Taylor Hawkins has achieved rock superstar status through his drum kit.
As drummer for the Foo Fighters for over 20 years,
he's drummed his way through everything
from the Reading Festival to Live Lounges
to sell-out stadium shows.
# The sky is a neighbourhood... #
But what does it take to become a drummer?
What inspires someone to pick up a pair of drumsticks
in the first place?
And just how important is the drummer to a band?
It's a responsibility for me to hold the band together.
# Oh, my dear Heaven is a big band now... #
In this programme, Taylor takes us on a guided tour of the drums,
talking us through his childhood, his influences...
Roger was a great cymbal grabber.
..the sounds of his drum kits...
They're just like a piece of metal with a drumhead on it.
..and what it's like drumming with both
Alanis Morissette and Dave Grohl.
You couldn't find a better drummer. There's no way.
This is a BBC Radio 6 Music
drumming masterclass with Taylor Hawkins.
# The sky is a neighbourhood. #
The man, the legend, the punk rock Cozy Powell for our times,
this generation's dashing version of Stewart Copeland,
the one and only Taylor Hawkins.
TAYLOR LAUGHS Oh, dude! Come on, man!
How are you? Thank you for agreeing to do this. I'm not THAT good!
Oh, well, let's see over the course of this hour,
because coming up, some drumming tips,
some insights into what makes for a great drummer, but first...
We should do some context first, background. OK.
Where did you grow up and when did you first get into music?
How old were you? I grew up in Laguna Beach, California.
I had moved there from Texas when I was five,
and I had a neighbour named Kent Kleater,
who had a rickety-rackety drum set
and a couple of beat-up acoustic guitars. Right.
And I just wasn't really good at anything when I was ten. Yeah.
I wasn't particularly good in school.
I wasn't good at sport, as you would say.
I was OK at baseball, but I hadn't found something yet.
I remember, when I was ten years old,
it was the summer of 1982. He was a couple of years older than me,
but he had this drum set and I kept...
I was trying to learn how to play guitar,
and it seemed too much like work - like homework, you know?
And he said, "Just sit on the drums.
"Just try it. I want to show you a beat.
"You go like one, two, three, four on the high-hat.
"And then you cross your hand over here,
"and then, on the third beat,
"I want you to hit this thing called a snare drum.
"One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four.
"And on the one - the first beat -
"I want you to put the kick drum on there."
So, he goes, "So, basically, I want you to go
"one, two, three, four, one, two, three, four."
And I went, "OK, one..." HE HUMS ALONG TO THE BEAT
Probably wasn't... It was probably a little more like, "One, two..."
HE PLAYS OUT OF TIME I don't know. Not quite there yet.
But he really literally said, "You know, you're a drummer."
Really? Yeah.
And he was actually a pretty decent drummer,
and he had this rickety...
He had a 2x4 holding up his tom-tom. I remember that.
Anyways, he just said, "You're a drummer,
"and, like, I can tell..."
You can tell really quick if someone's a drummer.
There's some people that just...
I guess they can't ever be...
And I just took to it immediately, and so...
I mean, that day, there was, like, a lightning bolt shot into me,
and it was like... # Ah! #
And I'm like, "I'm a drummer. That's what I'm going to do."
And that sort of became my armour,
and then I just fell in love with it.
And then, at the same time, around that time,
my friend down the street, Lisa Burton,
her brother went off to the army
cos he got in trouble. HE LAUGHS
So, the judges, back in the '80s, would be like,
"Well, you either, you know...
"You either do, you know, six months or you go to the army."
And so he went in the army. He left all his records. Right.
And there was this record with this monster
holding these guys in his hand - this, like, cartoon monster -
and it was Queen, News Of The World.
MUSIC: We Will Rock You by Queen
I just fell in love with that record.
What do you think it was about the record?
Is it because of the drama of the sound?
I think it's the cinematic-ness.
Because the first music I really liked, as a kid,
besides the pop music that was on the radio,
was, like, Star Wars soundtracks... Yeah.
..and the Superman soundtrack, you know,
and all the John Williams stuff.
And I was really, like, emotionally drawn
to those soundtracks as a kid.
And even, like, the King Kong soundtrack.
You know, all these '70s sort of soundtracks.
And I think there was something in Queen
that had that cinematic approach. Obviously, it still does.
I mean, they had the biggest movie last year.
HE CHUCKLES But there was something about it
that was really good for a ten-year-old, and it was also,
you had a hard rock...
