Music produces physical joy.
It’s that slow smile that spreads across your face when you recognize a favorite song in an unexpected place. It’s that triumphant feeling that you can conquer anything after you leave a great concert. It’s that kinetic energy generated when you play an instrument.
Taylor Hawkins was that musical joy personified not only as a performer, but also as a fan.
Perhaps that’s why the death of the 50-year-old, best known for his work as the drummer of Foo Fighters, is hitting even harder.
The husband, father and Orange County native was supposed to perform with Foo Fighters in Bogotá, Colombia, on Friday night at the Festival Estéreo Picnic.
During the band’s appointed set time the festival organizers filled the stage with dozens of candles in tribute with the statement from the band about the loss of Hawkins projected on the onstage screen. But those flames could never be a match for the wattage Hawkins produced behind the kit with his drumming prowess and a grin so wide you could practically feel both in the nosebleeds of an arena.
Hawkins was one of those unique drummers, like Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham, or Rush’s Neil Peart, where his work was just as iconic as the guitar riff or a soaring chorus.
“Rope,” off the 2011 album “Wasting Light,” is one of those songs where Hawkins’ performance is so burned into my brain that it takes a minute to recall the vocal melody. Then there’s the galloping beat behind “The One,” off the soundtrack for the film “Orange County.” I think about the beautiful juxtaposition in his playing as the pendulum swings from big rock thunder to breezy jazz in “Stacked Actors” off “There’s Nothing Left to Lose.”
Discussing his performances as part of a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-inducted band could fill a book, but the bottom line is that Hawkins made you want to air drum.
And, as many have pointed out, Hawkins was the one guy who could play drums in the band led by the guy who played drums in Nirvana.
His chemistry with aforementioned Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters founder Dave Grohl was palpable on stage and off — whether they were acting together in a goofy video for the Foos, cracking each other up at a press junket or playing Queen and David Bowie’s “Under Pressure,” with Hawkins taking Freddie Mercury’s part, before tens of thousands of fans.
But he locked in with the whole band, bassist Nate Mendel, guitarists Pat Smear and Chris Shiflett, keyboardist Rami Jaffee, even though Hawkins was fond of wearing a shirt that said “The tempo is whatever I say it is.”
He also decided the tempo on his solo work and his side projects, of which there are many. But Chevy Metal is a favorite because it gave Hawkins that pure joy of singing some of his favorite songs that shaped him.
And he loved to talk about music and his favorite bands. And he loved meeting and playing with his heroes because he never stopped being a fan.
He and Grohl were nearly giddy as they inducted Rush into the Rock Hall and then played “2112: Overture” with them.
At a cast party for “Saturday Night Live,” a decade ago, Hawkins was on the drums with Chevy Metal backing up Mick Jagger on the Rolling Stones’ classic “Bitch” that wasn’t exactly breakneck, but far more punkified than usual.
As the news of Hawkins’ passing spread, what surprised me as my social feeds filled with tributes was that so many included photos of friends taking pictures with Hawkins or stories of meeting him in a random place like a bar or a record store or a Laguna Beach sidewalk and what a cool, down-to-earth guy he was who was always smiling.
Perhaps it was because, despite the millions of records and concert tickets sold and the Rock Hall Induction from Paul McCartney, Hawkins was always one of us: a music fan.