Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins died of a drug overdose on Friday, while on tour with his band in South America.
Hawkins was discovered dead in his Four Seasons hotel room in Bogota, Columbia on Friday, prior to the band’s scheduled performance at the capital’s Picnic Stereo Festival later that evening.
The band announced his death the same day across multiple social media channels. “The Foo Fighters family is devastated by the loss of our beloved Taylor Hawkins,” they posted. “His musical spirit and infectious laughter will live on with all of us forever.”
Local police reported that Hawkins death “could be related to the consumption of drugs,” according to “those close to him,” hours after his body was found. “Cocaine looking powder” and “hallucinogenic drugs” were found in the hotel room, which displayed “no signs of violence.”
The drummer reportedly began complaining of chest pain on Friday night before the band’s headline performance, and his condition rapidly deteriorated until efforts to revive him by medical professionals failed.
On Sunday, investigators concluded that Hawkins’ cause of death was cardiovascular collapse brought on from binging a cocktail of drugs that included heroin, antidepressants, and benzodiazepines.
He also had traces of ten different drugs including morphine, marijuana, and opioids in his urine. Forensic experts revealed that his heart weighed “at least 600 grams,” or twice the amount of an average human heart.
Hawkins’ tragic end was not his first brush with an overdose, he landed in a weeks-long coma after consuming too much heroin in 2001.
“Everyone has their own path and I took it too far,” he said of the incident. “I believed the bull***t myth of live hard and fast, die young. I’m not here to preach about not doing drugs, because I loved doing drugs, but I just got out of control for a while and it almost got me.”
Hawkins joined the Foo Fighters in 1997, after the departure of their original drummer, William Goldsmith. He is survived by his wife Alison and their three children.
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