You had, you know, a ballad and you had a hard rock song
and then you had a bluesy, shuffley song, and they really...
I mean, they... And then I really loved The Beatles.
I was starting to love The Beatles, as well,
and I could see the cross between them and The Beatles.
You know, you got a Queen record and you got everything. Yeah.
You know, you got all these styles in one record,
and, you know, they just were a rock band.
They were just a garage band,
essentially, that was just really great,
and they had all these styles on there.
And then I looked and I said, "Well, which one's the drummer?"
And it was the guy with the blond hair, and I was like,
"Ding! Oh, my God! Well, I love him!"
And then I find out he's the guy doing all the... # Yeah! #
..crazy high notes. I'm like, "Oh, he's rad!"
And, you know, he had these big, beautiful drum sets.
And I would draw Roger Taylor's drum sets. Really? Yeah.
And I would draw their stages and then...
Then I got their other records
and I'd look at the inside of Queen, Jazz,
and they'd have all their drums everywhere and...
Cos those pictures on those albums from that era,
when they used to show the studio scene... Oh! Oh!
..as you say, I mean, the drum kits were massive,
the studios were as big as the one we're in today - Maida Vale 3.
It was like porn for a ten-year-old. You know, music porn.
You would look at that...
I mean, that sounds horrible, but, really, it was.
I mean, I would sit there and look at every single drum
and, you know, as I fell in love with all these...
And then my brother handed me a copy of
Police, Zenyatta Mondatta.
This was 1982.
But he handed me this album and he goes,
"If you want to be good, you have to play like this guy."
And all of a sudden...
HE PLAYS DRUMBEAT FROM ROXANNE BY THE POLICE
Stewart Copeland. Yeah.
So, my two first major inspirations,
and I would say probably the two guys that shaped
a lot of what I do when I play drums in a rock band,
are Roger Taylor and Stewart Copeland.
And the funny thing is,
they're so far away from each other on the spectrum of drummers.
Roger's got this great, big, fat, you know...
HE PLAYS DRUMBEAT FROM SOMEBODY TO LOVE BY QUEEN
That's a little bit of Somebody To Love.
# Ooh-ooh-ooh
# Each morning I get up, I die a little
# Can't barely stand on my feet Take a look at yourself
# Take a look in the mirror and cry # And cry
# Lord, what you're doing to me... #
And then Stewart Copeland, you know...
HE PLAYS UPTEMPO BEAT
But they were so different from each other,
I felt like it was a good...
Like, looking back on it, it gave me a pretty wide berth,
as far as styles.
So, did you get your own drum kit, then?
What was the point where you got your first kit?
So, the first kit I got was...
It was the ragtag deal.
You know, nowadays, a lot of...
If a kid shows any interest in music, it's like,
"Oh, we're buying you a 4,000 drum set!"
It wasn't like that when we were kids, you know. It was like...
Your dad was like, "You want to play what? Music? Why? No.
"Drums aren't allowed. No." So, I, like...
It was that thing, you know - you go down the street,
you heard that some guy down the street was selling a bass drum,
you know? And then another guy you know has
a Japanese copy snare drum of a Ludwig.
And then you get your snare, and then...
I really literally bought cymbals out of Sears - a magazine...
Like, you know, you'd buy...
You know, you'd buy, like, your laundry machines and stuff there.
Oh, OK. And they were like...
Cos cymbals and drums are really expensive. Yeah.
And when you're ten years old, if a pair of high-hat cymbals is...
That's about a year's worth of pocket money.
I mean, it was just...
I didn't even know. So, like, I put a ragtag drum set together... Yeah.
..and, yeah, that was my first drum set.
And my dad was nonplussed, to say the least, about any of it.
If you were... So, going back, putting yourself back there now...
So, after the first beat that you were taught,
if we were trying to help some of our listeners, say,
who've got their own first kit together,
where would you go next, then? What was your next progression?
What were the first beats that you sort of learned?
Well, it's funny. I just...
It was that beat and then fills - drum fills - connecting you to...
And learning how to play a song.
I was going to say, did you play along to a lot of songs?
Yeah, it's the first thing I did. And, I mean, right away,
I was playing along to Night At The Opera
and Queen, The Game, and trying to play to Zenyatta Mondatta,
and trying to play to The Romantics, What I Like About You,
and Haircut 100.
And I literally would just turn on the pop radio back then -
like, literally a dial radio - and would just play everything.
