Brant Webb on Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins’ death

A Tasmanian man with close ties to the rock and roll band Foo Fighters has paid tribute to drummer and singer Taylor Hawkins.

Hawkins, 50, died Friday while on tour in South America. The cause of death has not yet been confirmed.

Brant Webb was one of two men trapped for two weeks in the 2006 Beaconsfield mine collapse, and while underground, he asked for an iPod loaded with Foo Fighters albums.

The band, hearing this, invited Mr. Webb to a show in Sydney and dedicated a song to him – Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners – on its 2007 album Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace.

Webb said that in the years since, he has developed a strong bond with the band, and said Hawkins was a man of great grace and humility.

“It’s pretty devastating,” Webb said.

He said that at the Sydney concert, he was having a drink at a bar with some friends when Hawkins joined the conversation.

“I guess we were just talking about our lives,” he explained, “and he was more interested than everyone else.”

“It’s a very different feeling when a superstar like that gives you the time of day. He made me feel very important.

“That was his greatest gift. He was completely focused on you when you were talking.

This is going to be very hard for them. I doubt they will ever get back on track.

Brant Webb

“He has enough money to do anything he wants in the world and he took the time to talk to me.

“We felt so comfortable with this guy.”

Hawkins’ death, according to Webb, was a “huge loss for the Foo Fighters.”

“It’s going to be very hard for them. He said, “I doubt they’ll ever get back together.”.

Hawkins joined the Foo Fighters in 1997 and has played drums on every album since There Is Nothing Left to Lose in 1999.

He and singer Dave Grohl often traded places onstage, including a cover of Queen’s Somebody To Love during Hawkins’ last performance with the band in Argentina, a week before his death.

Grohl formed Foo Fighters in 1994 after the death of Kurt Cobain, the lead singer of the grunge band Nirvana, in which he played drums.

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