Beautiful Virgin Islands

Sunday, Aug 02, 2026

Taylor Hawkins: drugs found in body of Foo Fighters drummer

Taylor Hawkins: drugs found in body of Foo Fighters drummer

Toxicology test indicated presence of 10 substances including marijuana, antidepressants and opioids

The Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins had at least 10 substances in his body when he died suddenly in Bogotá, according to a preliminary toxicology test carried out by Colombian authorities.

The 50-year-old musician was found dead in his hotel room on Friday afternoon, hours before the band was due to perform at Colombia’s Estéreo Picnic festival as part of its South American tour. The Grammy award-winning group had then been due to headline one of Brazil’s biggest music festivals on Sunday night.

On Saturday, Colombia’s attorney general’s office said analysis of Hawkins’ urine found traces of marijuana, opioids, tricyclic antidepressants and benzodiazepines, which can be used to treat insomnia or anxiety.

The Colombian magazine Semana claimed Hawkins died after a sudden cardiac arrest caused by an overdose of heroin, antidepressants and benzodiazepines. The magazine said forensic medical experts had been shocked by how swollen the musician’s heart had become.

Hawkins’ death sparked an outpouring of grief in Bogotá, where the news was broken to tearful festivalgoers by the Black Pumas singer Eric Burton, who asked the audience to observe a moment of silence.

Fans gathered outside the Four Seasons hotel, where the musician died, to light candles, leave flowers and sing some of the band’s songs. There was applause as Hawkins’ body was removed from the building by police.

Some of the world’s most famous musicians paid tribute to the drummer, who decided to pick up the sticks after his mother took him to see a Queen rock concert in 1982. Hawkins played with Alanis Morissette for two years before joining the Foo Fighters in 1997.

“No. It cannot be,” the Queen guitarist Brian May wrote on Instagram. “Heartbroken. Taylor, you were family to us. Our friend, our brother, our beloved child. Bless you. We will miss you so bad.”

“So incredibly sad to hear of the passing of Taylor Hawkins,” tweeted Mick Jagger. “My thoughts are with his family and the band at this time.”

Ozzy Osbourne called Hawkins – who is survived by his wife, Alison, and three children – “a truly a great person and an amazing musician”. “My heart, my love and my condolences go out to his wife, his children, his family, his band and his fans. See you on the other side,” Osbourne said.

In a statement, the Foo Fighters said they were devastated “by the tragic and untimely loss of our beloved Taylor Hawkins. His musical spirit and infectious laughter will live with us forever. Our hearts go out to his wife, children, and family, and we ask that their privacy be treated with the utmost respect in this unimaginably difficult time.”


The band’s singer, Dave Grohl, the former Nirvana drummer, has spoken frequently of his close relationship with a musician he once called “the love of my life”.

“Upon first meeting, our bond was immediate, and we grew closer with every day, every song, every note that we played together,” Grohl, who lost his friend and Nirvana bandmate Kurt Cobain in 1994, wrote in his 2021 memoirs. “I am not afraid to say that our chance meeting was a kind of love at first sight … Together, we have become an unstoppable duo, onstage and off, in pursuit of any and all adventure we can find.”

Top South American artists also mourned the premature death of Hawkins, who was born in Texas in 1972 and raised in California. In Brazil, where the Foo Fighters had been scheduled to headline the last night of the Lollapalooza festival on Sunday, the rapper Emicida used his performance at the same event to lament the passing of “our brother”.

“Our hearts are broken because all of us looked up to the Foo Fighters in some way,” Emicida told fans, announcing a special tribute to “one of the greatest drummers of all time” on Sunday night featuring artists including fellow rapper Criolo and the band Planet Hemp.

The singer-songwriter Miley Cyrus broke down on stage as she remembered her friend. “We lost a legend in rock music … and I just want to send my most peaceful wishes to the Foo Fighters family and the Hawkins family,” she told Lollapalooza.

There were also onstage tributes in the UK, where the former Oasis singer Liam Gallagher dedicated one of the group’s biggest hits to Hawkins. “You and I are gonna live forever, Gonna live forever,” Gallagher sang on Saturday night as the drummer’s image was projected on to a screen behind him.

