Pop superstar Billie Eilish and her collaborator brother, Finneas O’Connell, discussed the passing of FOO FIGHTERS drummer Taylor Hawkins with Access Hollywood‘s Scott Evans and Zuri Hall on the red carpet of Sunday’s (March 27) 94th annual Oscars ceremony at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Finneas said: “Taylor was such a legendary player. We were admirers of his work years before we got to meet him. And we only met him a handful of times — I wish we got to spend more time with him — but he couldn’t have been a kinder, cooler, more generous person as well. And such a deeply inspiring person. We’re just heartbroken.” Billie added: “It was incredibly heartbreaking. It was right before we went on stage. And we got the news, and it really, really tore us all apart. It’s horribly, horribly tragic.”
Hawkins died at a hotel in Bogota, Colombia on Friday (March 25). Local officials said an ambulance was sent to the hotel after a man reported having chest pains. The 50-year-old FOO FIGHTERS drummer did not respond to resuscitation efforts and was declared dead, the city’s health department said.
On Saturday, the Colombian attorney general’s office announced that Hawkins had opioids, marijuana and other drugs in his system before he died. A toxicology report showed traces of 10 substances in his body, including anti-depressants, the office said. The statement added that the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences “will conduct the necessary medical studies to ascertain the cause of death” and that it “will continue the investigation and will report the results obtained within the framework thereof in a timely manner.”
FOO FIGHTERS announced Hawkins‘s death on their Instagram account. “The FOO FIGHTERS family is devastated by the tragic and untimely loss of our beloved Taylor Hawkins,” the announcement read. “His musical spirit and infectious laughter will live on with all of us forever. 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 FOO FIGHTERS were scheduled to perform Friday at the Picnic Stereo festival in Bogota but their performance was canceled.
The band played Lollapalooza Chile on March 18 and Lollapalooza Argentina on March 20. They were scheduled to headline Lollapalooza Brasil on Sunday (March 27).
Hawkins has been open about his history of drug use. He overdosed on heroin in 2001 and spent a week in a coma, just four years after joining the FOO FIGHTERS.
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Tagged: Alternative Music, music blog