Watch Foo Fighters play ‘Everlong’ at their final gig with Taylor Hawkins
The performance, from Lollapalooza Argentina on March 20th, was the last song the drummer played before his death five days later
By Andy Greene
The shocking news of Taylor Hawkins’ death is just beginning to reverberate around the world, and little is known beyond what the Foo Fighters released in their public statement. “Our hearts go out to his wife, children and family,” they wrote, “and we ask that their privacy by treated with the utmost respect in this unimaginably difficult time.”
When Hawkins died, the Foo Fighters were in Colombia preparing to play at the Estéreo Picnic festival on the same bill as the Strokes, J. Balvin, and the Libertines. Their last gig with the drummer took place five days earlier, on March 20th at Lollapalooza Argentina. The 19-song show featured Hawkins singing lead on Queen’s “Somebody to Love,” a cover of Jane’s Addiction’s “Been Caught Stealing” with special guest Perry Farrell, and a final encore of “Everlong.”
Here’s pro-shot video of “Everlong” from that night, which wound up being the last song Hawkins played with the Foos. “I don’t say goodbye,” Dave Grohl told the crowd before kicking it off. “I don’t like to say goodbye. I know that we’ll always come back. If you come back, we’ll come back. Will you come back? If you come back, we’ll come back, so then I won’t have to say goodbye.”
At the end of the song, Hawkins tossed his drum sticks to the audience, threw his arm over Grohl’s shoulder, and took a bow with the rest of the band. He’s beaming with joy. It’s devastating to watch knowing would come just five days later.
“I think Taylor really underestimates his importance in this band,” Grohl said of Hawkins in a Foo Fighters cover story in Rolling Stone last year. “Maybe because he’s not the original drummer, but, my God, what would we be without Taylor Hawkins? Could you imagine? It would be a completely different thing.”