And it didn't matter what it was and, you know,
I didn't know half of it was drum machines back in the '80s,
so I was trying to figure out Shout, you know, by...
What are they? Tears For Fears. It's...
HE PLAYS DRUMBEAT FROM SHOUT BY TEARS FOR FEARS
# Shout, shout
# Let it all out
# These are the things I can do without
# Come on... #
It was really a drum machine going...
HE IMITATES DRUMBEAT FROM SHOUT
But I would just play along and...
It's funny cos my son, he's 12, and he's good at drums,
but he doesn't really care that much about it, which is fine.
He can play a... HE PLAYS DRUM FILL
You know, he can play all these drum fills,
and he can play beats and stuff, but I'm like,
"If you want to learn how to play, you have to play a song."
Is that learning the discipline of being a drummer, then, early,
do you think? Just understanding... Well, it was a means to an end. ..what the job of a drummer is?
Well, the first thing I wanted to do,
the second I got that crappy kick and snare and hat
and Sears cymbal, was start a band.
Right away. Like, that was the... There was no question.
So, you were recruiting your fellow neighbourhood friends and stuff,
and literally just, you know, trying to get that dude's mom
to buy him a guitar amp,
and then you put the vocals in the guitar amp AND the guitar,
and then a bass amp.
"What's a bass amp?" "I don't know." "Well, they're, like, 500."
And you're like, "I'm never going to have that ever!"
But you put it together and, eventually, through just, you know,
Christmas and a small amount of thievery and whichever...
However you had to get it, you got the gear you needed
to try and start your first really horrible band.
We're going to talk about your first bands -
horrible or not - in a second.
This is a terrific excuse, though, to play Queen on 6 Music.
Take off!
# I was told a million times of all the troubles in my way
# Mind you grow a little wiser, little better every day... #
It's Queen on 6 Music, and it's the choice of our guest.
Taylor, why that particular Queen song? What was it and why?
Well, it was their first single, wasn't it?
Keep Yourself Alive? Yeah.
I think they may have done a BBC session in this very room,
or somewhere right down the hall, which is amazing,
just to be here in this amazing place. Anyways...
And that was the first time the public heard Queen.
And it was all there. I mean, it was still...
But I love the sound of that first Queen record
cos they were still sort of students,
still sort of kids, they were still figuring it out.
They hadn't totally learned how to layer their vocals perfectly yet.
It was a little ragtag still. Like, they...
You know, they got better
and they kind of grew in the public eye, which is awesome,
but there's something about that first record that is just...
You can hear them trying to, like, figure it out on tape,
which is a beautiful thing. That's art, you know.
And there's a drum solo in the middle of their first song.
HE PLAYS DRUM SOLO
I mean, only Roger Taylor would get that done. I think...
ENGLISH ACCENT: "Right, I'm going to put a drum solo here,
"and it's staying."
HE PLAYS DRUM SOLO FROM KEEP YOURSELF ALIVE
I learned that drum solo. I tried.
You know, funny enough, when kids ask me today,
"Hey, I'm in a band and, you know, what should I do?
"How do I do it? What's the deal?" You know?
And I'm like, "Well, you've got to play as much as you can
"in front of people. Get the stage time."
Yeah. And, you know, write songs.
That's good. Be creative.
But learn a bunch of other people's songs, too,
cos, for the most part, no-one's going to want to hear
the first group of songs that you start writing
when you're 12 or 13 years old.
It's fine. Yeah. Write them. That's cool. Do that.
But also learn a bunch of covers because...
I mean, The Beatles were a cover band before they really...
I mean, The Stones were just a cover band.
And that's where you learn the craft of what a song is
and how you get inside a song.
So, A, you're getting stage time in front of people
cos you're actually playing songs that they might want to hear.
No matter how badly you're playing them,
at least they're pretty sure that's a Clash song
or they're pretty sure that's... THEY LAUGH
It's at least close. ..a Nirvana song
or they're pretty sure that's...
You know, whatever. Van Halen was a cover band.
Jumping forward, something that eventually...
I suppose your first brush with proper fame, almost,
is touring with Alanis Morissette, which you mentioned earlier. Yeah.
How did that end up happening?
Well, actually, the first proper pro gig,
if you will - like, actually someone handed me a pay cheque
besides a few weddings and a few beer parties and stuff
in Laguna Beach - was a lady named Sass Jordan,
and she was from Canada.
