An Afternoon With Taylor Hawkins

It’s 9:38 p.m and a half hour ago, I received word that Taylor Hawkins had died at the age of 50. Three years younger than I am. I decided to get my thoughts down while it was all fresh.

But first, let it be known that I hate when a journalist inserts themselves into a story. I understand that it can often add colour to a feature; it gives a view into what it’s like to hang out with the subject. But too often it comes across as braggy and self-serving. So I offer the following only to give a window into what it was like to spend a little time with Taylor Hawkins. A behind-the-scenes, if you will, from an afternoon I spent with him three years ago.

It was right before Halloween, in 2019, when Classic Rock asked me if I could run up to L.A. to interview Taylor Hawkins. I’ve met a lot of pretty accomplished and well-known people over the years, many of whom I now consider friends. I wouldn’t call Taylor a friend. We never spoke after the interview but I can say that on that afternoon, he was as kind, hospitable and personable as anybody that I’ve ever interviewed.

His front door was decked out for Halloween and when he came to the door, he was already on the phone, waving me to follow him through his spacious living room, out back to his patio, where we circled his empty pool (he was getting work done on it), and to his studio/guest house, which was adorned with a jaw-dropping arsenal of guitars and basses hanging from every corner of the wall, with, of course, a massive drum kit in the middle.

Then there were the Grammys. He had a few of those strewn about the room, along with a slew of classic rock posters, including the James Gang and Roger Taylor. He asked what I wanted to drink — beer, water, soda? — and returned with the water I requested.

We sat on his couch and I spread out my two phones with voice recorders firing (I learned a hard lesson once after losing an interview...), and off we went.

He told me about his house. Kenny Rogers used to own it, where his wife would have wild, acid-fueled orgies while he was away. Taylor said there was still a bullet hole in the ceiling of one of the rooms from one such incident. I later read Kenny’s biography, which confirmed the mayhem. Apparently Howie Mandel later acquired it and came by once to check it out and see how it all looked. Howie had used the guest house/studio for doing voice over work, and I saw the little booth where it all went down. Kate Hudson’s father Bill later bought it with then-wife Cindy Williams (Laverne & Shirley) and he once bonded with Kate over it.

He didn’t just tell stories - he acted them out with hands waving and booming voices for each character. He described a story about BB King and Joe Walsh, and his Joe Walsh impersonation was absolutely savage. I remember laughing hard. Not the kind of polite laughter that you learn to summon when somebody tells a mildly-amusing story, but the incapacitating, eye-watering kind when somebody is genuinely funny. 

Photo taken during our interview

Throughout the interview, he asked me a ton of questions. I’d ask him something, he’d answer, and then he’d point the question back at me. And he’d listen carefully to what I said and ask follow-up questions. Thankfully we weren’t pressed for time or getting through my questions would have been a major hurdle.

He talked about his family with real enthusiasm, and the responsibility he felt to raise his kids with healthy attitudes while living in one of L.A.’s most exclusive, gated communities (he counted Drake, one of the Kardashians and a bunch of other celebs as his neighbours).

Many things that he said that day stuck with me and reviewing the transcript just now, I see that there was a ton of interesting quotes that never made it into the feature; banter that simply didn’t fit with the theme and word count. But I vividly remember talking about the need to keep ego in check and what it was like to be Dave Grohl’s drummer. Rather than paraphrase, here’s exactly what he said:

“I worked hard and I still work hard. Doing a three-hour Foo Fighters show is hard work. And being the drummer for Dave Grohl is tough on the ego. You kind of have to throw your ego out the window because, like, one of the greatest drummers of all time is your lead singer. So you have to find an ego inside that and still be able to go, ‘It’s OK being the second-best drummer in the band.’ There’s no better or worse. It’s apples and oranges. I mean, it’s fucking Dave Grohl; he played on Nevermind. He changed the world with (hums the intro to Smells Like Teen Spirit).“

A photographer showed up and took pictures of me interviewing him, one of which appears in the interview. I wish I could remember his name - I think he was German and I know he shot with Leicas - but he circled us and took pictures as the interview wound to a close. The interview itself had to be two hours, not including a bit of socialising before and after. 

He asked if I had a turntable. I did not. Genuinely crushed, he wanted to give me a copy of Roger Taylor’s solo album. Instead, we took a couple of iPhone shots. In one, he said to make a metal face and the photo came out awful. Well, he looks funny but the photog caught me halfway into it. Brutal.

On the way out, his dog bit me on the arm. Yup. Francisco was the dog’s name, I believe. We got along like a house on fire when I arrived, but at some point, Francisco moved me from “Friend” to “Foe” and he jumped up and clamped on my forearm on the way out. I had a big red bite mark on my arm for a couple of weeks.

Taylor was taking his wife to see Joker that night and was scrambling to change out of board shorts and into jeans so he didn’t look like a “total loser,” which I mentioned at the end of the feature. He hugged me like three times before I left. Strong, wiry bear hugs. It was really funny. I think he genuinely enjoyed the chat. I know I did. I’ve been doing this for thirty years now and I still think about the Taylor interview all of the time.

Like I said, we never spoke again after the interview but that one afternoon was really special. And now I’m really sad. Sad for his family, sad for his bandmates and his close friends and sad for all of the great music that we’re never going to get to hear from him. Rest in peace.