesome. I would I
say if there are two bands that have influenced I me the most, then they are Queen and The
Police, I'll always carry them with me. It was a
treat to work with Queen, It was ridiculous, It
was far beyond a childhood dream: you can't
even believe it's happening,"
  He admits he 'pulled' a Roger Taylor on the
new album. Back in the day Taylor had been
eager to flex his muscles on 'A Night At The
Opera' and got to sing 'I'm In Love With My Car'.
And this year Hawkins gets to do likewise on
'Cold Day In The Sun'.
He says: "I do have a
song on the acoustic side.
I swap places with Dave. I don't know how often
I'd usually get the chance to do that.
I guess I got lucky because it's a double
record," he laughs. "There was room this
time, and if we don't do another double
record then I don't know if I'll be able to
do that again. The truth is we don't really
plan stuff, it just happens, and we didn't
plan that to do that song. It was just this
simple pop song that I'd had lying around
for some time and it was sort of acousticy
and it just fits. It didn't make me nervous
swapping places with Dave, because I've
been recording stuff for years so it was
fun. For the first time in my life I had this
really good studio and a really nice
producer and a great session drummer! All in all
it took maybe three or four hours."
  But the transition from being a suburban kid
who loved soft rock to being an accomplished
drummer was not so much down to Roger Taylor
or Stewart Copeland so much as his childhood
neighbour in California. He continues: "When I
was 10 years old, my next door neighbour Kent
Kleater had a little crappy drumkit and a couple of acoustic
guitars in his house; he was a
musician and not a bad one either.
I knew I loved music and after while, when the other kids would go to play ball, I was
more interested in the music. It's funny that when
you're a little kid and you don't really have anything
that makes you special, especially when all the other
kids are cooler than you because they're really good at
sports or whatever, you can find something like this
that is special. So I would go over to a friend's house
and try to learn guitar but it was very hard for
whatever reason. I'd never thought about playing the
drums because that was for idiots! You know; no-one
notices the drummer sat at the back. But he said, Why
don't you sit down and I'll show you this simple rock
beat?' And I picked it up really easily and within a
week I was playing along to my favourite records.
And then my life just became drums,drums, drums."
  He laughs when we suggest that he might have had
better luck with the ladies over the years if he had
stuck to learning the guitar: "I don't regret learning
the drums. God, I've had enough women!" Before
adding quickly: "And anyway I'm wlth a really good
woman now,"
  He ums and aahs good-naturedly when we ask
him what his favourite drummer joke is. (There is a
murderously long pause before he settles on this:
"What has three legs and an asshole on it? A drum
stool,") And then he claims that the Foo Fighters were
his first ever serious band; a claim he amends slightly
when we ask him what his first ever paying gig was. He
says: "I was in this - God it was an awful band - called
Sylvia. Sort of like an early-90s Jane's Addiction thing.
But we were struggling along when this guy told me
about this Canadian lady, Sass Jordan, who needed a
drummer because she was going to tour Europe.
So straight away I was like, 'Yes!' Going to Europe
sounded good to me. And we got to play with
Aerosmith. I had never even expected to get that far.
I thought that would be it and I would be able to say
that I had been on tour when I was older and working in a music store selling drum kits. And then
the same guy told me that there was this
other lady from Canada trying to put a band
together called Alanis Morissette. At that
point it was just like work: I loved playing
drums and playing for her, but it was just
work. He sent me the record, and it wasn't
The Police, but I was getting paid to play
the drums. I met her and we got along
really well and I thought she was a really
clever songwriter, especially at the time
there weren't any other people like her
around. And then she became the biggest
thing since sliced bread. So when we were
over in Europe playing a festival that's
when I met Dave and the Foo Fighters. It's
really weird how you can go from playing
in a band called Sylvia with your numbskull
mates and then a year and a half later
you're hanging out with Dave Grohl and
opening up for Neil Young. Eventually they
needed a new drummer and I said 'I'll do
that! I love your band!' You know, I loved
the first foo Fighters record so much."
  It all sounds so simple, doesn't it, dear
reader? But obviously this was still a leap
of faith for Hawkins as Morissette, even
though it seems hard to believe now, was
a much bigger draw than the Foos, all over
the world as well as at home in the States. He admits this much is true: "After I said that
I was interested he said, 'You're with Alanis
Morissette; she's sold 30 million records - why
would you want to be in our little band?' And
I said, 'Because I love your music. And I want to
be in a band that plays rock!' I thought the Foo
Fighters were just amazing and I wanted to be
part of something like that, not just part of this
machine supporting someone else. So he said:
Well, let me come by your pad and drop off the
new record: So he did and we got along great
and the rest, as you know, is history."
  Of course, for the briefest of times, the Foos
had already had a drummer, ex Sunny Day Real
Estate sticksman William Goldsmith: this
relationship had proved too fractious for Grohl,
who obviously wanted his own drumming
expertise to play the main role in how the
rhythms were laid down. Goldsmith couldn't
handle this and left the group acrimoniously.
Given his departure, we wonder out loud, there
must have been a lot of pressure on Hawkins to
pick up the sticks behind, arguably, the world's
most famous drummer. He shakes his head
dismissively and says: "It wasn't really a
problem for me so much as it was
a problem for other people. Some
people would be like, 'Oh, you're
drumming for Grohl now, you've
got to be like this and you've got
to play like this' People are hard on you
when you're in the public eye, and you have
to let it not affect you because it can
destroy your confidence. And that's what
happened to William Goldsmith, the first
drummer. It really beat him down. The
hardest part was when I first started writing
and recording, not knowing how to fit in. You
know; do I play like you? Do I play like me?