This manager was like,
"You know, I have this girl I just signed a management deal with,
"and she just finished a record,
"and most of it's kind of loops and stuff like that."
It was the mid-'90s. And he said,
"Her name is Alanis Morissette. I'll introduce you to her."
So, I met her and she was quiet and sweet and stuff.
And then, next thing, a couple of months later, he's like,
"Hey, we're auditioning drummers." So, I auditioned.
I got the tape, and the first song that was on the tape
was You Oughta Know.
# And I'm here to remind you
# Of the mess you left when you went away
# It's not fair to deny me
# Of the cross I bear... #
Do you know how we did You Oughta Know?
HE PLAYS DRUMBEAT FROM YOU OUGHTA KNOW
# I want you to know... #
You know? And then...
And, thankfully...
Thank you, Alanis. I love you so much.
..she gave me the gig. Yeah.
She wasn't scared about how loud you were, then? No, she...
I think it was cool of her and...
Her and her manager were like, "It should be more of a rock band."
And I don't think the producer was too stoked, actually, on me,
because I think he was hoping it was going to be some guy
playing along to computers and being very pure to the record.
We just threw the record out the window with Alanis,
and turned it into a live rock band. Yeah.
And that's what the manager had in mind
and that's what Alanis was down for.
She was like, "That was the record. Turn it..."
She kind of gave us free rein, really, actually -
bless her heart - and we really did completely destroy those songs.
But we were a good little... We were a good band.
So... And that's where I met Dave. I was just about to say.
So, enter Dave Grohl. What, around that time, on tour? Yeah.
So, basically, we were over here doing...
Actually, I'd met Dave once in LA,
and the Foo Fighters album had just come out.
# This can be a secret
# We can keep it good... #
And I was so blown away with it - just the energy and...
And I loved his vocals. I loved it.
It was like Steve Miller on steroids, like, you know,
at a punk rock club, you know.
There was this breeziness about him
and the easiness about the way he was...
And then he would scream really good.
You know, he had a good scream, as well.
But his verses were pretty and, like... I don't know.
There was almost a Beach Boys thing or something.
I couldn't put my finger on why I loved it,
but I just fell in love with that record.
And then I met Dave at some radio show somewhere,
like, in LA for the first time, and he was really nice to me,
and I was like, "Wow, he was nice to me.
"I'm not cool. He was nice to me." And then I...
And then we started doing the same festivals over here,
a lot in the UK, and we just...
MOCK EMOTIONALLY: We just fell in love. We just fell in love!
But I didn't think anything of it cos they had a drummer.
And I got on a plane with Alanis
after doing a couple of shows with the Foo Fighters,
and she said, "What are you going to do
"when Dave Grohl asks you to join the Foo Fighters?"
She literally said that. And I went, "Well, that's never going to happen.
"And I would never leave you, darling."
HE CHUCKLES But...
But the drummer quit or couldn't handle the job.
And it's a tough job, but, you know...
It ain't easy, you know, living in those shoes.
Was The Colour And The Shape done or it was being done?
Basically, what had happened was...
So, he had made the first record all by himself... Yeah.
..which is amazing.
He did it, like, in five days, of course, and...
Being Dave Grohl. Being Dave Grohl. Just five days, yeah.
He's the master of,
"Who gives a crap, but, oh, look at what I did."
He's brilliant. And the second record,
they really wanted to get it really...
They knew it was a... He knew it was a make-or-break record.
And the drummer just couldn't handle it.
Couldn't handle the pressure. Wasn't used to the studio.
You know, the studio is a whole different trip.
It's not... It's one thing to bash it out live.
No-one's sitting there scrutinising each...
I mean, the snare's got to land in the same spot every time
so that it's called a groove.
You know, the time has to be good, or you play with click tracks or...
We do sometimes in the studio. Sometimes we don't.
But the drummer just... He just chunked it.
And then Dave, you know, famously went back
and re-recorded his drum tracks and he didn't fire him.
Nobody... Everyone thinks, "Oh, he fired him." He didn't fire him.
He said, "Dude, you're just not ready to make a record yet,
"and this record is make or break.
"And I've made records and I know what I'm doing and, you know...
"Learn how to record."
And he couldn't handle it, so I stepped in.
And I called Dave myself and I said, "I'm your drummer. Sorry."
And he's like, "But you're with Alanis.
"She's the biggest thing in the world."
