Dave Grohl Used Music ‘As a Crutch’ After Taylor Hawkins’ Death

Dave Grohl has finally opened up about the difficulty of coping with the death of his Foo Fighters bandmate, Taylor Hawkins.

«Losing Taylor was never meant to be,» Grohl solemnly remarked during a recent interview with Mojo, his first conversation regarding Hawkins since the drummer’s 2022 death. “That threw our world upside down and made me question everything about life, that it was so… It was so unfair. I still have a hard time making sense of it.»

It was March 25, 2022, when Hawkins tragically died in his hotel room in Bogotá, Colombia, hours before Foo Fighters were scheduled to perform at the Festival Estéreo Picnic. While fans mourned the news, the band gathered in Grohl’s hotel room, where they «drank and cried.»

As the reality set in over the next few days, Grohl searched for anything to take his mind off of Hawkins.

READ MORE: Taylor Hawkins’ Classic Rock Influences: In His Own Words

«I think I was afraid of silence, afraid of having to feel,» the frontman admitted. «I could have used a bit more of the silence, a bit more of digging deeper. I never want to say music is a distraction, but I was definitely using it as a crutch for some broken limb.»

This wasn’t the first time Grohl had dealt with the overwhelming loss of a bandmate. He suffered through a similar tragedy in 1994 when Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain took his own life. Foo Fighters’ origins were grown from that pain, and nearly 30 years later the band would again prove to be a heling presence for Grohl.

«We realized this was something we needed to do,” Grohl explained, noting the need to keep his band going. “Because it had saved us once before.»

Dave Grohl Says His ‘Horizon Is Much Different’ Now

Rather than disband in the wake of Hawkins’ death, Foo Fighters soldiered on. The band staged massive tribute concerts honoring their late drummer, recorded and released a new album – 2023’s But Here We Are – and recruited Josh Freese to man the kit. Though the fit eventually wasn’t right – Freese was dismissed in 2025 and he later admitted the band’s music didn’t really resonate with him – It showed Foo Fighters were determined to continue. Now, the band has a new drummer, Ilan Rubin, and another album, Your Favorite Toy, due in April.

In the Mojo interview, the typically ebullient Grohl struck a pensive tone as he reflected upon how his life has changed over the last few years.

READ MORE: Top 25 Foo Fighters Songs

«I’ve had to re-examine my ambition and intention,» he noted. «A lot of those projects over the years were surface validation to prove that I could do it – not that I needed to do it. I was always the guy who couldn’t sit still. I couldn’t take a vacation. I needed the TV on to put me to sleep. It was the silence – the still – that scared me.

«My horizon is much different,» Grohl continued. «There will be plenty of things that we’ll do in the next few years that will remind everyone that Foo Fighters love to circle the planet playing rock shows.» The difference now: «Before, I was running on fumes and unleaded gas. Now I’m just burning fucking diesel.»