In his last-known filmed interview, for the upcoming movie Let There Be Drums, Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins revealed that his approach to playing changed after watching the Grateful Dead in concert.
The Daily Beast have posted a new clip from the movie – directed by Justin Kreutzmann, son of Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann – in which Hawkins describes being initially baffled by their music.
“At first I was like, what’s going on?", says Hawkins. "And everybody was, like passing food around to each other and the song’s kind of starting, but have they even started the fucking song yet? They’re, like, jamming. Is everyone on stage yet? Everyone’s throwing energy and, you know, passing each other doobies and shit.
"And I’m like, 'Oh, OK. They don’t know how they’re going to start this song! They just do this improvisational-jazz thing.' That got me good. I’m not going to say I’m a huge Deadhead, but I love the chances they were taking the whole time.
"Three days after that show I had to go to Europe to do a two-week tour with the Foo Fighters. And I just started taking a lot more chances and I had some of the best shows I’ve had in a long time if not ever.”
Let There Be Drums! will also feature interviews from a number of other celebrated sticksmen, including Red Hot Chilli Peppers' Chad Smith, Guns N’ Roses' Matt Sorum, Green Day's Tré Cool, The Beatles' Ringo Starr, The Police' Stewart Copeland and more.
Let There Be Drums! will arrive on Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, and select theatres on October 28.