And I'm like, "Well, you know, Alanis is a solo act,
"and this is a band,
"and I love your band and I want to play hard rock."
I think Alanis was going in a different direction, I'd heard.
Yeah. You know? Which was great.
And, you know, me and Alanis are fine.
We're friends now, which is great.
We just, you know, look at the past and enjoy it.
I had an amazing literally 18 straight months with Alanis
just discovering the world with her, and it was beautiful.
She gave me a lot of leeway, and I thank her forever for it.
And she was a great leader and a great boss,
and now I have a great leader and a great boss again.
So, you join the Foo Fighters. Do you...?
And the first time I ever recorded with the Foo Fighters was...
It wasn't in this exact room. It was in Studio 4, I believe.
Here. What, Maida Vale 4, just round the corner? Yeah. Wow. Really? Yeah.
It was the first time? Yeah. Doing what set of songs, can you remember?
Yeah, it's funny. It's a funny story, actually.
So, I joined the band, and one of our first trips
was coming to England - the UK - to do a tour.
And one of the first things we did
was come to Maida Vale to do Maida Vale sessions.
It wasn't John Peel, I don't think, but it was, you know...
That might have been one of ours. I don't remember what it was called.
It was a Maida Vale session. Yeah. And we did Baker Street.
Oh, it WAS ours!
You did Requiem. Killing Joke's Requiem. We did Requiem.
# The requiem... #
This is perfect for you, though, isn't it? It really is.
"What's my first recording? Well, it's loads of great '70s records..."
Yeah, yeah, yeah. "..that have a sound that I've grown up with."
Yeah. It's perfect for you.
Yeah, I mean, and they're lively and they're fun.
And I hear those recordings and go,
"That's me the first time I ever recorded with the Foo Fighters."
Then we got to the third record, which was...
Just before we go on... Oh, sorry.
..do you remember how Requiem goes? Yeah.
HE HUMS DRUMBEAT FROM REQUIEM BY KILLING JOKE
Yeah, it's pretty much that the whole time. Yeah, that's good.
It's great, though. That and Baker Street...
Sorry, you were saying... So, then you make...
That was kind of like my first time in the studio
with the Foo Fighters, but then we went back
and we started doing There Is Nothing Left To Lose,
which has Learn To Fly on it.
# I'm looking to the sky to save me
# Looking for a sign of life
# Looking for something to help me burn out bright... #
And I got in a similar, somewhat, situation as the first drummer.
I was just green, and I was having a really hard time
learning how to play in the studio,
cos it's just such a different thing,
and really learning how to focus in on...
Cos, I mean, you know, if you're going to play drums
on a record for Dave Grohl, it's got to be really, like, top-shelf.
I mean, there's a certain pressure there - inherent pressure -
isn't there? And it's not from him, actually, to be honest.
I mean, he definitely knows what he wants,
but I think he was still struggling with,
"Can I let another drummer play on my record?" at that time.
I think that was another thing for him.
And because we had such a bro-ship, if you will... Yeah.
..and such a great connection live,
he had to sort of eventually give up the reins
so that it could be a real band.
He's an amazing drummer, and we have two different styles,
and so he does his thing and I do my thing,
and he adds so much to the songs that it's like...
Sometimes, too much. THEY LAUGH
Did I say that?
No, but, I mean, you know... We're totally different.
I can see, like, other drummers being in the band and feeling weird,
feeling intimidated and whatever,
but we do two totally different things
and I think we have a mutual respect for each other and it's just...
It's awesome. I mean, it works perfect, you know.
And there's no... You couldn't find a better drummer.
There's no way. So, it works out just fine.
And so I don't play like Dave. I play differently.
So, the first album I played on,
I played half the drums on it and Dave played the other half,
and I was just sort of...
I remember, at one point, I was just like,
"Dave, just you play drums on it. I'll tour. I won't quit.
"Like, I have to learn how to do this.
"You know, you're Dave Grohl. You're a master already.
"Smells Like Teen Spirit. I'm a ding-dong.
"I've never done this before and I'm scared."
And I had red light fever, which is something that people use as a term.
It's like whenever the recording lights are on,
you kind of freeze up, and I was doing that.
And he kind of held my hand through half of that record,
and he did the other half of the tracks.
There's one song on there called Aurora,
which is the first song that I ever recorded, I felt like.
There's some good stuff.
I played on Breakout and I played on MIA
and a few of these other tracks on there,
but there's a song called Aurora which is, I think,
the last song on that record.
