RIP Taylor Hawkins. What do you do when a member of your band dies? It’s complicated

The death of drummer Taylor Hawkins has thrown the future of the Foo Fighters into chaos. How have other bands coped when one of their number dies?

One of the knocks against the Foo Fighters has been that they’re not dangerous or consumed with drama.

But that’s been very much by design. Dave Grohl had no intention of reliving the trauma that followed the death of Kurt Cobain. Foos guitarist Pat Smear was not only a touring guitarist with Nirvana back in 1994, but in 1980, he’d been a member of an LA punk band called The Germs. The night before John Lennon was shot, singer Darby Crash died of a heroin overdose.

There was some danger/drama in 2001 when drummer Taylor Hawkins ended up in a two-week coma after a heroin overdose in London — an incident that he said scared him straight — but outside of that, the Foos appeared to have been squeaky clean. With everyone united in the goal of becoming the biggest rock band in the world, bad behaviour that risked sabotaging everything was not tolerated.

But then Taylor Hawkins, the most beloved member of the band next to Dave Grohl (and Dave’s best friend in the whole world), suffered some kind of cardiovascular event in Bogotá, Colombia, back on March 25 and died.

A preliminary autopsy determined that his heart was enlarged to 600 grams, twice the size of a man his size and age. An enlarged heart isn’t a disease unto itself but a symptom of something else: acute high blood pressure, thyroid issues, congenital problems, and more.

With such a key member of the group gone forever, the Foo Fighters will have to figure out a new path for the future. What might that be? There will definitely be a series of difficult band meetings in the coming weeks that will also involve family, friends, and management.

I see three choices. First, the band is brought to a close, reorganizes, rebrands, and comes back in a different form. Second, find someone else to play drums and resume work after everyone has had a chance to grieve and heal. And third, the Foos already have a drummer in their midst. I think he knows most of the songs, too.

I’d completely discount a Dave Grohl solo career. He’s always said that he loves the idea of being in a band. Retirement? Not a chance. He’s too driven and restless.