The Untold Truth Of The Foo Fighters' Taylor Hawkins

Taylor Hawkins, born in Fort Worth, Texas, and raised in Southern California (per The New York Times) was by no means green when he was picked up by Grohl's band. In fact, he'd played alongside Canadian-American singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette. The drummer met Morissette's manager in 1995 when he was only 23 years old — according to a 2019 interview Hawkins did with Billboard — and was invited  to lay drum tracks for Morissette's upcoming album.

From then on, Hawkins would enjoy a long-lasting friendship with the renowned Canadian musician and songstress. Working with Morissette seems to be a fond memory for the Foo Fighters drummer; he apparently enjoyed her as a boss, a friend, and an artist. "As a musician, she gave all of us a lot of space. I mean, I said it before, I'll say it again. I destroyed her songs by putting all sorts of crazy drum stuff all over it," Hawkins said, "but she dug it."

Hawkins ended up leaving Morissette's band after a couple of years' worth of recording and touring because, as he said on the Triple M podcast, he felt like he wasn't going to mesh well with the style Morissette was moving towards. He wanted to play harder, and she wanted to mellow out. Either way, it turned out well for Hawkins.