Foo Fighters Drummer Taylor Hawkins

_{Image: Taylor Hawkins in concert, May 2010 in New York City. Photos on this page are by the author, sockii, unless otherwise indicated or provided by Amazon/eBay.}

• Birthname: Oliver Taylor Hawkins
• Birthdate: February 17, 1972
• Born in: Fort Worth, Texas
• Joined the Foo Fighters: 1997
• Major drumming influences: Roger Taylor (Queen), Stewart Copeland (The Police), Neil Peart (Rush)
• Current drumming equipment: Gretsch drums, Zildjian cymbals, DW Hardware, Remo drum heads, Latin Percussion Percussion, North drums, Shure drum microphones and Zildjian Taylor Hawkins Signature drumsticks.
• Relationship status: Married (to wife Alison), currently father of one son and one daughter.
• Resides in: Topanga, California
• Get more Taylor Hawkins facts at Wikipedia.

For more information on the history of the Foo Fighters and Taylor's part in the band, read my extended article The Foo Fighters: More Than Everything You Ever Needed to Know.

Enjoy this selection of great Foo Fighters live performances and music videos! Here you can get a wonderful sample of Taylor's drumming - and also his singing - in these cool clips.

The Ultimate Foo Fighters Fan Survey

The Foo Fighters are one of the most popular - and enduring - rock bands to emerge from the 1990s. If you're a huge fan of the band, then share your favorites here in this ultimate fan survey.

In this interview clip from Associated Press, Taylor Hawkins talks about how "Red Light Fever" came about, including the impact of guest appearances by Brian May, Roger Taylor, and Foo's bandmate David Grohl.

Want to play the drums like Taylor does? Well, maybe you won't quite get that same sound from equipment alone, but you can get closer by using his signature line products.

These are the best places online to find out more about Taylor Hawkins, his drumming and his music on-line.

• Taylor Hawkins (Official Website)

  Taylor's official site with tour info, music and more.

• Foo Fighters

  Official web page for the Foos fighters. News, merchandise, message forum, videos - it's the place to go for news on the band.

• Hawkins Poor Brain

  An archive of interviews with Taylor Hawkins, from 1997 to the present day.

• Taylor Hawkins - Wikipedia

  Wikipedia entry on Taylor Hawkins.

• Taylor Hawkins at Drumerworld

  Photos, videolinks and more through this great directory of top rock drummers.

• Taylor Hawkins on tumblr

  What's been tagged "Taylor Hawkins" on tumblr?

My path to becoming a fan of Taylor's was fairly unusual. I'd certainly heard the music of the Foo Fighters before on the radio and TV but had never paid them too much attention until the publicity campaign for "In Your Honor" in the summer of 2005. I was surfing around one of my favorite message boards at the time - Ian Copeland's "Ask Uncle Ian" forum - when someone posted he was heading down to Times Square because he'd just seen Stewart Copeland hanging out with the Foo Fighters at MTV studios. (Keep in mind, most of us at AUI were huge Stewart Copeland/Police fans; it was our main "hangout" at the time.) Sure enough, MTV2 was running its "24 Hours of Foo" special and Stewart had shown up to play bucket drums out in the street and hang out for the band for a while.

I found what I really loved about the Foos was their energy and sense of fun and humor. This was a band that made good music and seemed to have a lot of fun doing so. I saw them in concert and found they were one of the best live bands out there today - really interacting with the audience and putting on a great show.

Taylor certainly impressed me with his drumming, but it was when he came out with his first solo album, "Taylor Hawkins & the Coattail Riders," that I really took notice. I enjoyed the music on that album almost more than I enjoyed the Foo Fighters songs, as it had a very retro-70s vibe that I enjoyed and I quite liked Taylor's singing voice - along with his drumming! When he toured in support of the album in 2006 I saw him play at the tiny North Star Bar in Philadelphia, which really gave me the chance to appreciate his drumming close up. I loved that he was cool enough to simply hang out with fans before the show, eating dinner with the band and not putting on any "rock star" airs at all.

I was beyond thrilled when, after the Taylor Hawkins & The Coattail Riders show on May 4, 2010 in Baltimore, Maryland, I was able to briefly meet Taylor at long last. He was wonderfully friendly, taking his time to meet and greet with each fan waiting outside the club for a chance to say hello. He was gracious to pose for a photograph with me, making the night a truly memorable one. Many thanks to my friend who took this photo and captured the moment!

Two days later I was able to see him perform again at the Gramercy Theatre in New York City, where I was able to return the favor and snap a few photos for other friends meeting Taylor for the first time.