MUSIC: Aurora by Foo Fighters
And that was, like... That was the first time I ever went,
"OK, I can fit in this band as the drummer,
"not just the live drummer, but I can...
"I can be me and still fulfil the role
"of being Dave Grohl's rhythm man."
You know? Because he writes in rhythms -
not only in melodies, but in rhythms -
so I have to meet him there.
The next album, One By One, we eventually got to,
and then that was...
I played all the drums on that record,
and I've played all the drums on all the records since.
Contrary to some belief, it's me.
# It's times like these you learn to live again
# It's times like these you give and give again
# It's times like these you learn to love again
# It's times like these, time and time again... #
We'll pick up the story of the Foo Fighters in a second,
but just coming back to, given that you're here
and we're trying to learn something about the drums...
Cos I have to get inside the mind-set of a drummer.
For a start, talk us through, or talk us around your kit.
Well, all you really need, at the beginning, is a kick drum,
a snare drum, a high-hat, which are these two cymbals.
One's upside down, and you control that one with your foot,
as you do the kick drum.
Then you have a tom-tom here in the front.
And if you're lucky, you have a floor tom.
And if you're lucky, you have a crash cymbal.
And if you're even luckier, you have a ride cymbal.
And, really, if you have that,
you could pretty much play any song. Yeah.
All the other stuff - the Rototoms and the timpani drum...
HE PLAYS DRUM SOLO
CHEERING
And round the other bits we haven't talked about.
OK, these are Rototoms over here. They're not even a drum, really.
They're just like a piece of metal with a drumhead on it.
You can tune them with your hand.
PITCH OF DRUMBEATS CHANGES
You know? And, you know, it must have been, in the '70s, like,
"What is this?!" And I love them.
Roger Taylor always had them next to his floor toms,
so he would always do these great...
HE PLAYS BLUESY BEAT
It's just colour, you know?
I'm drawn to, with drummers,
bells and cowbells and timpani drums and China cymbals and stuff.
DRUM SOLO CONTINUES
Anything where you can surprise a listener.
I always loved that about Roger Taylor
and I always loved that about Stewart Copeland.
Yes, it's the details.
Little details here and there, you know. Yeah.
Roger Taylor would just throw a little cowbell thing in there,
and you're just like, "He's got a cowbell. I need a cowbell.
"He's got a cowbell. I need a cowbell."
# We watch the shows We watch the stars
# On videos for hours and hours
# We hardly need to use our ears
# How music changes through the years... #
Cos you mentioned the difference between,
you know, Roger and Stewart.
How different are the rest of the styles, then?
Can you tell a Van Halen from a Phil Collins? Oh, yeah.
I mean, they're all so different. Do you want to give us a bit?
I think that's what I like about...
What's different or do you want me to play them? Yeah, you can...
Oh, God! I've got to play them! Come on! OK.
If we can't get Taylor to do Phil Collins, I'm going home.
HE PLAYS DRUMBEAT FROM I KNOW THERE'S SOMETHING GOING ON BY FRIDA
What was that?
# I know there's something going on. # Frida.
# I can see that it won't be long... #
That's Phil Collins. Yeah, man.
HE HUMS ALONG
He would have big concert toms over here.
Van Halen? Oh, I wish I had a double bass.
I wish I could play double bass.
The thing about Alex van Halen is he just couldn't not swing.
It didn't matter what, he was just always, you know...
Even Jamie's Cryin'...
HE PLAYS DRUMBEAT TO JAMIE'S CRYIN' BY VAN HALEN
Love Alex van Halen. Al is such a badass.
I've done enough Roger Taylor, I'm sure.
Oh, do us another one. Go on. Oh, God!
# I'm in love with my car... #
Roger was a great cymbal grabber.
Right. He was so good at grabbing a...
And he always looked great and sounded great and sang...
He was just... He was the man. He was a badass.
Come on, now. CHEERING
This is a song Vanilla Ice stole from Queen,
but we're taking it back.
Oh!
Sing it!
# Doo-doo-dum, dah-day
# Shoo-bah-dum, dah-day
# Shoo-bah-dum, dah-day-ah
# Pressure Pushing down on me... #
Larry Mullen.
HE PLAYS DRUMBEAT FROM SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY BY U2
On three!
I played that last night in Dublin in the middle of my drum solo...
HE LAUGHS I was pandering a bit.
