Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl on life without Taylor Hawkins

Foo Fighters press shot 2026 — (Image credit: Elizabeth Miranda)

Earlier today Foo Fighters announced the release of their twelfth studio album, Your Favorite Toy, on April 24, and now Dave Grohl has revealed that the spirit of late drummer Taylor Hawkins still influences the band's music.

"We had Taylor Hawkins as our drummer for 25 years and, beyond being an amazing drummer, he was this incredible spirit," Grohl tells Apple Music 1's Zane Lowe. "He was this incredible human being and he was our brother. He was our best friend. So, continuing after Taylor was really complicated, not just for us, but for any drummer that was going to come in to like, you know, fill his shoes.

"You know, we're having this conversation on Taylor's birthday. It's Taylor's birthday today. And so, we wake up in the morning and everybody just texts about how much we miss him and how the world's not the same without him, but we still feel him very much. We always talk about him every fucking day. In everything we do we want to have that energy – we want to have that energy for Taylor."

Elsewhere in the interview, Grohl talks about how the follow-up to 2023's But Here We Are, came to fruition.

"For the last year and a half, I was spending a lot of time in my studio just writing and experimenting and demoing things, and I'd come up with maybe like 30 or 40 different ideas. One night, I was listening to all these ideas, and just randomly, there were these 10 songs in a row in my playlist that were all just like noisy, loud bangers. Up-tempo, like back to the old days.

"I was like, wait a minute, maybe this is the record. There was other stuff that sounded like Led Zeppelin's Presence, and then there was stuff that sounded kind of mellow acoustic, but I was listening to this playlist and these 10 [songs] in a row, and I'm like, this is the record right here."  

The 10-track album, which will be released on April 24, was recorded at Dave Grohl's 606 studio and co-produced by Foo Fighters and their in-house engineer Oliver Roman, formerly the frontman of LA rock band Jaw Talk. The first single from the album – the title track – is out now.

Foo Fighters - Your Favorite Toy (Lyric Video) - YouTube

Watch On

Foo Fighters' Take Cover world tour kicks off on June 10 at the Unity Arena in Oslo, Norway, and now includes a newly announced run of shows in Australia and New Zealand. Full dates below.

Foo Fighters: Take Cover tour 2026/27

May 08: Daytona Beach Welcome To Rockville, FL
May 23: Napa Bottlerock Napa Valley 2026, CA

Jun 10: Oslo Unity Arena, Norway
Jun 12: Stockholm Strawberry Arena, Sweden
Jun 15: Warsaw Pge Narodowy, Poland
Jun 17: Munich Allianz Arena, Germany
Jun 19: Paris Paris La Defense Arena, France
Jun 21: Landgraaf Megaland, Netherlands
Jun 25: Liverpool Anfield Stadium, UK
Jun 27: Liverpool Anfield Stadium, UK
Jul 01: Berlin Olympiastadion, Germany
Jul 03: Vienna Ernst Happel Stadium, Austria
Jul 05: Milan Snai San Siro Hippodrome, Italy
Jul 08: Madrid Villaverde, Spain
Jul 10: Oeiras Passeio Marítimo De Alges, Portugal

Aug 04: Toronto Rogers Stadium Toronto, ON
Aug 06: Detroit Ford Field, MI
Aug 08: Chicago Soldier Field, IL
Aug 10: Cleveland Huntington Bank Field, OH
Aug 13: Philadelphia Lincoln Financial Field, PA
Aug 15: Nashville Nissan Stadium, TN
Aug 17: Washington Nationals Park, DC
Sep 12: Fargo Fargodome, ND
Sep 15: Regina Mosaic Stadium, SK
Sep 17: Edton Comwealth Stadium, AB
Sep 20: Vancouver Bc Place Stadium, BC
Sep 26: Las Vegas Allegiant Stadium, NV

Nov 05: Brisbane Corp Stadium, Australia
Nov 07: Townsville Country Bank Stadium, Australia
Nov 10: Sydney Accor Stadium, Australia
Nov 12: Newcastle Mcdonald Jones Stadium, Australia
Nov 14: Melbourne Marvel Stadium, Australia
Nov 17: Adelaide Coopers Stadium, Australia
Jan 19: Christchurch One New Zealand Stadium, New Zealand
Jan 22: Auckland Western Springs Stadium, New Zeland
Jan 25: Perth Hbf Park, Australia

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Artists

Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazine since 2014. 40 years in music industry, online for 27. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.

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