London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Jan 09, 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

0:00
0:00
Close
UK Prime Minister Starmer Reaffirms Support for Danish Sovereignty Over Greenland Amid U.S. Pressure
UK Support Bolsters U.S. Seizure of Russian-Flagged Tanker Marinera in Atlantic Strike on Sanctions Evasion
The Claim That Maduro’s Capture and Trial Violate International Law Is Either Legally Illiterate—or Deliberately Deceptive
UK Data Watchdog Probes Elon Musk’s X Over AI-Generated Grok Images Amid Surge in Non-Consensual Outputs
Prince Harry to Return to UK for Court Hearing Without Plans to Meet King Charles III
UK Confirms Support for US Seizure of Russian-Flagged Oil Tanker in North Atlantic
Béla Tarr, Visionary Hungarian Filmmaker, Dies at Seventy After Long Illness
UK and France Pledge Military Hubs Across Ukraine in Post-Ceasefire Security Plan
Prince Harry Poised to Regain UK Security Cover, Clearing Way for Family Visits
UK Junk Food Advertising Ban Faces Major Loophole Allowing Brand-Only Promotions
Maduro’s Arrest Without The Hague Tests International Law—and Trump’s Willingness to Break It
German Intelligence Secretly Intercepted Obama’s Air Force One Communications
The U.S. State Department’s account in Persian: “President Trump is a man of action. If you didn’t know it until now, now you do—do not play games with President Trump.”
Fake Mainstream Media Double Standard: Elon Musk Versus Mamdani
HSBC Leads 2026 Mortgage Rate Cuts as UK Lending Costs Ease
US Joint Chiefs Chairman Outlines How Operation Absolute Resolve Was Carried Out in Venezuela
Starmer Welcomes End of Maduro Era While Stressing International Law and UK Non-Involvement
Korean Beauty Turns Viral Skincare Into a Global Export Engine
UK Confirms Non-Involvement in U.S. Military Action Against Venezuela
UK Terror Watchdog Calls for Australian-Style Social Media Ban to Protect Teenagers
Iranian Protests Intensify as Another Revolutionary Guard Member Is Killed and Khamenei Blames the West
Delta Force Identified as Unit Behind U.S. Operation That Captured Venezuela’s President
Europe’s Luxury Sanctions Punish Russian Consumers While a Sanctions-Circumvention Industry Thrives
Berkshire’s Buffett-to-Abel Transition Tests Whether a One-Man Trust Model Can Survive as a System
Fraud in European Central Bank: Lagarde’s Hidden Pay Premium Exposes a Transparency Crisis at the European Central Bank
Trump Announces U.S. Large-Scale Strike on Venezuela, Declares President Maduro and Wife Captured
Tesla Loses EV Crown to China’s BYD After Annual Deliveries Decline in 2025
UK Manufacturing Growth Reaches 15-Month Peak as Output and Orders Improve in December
Beijing Threatened to Scrap UK–China Trade Talks After British Minister’s Taiwan Visit
Newly Released Files Reveal Tony Blair Pressured Officials Over Iraq Death Case Involving UK Soldiers
Top Stocks and Themes to Watch in 2026 as Markets Enter New Year with Fresh Momentum
No UK Curfew Ordered as Deepfake TikTok Falsely Attributes Decree to Prime Minister Starmer
Europe’s Largest Defence Groups Set to Return Nearly Five Billion Dollars to Shareholders in Twenty Twenty-Five
Abu Dhabi ‘Capital of Capital’: How Abu Dhabi Rose as a Sovereign Wealth Power
Diamonds Are Powering a New Quantum Revolution
Trump Threatens Strikes Against Iran if Nuclear Programme Is Restarted
Apple Escalates Legal Fight by Appealing £1.5 Billion UK Ruling Over App Store Fees
UK Debt Levels Sit Mid-Range Among Advanced Economies Despite Rising Pressures
UK Plans Royal Diplomacy with King Charles and Prince William to Reinvigorate Trade Talks with US
King Charles and Prince William Poised for Separate 2026 US Visits to Reinforce UK-US Trade and Diplomatic Ties
Apple Moves to Appeal UK Ruling Ordering £1.5 Billion in Customer Overcharge Damages
King Charles’s 2025 Christmas Message Tops UK Television Ratings on Christmas Day
The Battle Over the Internet Explodes: The United States Bars European Officials and Ignites a Diplomatic Crisis
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie Join Royal Family at Sandringham Christmas Service
Fine Wine Investors Find Little Cheer in Third Year of Falls
UK Mortgage Rates Edge Lower as Bank of England Base Rate Cut Filters Through Lending Market
U.S. Supermarket Gives Customers Free Groceries for Christmas After Computer Glitch
Air India ‘Finds’ a Plane That Vanished 13 Years Ago
Caviar and Foie Gras? China Is Becoming a Luxury Food Powerhouse
Hong Kong Climbs to Second Globally in 2025 Tourism Rankings Behind Bangkok
×