Taylor Hawkins Recalls When Axl Rose Told Him That Dave Grohl Is The Greatest Drummer Of The ‘90s

In an appearance on Howard Stern Show, Foo Fighters’ drummer Taylor Hawkins opened up about whether he felt intimidating playing drums for the band of a great drummer as Dave Grohl and revealed what Guns N’ Roses icon Axl Rose stated about Grohl’s drumming.

As you might know, the iconic musician Dave Grohl started his career by playing drums for Scream back in 1986 while he was only 17 years old. Soon later when Scream disbanded, Dave auditioned for Nirvana and achieved to join the band as their permanent drummer. Unfortunately, on April 5, 1994, the co-founder and lead singer of Nirvana, Kurt Cobain passed away at the age of 27. The cause of his death was revealed as a self-inflicted gunshot to the head.

Following his bandmate’s tragic death, Dave Grohl took a break from his music career since he felt lost and was unsure about what to do with himself. Later in 1994, Grohl started his one-man project, Foo Fighters, and recorded several songs in which he sang every vocal and played every instrument.

While working on Foo Fighters’debute album, Dave recruited former Sunny Day Real Estate members, Nate Mendel and William Goldsmith, and his former bandmate from Nirvana, Pat Smear. The drummer of the band, William Goldsmith was later replaced by Taylor Hawkins in 1997.

Recently, Foo Fighters’ members joined the Howard Stern Show to perform the songs from their latest album ‘Medicine at Midnight.’ The highly-anticipated album has recently released on February 5, 2021, as a part of the band’s celebrations of their 25th anniversary.

During the show, Howard Stein wanted to know how Taylor Hawkins feels about being the drummer in a band that was formed by a great drummer like Dave Grohl. Stein asked whether Grohl is critical of Hawkins drumming while suggesting it must be intimidating for him. In his response, Taylor mentioned that as a drummer he is in the hot seat since a band is good as its drummer. He stated that considering he is a drummer himself, Dave Grohl is ‘never a dick about’ his drumming.

Furthermore, Hawkins recalled the time he first met Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose and revealed the difficult question he asked about his music career. Apparently, Rose wanted to know what Taylor was thinking about ‘being the drummer for the best drummer of the ’90s.’ Hawkins stated that he was surprised that the one and only Axl Rose asked him such a hard question. But he also mentioned that it is quite intimidating to be the drummer of such a talented drummer like Dave Grohl.

Here is how Howard Stein asked Taylor Hawkins if Grohl is critical of his drumming:

“I don’t care what Taylor says. It’s got to be intimidating being in Foo Fighters. You were the drummer of Nirvana and you were such a good drummer yourself. And I’m sure Taylor, you certainly have nightmares if he is gonna be critical. Is he critical?“

To which Taylor responded:

“I think because Dave was the drummer and the drummer is in the hot seat. If the gig goes bad, it’s the drummer’s fault.”

Dave Grohl chimed in:

“The band is good as the drummer.”

Hawkins continued:

“Yes, the band is good as the drummer and it is bad as the drummer as well. Dave is never a dick about it. I can honestly say that he is never a dick about it. But it is intimidating, there is no question.

When I joined the band, I was super intimidated. Because when I met Axl Rose first time, he was like ‘what it is like being the drummer for the best drummer of the ’90s?’ And I was like ‘Wow, Axl Rose and he said that.’ So hard.”

Here is what the caption said:

“‘It’s intimidating,’ Taylor Hawkins admits of having one of the best drummers of all time as a bandmate.“

Click here to see the Instagram post.