Dave Grohl Recalls the Backstage Moment He Knew Taylor Hawkins Would Be His "Best Friend"

A Backstage Introduction That Changed Foo Fighters Forever

Dave Grohl has spent much of the past year speaking candidly about grief. This week, he offered something lighter: the story of how he met Taylor Hawkins, and the split second he knew the two of them were built to last. Appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on October 26 — with Foo Fighters holding down a residency on the show and performing every night for the rest of the week — the frontman revisited the first time he crossed paths with the drummer who would define his band's sound for a quarter century.

The setting, as Grohl tells it, was hardly glamorous. In the mid-'90s, Foo Fighters' debut record and Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill arrived around the same time, which meant the two acts kept crossing paths on the festival and radio-show circuit. Hawkins was drumming for Morissette at the time. Backstage at one of those dates, Grohl said, "Here comes this blond, surfer dude, like, 'Yo, dude, I love your band. You guys are so awesome. Yadda-yadda-yadda.' I knew, right then, I was like, 'Oh, we're gonna be best friends for the rest of our lives.'"

It is a small anecdote with enormous consequences. Hawkins officially joined Foo Fighters in March 1997, stepping in after his run with Morissette's band came to an end. He remained behind the kit until his death in March 2022, at the age of 50.

“What Are You Going to Do When Dave Asks You to Be the Drummer?”

Grohl also credited Morissette for seeing the pairing before either drummer fully did. He recalled that she had effectively predicted the handoff, asking Hawkins what he planned to do when Grohl came calling for a drummer. It is the kind of detail that makes the story feel less like chance and more like inevitability — a perfect fit recognized by the people in the room before the paperwork ever existed.

For fans, that moment of recognition is the origin point of everything Foo Fighters became. When Grohl launched the band in the mid-'90s, it began as a one-man project: he wrote and recorded the material himself, then assembled a full lineup to tour and record under the Foo Fighters name after the 1995 debut album. Hawkins' arrival turned what could have been a solo vessel into a genuine band — two drummers, in effect, one of them singing from the front, locked into a rhythm section partnership that became the engine of the group's live show.

Why the Story Lands Differently Now

The interview arrives during a period of sustained reflection for Grohl. He has spoken at length this year about the loss of Hawkins, telling MOJO in April that "losing Taylor was never meant to be" and that the drummer's death "threw our world upside down and made me question everything about life, that it was so unfair. I still have a hard time making sense of it."

That makes the Kimmel appearance notable for its tone. Rather than circling back to the grief, Grohl went to the beginning — the goofy, energetic introduction that preceded the years of touring, recording and friendship. It is a reminder that Hawkins was not just a member of Foo Fighters; he was, by Grohl's own account, chosen before he was hired. The bond came first. The job followed.

For a band that has spent the last two years navigating the unimaginable, that distinction matters. Tributes to Hawkins have tended to focus on his playing and his irrepressible presence on stage. Grohl's story this week adds something more intimate: the memory of a friendship that announced itself before either man had a reason to believe it would last.

The Residency Format and What It Says About Foo Fighters Today

The timing of the interview is worth noting. Grohl and Foo Fighters have taken up a residency on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, performing every night for the rest of the week — a format that turns a promotional stop into something closer to a mini-tour. It is a strategy that suits a band of Foo Fighters' stature, giving them room to be playful, conversational and repeatable without the pressure of a single high-stakes appearance. It also gives Grohl a platform to tell stories like this one to a late-night audience that might not have been following the band when Hawkins was still behind the kit.

That storytelling instinct has been central to the Grohl persona for years. He has directed Foo Fighters' music videos since 1997, and he has long used film as a way of documenting the people and places that shaped him — from the 2013 documentary Sound City to the 2014 series Sonic Highways and the 2021 film What Drives Us. His 2021 memoir, The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music, made the same impulse explicit. The Kimmel recollection fits neatly into that tradition: a small moment, told well, that illuminates a much larger story.

A Friendship That Outlived the Drum Kit

Taylor Hawkins' tenure in Foo Fighters coincided with the band's rise from an offshoot project into one of the biggest rock acts in the world — a run that now spans twelve studio albums. Grohl, meanwhile, first came to prominence as Nirvana's drummer, from 1990 until the band's dissolution after Kurt Cobain's death in 1994, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with Nirvana in 2014 and with Foo Fighters in 2021. He has also drummed with Them Crooked Vultures, Queens of the Stone Age and Tenacious D, and released music under the Late! and Probot names.

But the friendship with Hawkins was different. It was the kind of relationship that shaped how the band wrote, toured and carried itself on stage — two drummers who understood each other's instincts without needing to discuss them. Grohl's story on Kimmel does not dwell on what was lost. It simply documents how it started: a blond surfer type backstage, talking a mile a minute, and a frontman who knew within seconds that this was the beginning of something permanent.

"We're gonna be best friends for the rest of our lives." It is a line that reads differently now. It also explains, better than any tribute could, why the last four years have been so difficult — and why Grohl keeps coming back to the story of how it all began.