The GRAMMYs pay tribute to Foo Fighters' Taylor Hawkins

4 April 2022, 11:18 | Updated: 4 April 2022, 11:59

A special tribute for Hawkins took place instead of Foo Fighters' performance on the night ahead of the award ceremony's In Memoriam section.

The GRAMMYs paid tribute to Foo Fighters' drummer Taylor Hawkins, who tragically died on 25th March aged 50.

The star-studded awards ceremony took place on Sunday (4th April) and host Trevor Noah spoke during what was meant to be the band's scheduled performance before introducing a tribute to their late drummer.

Taking to the stage, the late night show host said: "So this was the moment in the show when I was supposed to be introducing the Foo Fighters. We would have been celebrating with them as they won three GRAMMY Awards today, but they are of course not here due to the tragic passing of their legendary drummer Taylor Hawkins.

"Our thoughts go out to Taylor's family and friends, the Foo Fighters family and all of their fans across the globe. We'd like to take a moment now to remember Taylor and we would now like to take a moment to remember all those in the music community in the last year."

Watch Trevor Noah's speech and the GRAMMYs tribute, which was set to Foo Fighters' My Hero, below:

Grammy Awards Tribute to Taylor Hawkins (2022)

The ceremony honoured Foo Fighters with three awards for Best Rock Performance (Making a Fire), Best Rock Song (Waiting on a War) and Best Rock Album (Medicine at Midnight).

Elsewhere during the show, Billie Eilish also paid tribute to the rocker by wearing a band t-shirt during a performance of her Happier Than Ever track.

Watch a snippet of her performance below:

Eilish is in a long list of acts to pay tribute to the late drummer, with Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea praising the rocker on Radio X just last week.

Asked how he felt when he heard the news, the Black Summer rocker replied: "Absolutely shocking. I love Taylor. He was an uplifting dude.

"You know, before I ever met Taylor and long before he every played in the Foo Fighters, one of my best friends growing up, my friend Tree who I started a music school with, he was teaching music in a music school down in Orange County in LA and he said ‘Man there’s this kid here selling guitar strings and he’s a star. He’s a drummer and I’m telling you he’s going to be a rock star’ and it was Taylor.”

Flea pays tribute to Taylor Hawkins

“I’ve always loved Taylor," added the musician. "I had fun with him. We toured with them for years and years and you know, he’s best friends… was extremely close with our drummer Chad Smith and it’s a very devastating experience for Chad and everyone who was close to him, because he was a kind, generous, just fun dude and a killer drummer.

“And love to his family and love to everyone that knew him and god bless his beautiful heart”.

Asked if there was anything he would have wanted to say to the Foos drummer that he didn't get to tell him, the 59-year-old rocker reflected: “Nah, man. I’m pretty up front with my feelings. I was always like, ‘Taylor I love you dude, you rock’. That’s what I would have wanted to say. ‘You’re a beautiful person’ and I’m sure I told him that.”

Listen back to the interview on Global Player

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