Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins dies at 50 while on tour – CNET [CNET]

Taylor Hawkins, drummer for Foo Fighters, has died, the band said Friday in a statement. He was 50. No cause of death was given.

“The Foo Fighters family is devastated by the tragic and untimely loss of our beloved Taylor Hawkins. His musical spirit and infectious laughter will live on with all of us forever,” the band said in a tweet. “Our hearts go out to his wife, children and family, and we ask that their privacy be treated with the utmost respect in this unimaginably difficult time.”

The band had been scheduled to perform in Bogota, Colombia, on Friday night and at Lollapalooza Brazil on Sunday, followed by a busy touring schedule for much of 2022.  There was no immediate word on what will happen with those concerts.

Fans and other musicians remembered Hawkins on social media.

“God bless you Taylor Hawkins,” Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine tweeted, sharing a photo of himself alongside Hawkins and Jane’s Addiction vet Perry Farrell. “I loved your spirit and your unstoppable rock power. Rest In Peace my friend.”

One person shared a photo of the Bogota location where the band was set to perform. “We all are in front of the place where we should be having a big party right now,” the fan wrote. “Some applauded at 11 pm, the time of their show. We all are shocked and devastated.”

Before joining Foo Fighters in 1997, Hawkins drummed on two of Alanis Morissette’s tours.

Former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl founded Foo Fighters in 1994, after Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain’s death. The band has won 12 Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021.