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Taylor Hawkins was a big fan of Queen. During Foo Fighters gigs, he'd often come out from behind the drum kits to sing one of their songs. In fact, during his last show they covered "Somebody To Love."
Hawkins was also friends with Brian May, and during a recent interview the Queen guitarist opened up about his friendship with the late drummer, revealing his spoke to him just a week before his untimely death.
“Taylor was very close to [Queen], he’s been in my studio a few of times. In my life, I talk to him often. I talked to him just a week ago from when we lost him,” he said. “We talk about stuff, talking about Dave [Grohl], about what life is like, his joys, frustrations, being in Foo Fighters.”
“We instantly bonded because Taylor and Pat Smear were the most informed Queen fans, they knew more about us than we did,” May said on meeting the pair. “We were just shocked to find out how much they felt about us.”
He went on to talk about how Hawkins was "the best publicist for Queen ever."
“He’s been so good for our image!” May exclaimed. “Where he kind of regarded us as cool – which at the time a lot of people didn’t.”
He then reflected on his death. “Taylor wasn’t even my generation. I think of him as a boy – same as I saw George Michael as a boy – to lose them feels all wrong. It makes you feel so frustrated. It makes you feel like you want to negotiate with death.”
“It makes you feel like if you looked at it enough, if you talk about it enough, if you analyse it enough then maybe you can bring him back, but of course, that’s just not the way it all works,” he added.
Hawkins died unexpectedly on March 25 in a hotel room in Bogotá, Colombia. He was 50 years old.