Sorry. Play to the crowd.
Yeah, I was playing to the crowd, there was no question. Larry was...
Larry was, like... Because U2 were...
I thought U2 were such an inventive band,
and they were really important to me when, like...
Larry just had a very...
He really had a creative style and...
Here's the thing - back then, before they were fixing everything
with computers and putting,
you know, unrealistic snare samples on everything,
you really could hear a style of a drummer back in the day, you know.
I'm sure there will be some sort of garage revival or some rock thing...
You know, that's what I liked about...
That's what I love about Jack White.
When The White Stripes came out, everyone was like,
"Have you heard that girl play drums?"
I'm like, "I love the way she plays drums.
"It's so unique. It's..."
HE HUMS SEVEN NATION ARMY BY THE WHITE STRIPES
And then when she kicks into the beat...
# I'm going to fight 'em off... #
The way she plays is literally just, you know...
I can't even do it. It's so unique.
Drummers are a separate species. I think a lot of people say this.
Would you agree? Yeah, I know what you mean.
It doesn't matter whether they're Keith Moon or, you know,
even Dave Grohl, but they're a separate... Or yourself.
They're a separate sort of species.
What sort of temperament is a good temperament for a drummer?
What do you need...? It's so hard to say.
I mean, I guess you need to have energy. Yeah.
Definitely in our fricking band, that's for sure.
I mean, you've got to be up for it.
You've got to be fit. You've got to be fit.
HE PLAYS DRUM SOLO
You know, OK, in your 20s, you're going to be, you know,
live fast and, you know, do all that kind of stuff.
If you want to play drums well
once you start getting into your late 40s
or even, you know, beyond, health becomes an issue.
It really does. I mean, you can't...
..be out all night and then go play a three-hour Foo Fighters set.
You just can't do it.
And mentally, as well, what do you think...?
Cos you've got to hold the band together, haven't you?
Oh, there's no computers up on stage with us.
See, there's so many bands now that, you know, they get up on stage
and the drummer puts his in-ears in,
and they press a button and it goes, "One, two, three, four,"
and then he plays along to a click track
while all this stuff is coming out of speakers
that are on some computer behind the stage. Yeah.
That's fine if that's what you want to do.
That's not what we do. We don't do that at all.
So, the tempo of Learn To Fly
is going to be slightly different every night,
depending on how scared or excited or, you know, hung...
Or not hungover. Jet-lagged. Yeah.
MUSIC: All My Life by Foo Fighters
CHEERING
That's why we go to live gigs, isn't it?
Or go follow a tour around? It is. It is.
Because it's always different every night
and because it's not predictable
and you don't go to a gig to hear the record.
That's what I really, truly think. I mean, you know,
Dave said last night to the crowd of however many people,
which was a lot of people, which...
We're so blessed to have these people come to our shows.
Still can't believe that we play stadiums now.
I mean, it didn't start out like that.
When I joined the band, it certainly wasn't that way.
We were playing clubs and opening slots
for Prodigy and Red Hot Chili Peppers and stuff.
Yeah, and halfway up the bill at Reading.
Halfway up the bill at Reading, and we just kept at it.
And people kept telling us, "Rock and roll is dead."
Has anyone ever told you rock and roll is dead?
CHEERING
Do you know rock and roll is dead? AUDIENCE: No!
Do you think rock and roll is dead? AUDIENCE: No!
I mean, they kept telling us...
I remember, in '99, doing a promotion tour
for Nothing Left To Lose, and this German...
GERMAN ACCENT: "Why do you play the rock and roll? It's dead."
And we were like, "Well, it ain't dead at our house, man!"
I'll show you rock and roll! This is rock and roll!
Waah!
Sing it with me! Ready?
# Done, done and I'm onto the next one
# Done, I'm done, and I'm onto the next one
# Done, done, and I'm onto the next one
# Done and... #
Here we go. Ready?
# Hey, don't let it go to waste
# I love it but I hate the taste Weight keeping me... #
But to answer your question... Yeah.
..when I walk up on stage at one of those places,
I have major butterflies. I'm scared crapless every time.
If there's 30,000 people that have paid good money...
So, it's a responsibility.
It's a responsibility for me to hold the band together.
And sometimes, if Dave doesn't want to rehearse, I'm like,
"We'll rehearse without you. We're here to make you look good."