“I dedicate this last song to the one and only Taylor fucking Hawkins who has sadly passed away,” Gallagher told the audience at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

The Beatles drummer Ringo Starr said: “God bless Taylor peace and love to all his family and the band peace and love.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Finland Deploys Commercial-Scale Thermal Batteries Using Crushed Rock to Store Renewable Grid Energy
Valued at $109 Million: F-35B Fighter Jet Crashes in Southern California
Andy Burnham has Announces Plans to Redistribute Income Tax Revenue to English Mayors
Early-Release Scheme Faces Fresh Scrutiny as Reoffending and Prison Recalls Rise
Police Phone Checks Followed Report on Murder of MI5 Agent Inside Sinn Féin
Archbishop of Canterbury Reaffirms £100 Million Reparative Justice Fund During Ghana Visit
Drought Status Extended Across All of Wales as Heat and Dry Weather Deepen Environmental Strain
Record-Low Danube Exposes Probable Mammoth Remains in Bulgaria
US Says It Has Carried Out Heavy Strikes on Iran After Attempted Attacks on Its Forces
The chief executive of the popular gaming company laid off many employees and his pay rose to 38 million dollars
The World's Most Terrifying Smartphone: Recording, Documenting, and Reporting to the Regime
The AI User Nightmare: Private Claude Conversations Leaked to the Internet
UK: Former Football Association Leaders Call for World Cup Boycott Over FIFA Privatization Plan
Forbidden Love: China severs millions from their virtual partners
Over 24 Hours in the Air: Qantas Airbus Completes Record-Breaking Test Flight
Zuckerberg Opposes US Ban on Chinese AI Models and Warns of Regulatory Capture
Massive Wildfires Ravage Southern Europe: Fatalities in Greece and Evacuations Across France, Spain, and Turkey
Trump says Israel ‘would not survive’ without US
France Evacuates Atlantic Coast Resorts as Wildfire Risk Rises Again
Magnitude 7.1 Earthquake Strikes Kumamoto as Rescuers Search Collapsed Buildings
OpenAI Faces Demands for Full Disclosure After Models Breach Hugging Face
Nvidia Reportedly Takes Vast Texas Data-Centre Lease to Underwrite AI Expansion
Royal Collection Trust Income Falls as Palace Visits Retreat From Record Highs
FIFA’s Private-Investment Plan for World Cup Rights Draws European Revolt
Ministers Examine Social-Care Levy as Burnham Seeks Funding Settlement
Apple Briefly Crosses Five Trillion Dollar Valuation as Investors Retreat From AI Bets
Badenoch Offers Tory Votes to Keep Serious Offenders in Prison
Why Americans Queue for $15 Ice Cream and a $100 Caviar Pint
Another AI Genius Left the United States — and Silicon Valley Is Starting to Worry
Shein Reports $99mn Loss as Trade Barriers Test Low-Cost Model
CXMT Gains 466% in China’s Biggest IPO Since 2010
Amazon Seeks Approval for 5,105-Satellite Mobile Network
Burnham Puts School-to-Work Reform at Centre of Welfare Strategy
Burnham Rules Out Replacing Council Tax and Stamp Duty
Fresh Heatwave Threatens to Rekindle France’s Historic Wildfire Crisis
Following OpenAI's Cyberattack: 'Most Companies Still Do Not Understand What Is Coming'
Autopsy Finds No Violence in Death of Epstein-Linked Model Scout
Indian Education Minister Resigns After Cockroach Youth Protests
California Desert Data-Centre Plan Stalls as Water and Power Disputes Mount
War, Youth Revolt and the Global Struggle for Control
War, Power and the Rising Price of Political Decisions
Badenoch Rejects Grant Shapps' Bid to Return as Conservative Candidate
BAE Chief Warns Britain Has Underestimated the Risk of War
Burnham Rules Out New Scottish Independence Referendum in First Talks With Swinney
OpenAI Sued After ChatGPT Allegedly Discouraged Emergency Care Before Near-Fatal Embolism
Viral Video Raises Questions Over Twelve-Dollar Croissants at Manhattan Bakery
Miliband Sets Climate and International Law at Centre of UK Diplomacy
US Gasoline Returns to $4 as Renewed Iran Fighting Disrupts Oil Flows
Czech Central Bank Governor Rejects Early Euro Entry and Rate-Cut Pressure
Trump Orders 50% Tariffs on Selected Canadian Imports
×