Do I play like us? It was just an adjustment
period, you know, and after a while we finally
i came across what we needed to do. He's a
big part of the process of putting together
the drum parts, because they are his songs'
and he knows where he wants them to go, but,
then he also gives me leeway to add. It's more
of a collaboration. And that's how it should be
and how it is with all the instruments in the
band - drums, bass and guitars. It did take a
while to adjust and figure out who I am in this
band but it was a natural progression. I think it
Was helpful to me to come on board just after
an album had been recorded, because that
gave me the length of a tour to get used to
playing with the band before I had to worry
about recording anything. It would have been
a bit weird to come straight in and
try and do the drums on the second
album straight away, because I had
been doing a different type of music
up until that point. It does take a
while to meld together, but now it's
all there, do you know what I mean?"
  But despite enjoying his time
playing with the band (he has fond
memories especially of recording
'There Is Nothing Left To Lose) it
wasn't all sweetness and light, and he
recalls one particular time when they
came very close to splitting. He says:
"I love all the records we've done, but
I think maybe less so with the last one
('One By One) which is half a good
record and half one that is a little bit
shoddy. It was probably not the best
outing. But it is a picture of that time.
We nearly broke up. We didn't know
what we were going to do. I wasn't
surprised when we binned the demo:
I was thinking, 'Should we even be
making records?' It was such a
disorganised, unfocused time. I don't
think Dave was sure of what he wanted
to do and, you know, he is the leader.
I think he was still in love with the
Queens Of The Stone Age stuff; he really
wanted to go and play with them. I think
he really missed playing drums, basically.
But when he came back I think he also
realised that he didn't just want to play drums for
someone else. Now he's learned to balance it out so he
can play drums on all these great records, because
everyone wants him to play drums for them. So he can
do that and then he can come back to the Foo
Fighters, so he's happy."
  Of course Taylor, like everyone in the Foos, has his
own little projects to keep himself occupied musically
in the downtime from the band. His own neo-prog
band, The CoatTail Riders, have an eponymous album
coming out early next year, but for the moment it's all
hands to the pump promoting 'In Your Honour', an
album he describes as, "the most cohesive and
interesting stuff we've done in a long time."
  But of course, the truth of the matter is that he is
lucky to have been able to contribute to this record at
all. In August 2000 he collapsed and nearly died after
taking an overdose of drugs, which ironically turned
out to be prescription painkillers. It took this life-
threatening incident to persuade him to kick the
narcotics to which he had become addicted. It is a
subject that he is, understandably, very reluctant to
talk about, but when we mention the fact that we
recently talked to the US alt.rock band Wilco about
their singer Jeff Tweedy's addiction to
Vicodin (the heroin-like painkiller
that has blighted the lives of
Matthew Perry from Friends and Jack
Osbourne among others) he relaxes a
little and says: "I definitely think that the US
government should take better steps to regulate its
pharmaceutical industry. First of all, it's common
knowledge that I had a pretty hard time with that shit
a few years ago. Well, it wasn't just painkillers, it was
lots of other things that weren't just drugs, but where I
was in my life and things like that as well. But I did
have a hard time with that shit. I've been to the
doctors over the last few years, once recently with
Jlower back pain because of all the mountain
biking and drumming I'm doing and not sitting
. properly. They're just so eager to give out these
really strong painkillers, and it's overkill, man,
because it's just legal heroin. It has become
such a party drug in a way. They should clamp down
on it and they should ask questions,"
  He is curious to know more about Tweedy's attitude
to painkillers, and when we say that the band see it as
part of a larger conspiracy (the junk food industry
keeps people ill and the pharmaceutical industry sells
them drugs to make them better again), he concurs,
but warns against seeing it as just an American
problem: "I agree, and I have researched it in some
depth. I'm not sure what it's like in Europe, but in
America... Is it our fault? Well, yes to a certain degree
it is, but at the
same time there are drugs everywhere. If you want to
take drugs, you can. Come on, man. If you wanted
drugs now, you could get them. England's a
snowstorm. I hear you and I agree with you, but at the
same time if people want to get high there's always
going to be a way for them to do it. I've headed down
that path, and if people don't get it from a pharmacist
they'll get it from a drug dealer."
  Luckily, Hawkins lives a clean lifestyle now and is
enjoying a quieter life of sorts with his wife in
California. The fact that he and Dave are both married
now means that they don't see as much of each other
as they used to, but their bond is still as strong as it
used to be. He concludes: "We're like brothers. We
don't really see each other that much socially any
more; you know, we've got separate lives, Dave's
married; all that kind of stuff. Eight years ago we were
hanging out all the time, chasing chicks and all that
  We laugh and say we won't ask who
takes the woman's role, but he says, very
emphatically: "No, no, no. It's not like that.
Well,! suppose it is in a way, but without the
romantic side of things. Out of everyone in
the band, we probably have more difficulties.
It's not even that we argue more, but Dave
can say things that can hurt me way more
than the other two - and I can probably say
things that hurt him way more than the
other two. But on a good night it really
comes through on stage. We have this
kineticthing anq I think it has$omething
to do with when we first met .each other."
  Long may the partnership continue.