The death of the drummer took everyone by surprise. Last night, the band was going to close the first day of the Estéreo Picnic festival in Bogotá, Colombia.
The death of Taylor Hawkinsdrummer of Foo Fightersfell tonight like a bomb among the public waiting to see the rock band at the Picnic Stereo Festivalon the outskirts of Bogotá, where upon hearing the news many they burst into tears.
The Fighters were the ones called to close this Friday the first day of the Picnic Stereo, but an hour before they went on stage the news of the drummer’s death, announced by the band itself on their social networks, spread like wildfire among the crowd.
Before the presentation began Black Pumasthe organizers of the festival and the leader of that group came out to announce the news and asked for a minute of silence in tribute to the drummer, that was respected by an audience shocked by what happened.
Diego Urbano, who traveled from Peru just to see the Foo Fighters in concert, told Efe that practically “they arrived and found the ad.”
Is “a very sad scene because we got to the stage to see how things were, and the technicians and the ‘staff’ were crying, taking things apart”he pointed.
“Beyond the lost money, the fans are broke”assured a distraught Urbano.
Hawkins (Fort Worth, Texas), who had turned 50 on February 17, was found dead in his hotel room in Bogotá where the band is staying, according to local media.
Foo Fighters without Taylor Hawkins: “We are devastated”
“The Foo Fighters family is devastated by the tragic and untimely loss of our beloved Taylor Hawkins. His musical spirit and contagious laughter will live with us all forever. Our hearts go out to his wife, children and family, and we ask that his privacy be treated with the utmost respect at this unimaginably difficult time,” the band said on Twitter.
Carlos, an attendee at the Estéreo Picnic who wore the band’s shirt, found out while he was saving a place to listen to them and he couldn’t believe that the tragedy had touched the Seattle band that way.
“He was an artistic reference and an inspiration”he told Efe ruefully and added that for him, Hawkins was “the drummer of the band of all life” and his death has left him “turned into shit”.
On the stage where the Foo Fighters were going to perform, the organization of the festival a makeshift altar with a hundred candles in the midst of deathly silence and accompanied by hundreds of fans, many of whom could not hold back their tears.
Juan Camilo, who was going to see them for the second time after having done so in 2015, told Efe that Hawkins “is a basic and a benchmark” of rock.
“It was disconcerting to find out 20 minutes before the start of the concert,” said the young man, who had been listening to the music of the Foo Fighters on his way to the festival.
Hawkins was one of the visible figures in the band alongside former Nirvana Dave Grohl. At concerts he used to leave the drums to sing rock classics like Under Pressure, by Queen and David Bowie, or Rock n ‘roll, by Led Zeppelin.
Likewise, after the cancellation of this week’s concert in Paraguay, the Foo Fighters musician went out to hug a girl who was playing the drums, an image that went viral.
Although many of the shocked fans decided to stay to remember Hawkins, the guitar chords did not stop playing and after the brief vigil the Stereo Picnic continued as a tribute to the memory and virtuosity of the late drummer.