And a drummer's job,
besides showing off and throwing his sticks around
and doing drum solos and being a show-off,
which I am a lot of the time,
is to lay down some version of a solid foundation
for the band to play to.
So, that's the perfect drummer, then - the sort of... Erm, the...
I'm trying to work out what the word is. Well, presence.
Presence. Yeah, presence.
Because even Nick Mason... Well, presence and responsibility.
A bit of showbiz...
A little bit of showbiz, but if you watch Nick Mason -
from Pink Floyd, obviously - at, you know, the Live At Pompeii...
..he still has a great dramatic-ness to his drumming, like Roger.
You know, he's still... He still has it...
I'm not going to say Nick Mason's a showy drummer,
but he is, in a way, and he's got a presence,
and it's a presence.
Did you practise...? You must have practised a lot.
When you were... You know, say you were about two, three years
into playing drums, what sort of things would you practise at home?
I didn't practise properly.
STEVE LAUGHS I did.
I played along to the radio. Mm-hm. Or I played along to records.
What were you doing around that time? Do you remember?
What was I playing along to? Yeah, yeah.
I remember playing along to Unforgettable Fire by U2
and October, and I remember trying to play, like,
some of the crazy Police stuff.
I remember trying to play Murder By Numbers.
HE PLAYS DRUMBEAT TO MURDER BY NUMBERS BY THE POLICE
And I just couldn't figure it out.
And then there was, like, stuff on the radio like
Rosanna by Toto, which, basically,
he was doing Fool In The Rain double-time...
HE PLAYS DRUMBEAT TO ROSANNA BY TOTO
..which has all these grace notes and all this crazy stuff.
I had no idea how he was doing it
and I wasn't interested in some dude coming over for 50 bucks
to try and show me how either. No, no.
And they didn't have YouTube back then so I couldn't, like,
look it up on YouTube -
"How do you play the shuffle to Rosanna or Fool In The Rain?"
I still can't play that. So slow.
That's a tough one. That's a tough one.
That's when you know Bonham is just the greasiest.
# I can see your face still shining through the window on the other side
# Rosanna, Rosanna... #
You mentioned writing.
Obviously, within the group now, you contribute to the writing process.
Is there a particular favourite Foo Fighters song that you've
been involved with from, you know, base level upward?
I would say the first song that I, like, actively, like,
me and Dave sat down and worked out, erm...
Cos there's a lot of stages to the way the Foo Fighters write
and home studios are getting so good.
Dave's really good at, you know,
just popping in with demos that are...
..you have to work really hard to beat.
But he's always constantly evolving the songs, so he brings
a demo in and then we learn it like that
and then we start ripping it apart and sort of deconstructing it
and then reconstructing it back, too.
And then the producer comes in, like Butch Vig or Greg,
who did the last record, and then they go,
"Well, you know, maybe you should add... Do two choruses there
"and maybe that bridge isn't quite working," or whatever.
So there's a lot of layers as to the way things are written, but the
first song that I felt like a real part of the process was All My Life.
# All my life I've been searching for something
# Something never comes, never leads to nothing
# Nothing satisfies but I'm getting close
# Closer to the prize at the end of the rope
# All night long I dream of the day
# When it comes around and it's taken away
# Leaves me with the feeling that I feel the most
# Feel it come to life when I see your ghost
# Calm down, don't you resist
# You've such a delicate wrist
# And if I give it a twist
# Something to hold when I lose my grip
# Will I find something in there
# To give me just what I need?
# Another reason to bleed
# One by one hidden up my sleeve
# Hey, don't let it go to waste
# I love it but I hate the taste
# Weight keep pinning down... #
We're going to lead you to a record
which is coming, which you have made.
It's called Get The Money. Is that what it's called? Yeah.
Get The Money? Yeah, there's a track on the album
called Get The Money and it's actually a duet, singing,
me and Chrissie Hynde from The Pretenders.
Is it? Yeah, and Joe Walsh is playing guitar. No!
A couple of duets, a couple of vocal duets with ladies, actually,
and Dave sings one with me on there as well. Uh-huh.
And, erm... But a couple of ladies.
I did, actually, really,
this super psychedelic, stonery, trippy song called C U In Hell,
which... This girl lives in my neighbourhood
and her kids went to my kids' school and it was LeAnn Rimes.
Remember her? Yeah, I do. You know LeAnn Rimes. Yeah.
Well, she's still around, she still does her thing, and she's
this great, Patsy Cline-ish country singer,
and I saw her at some school function for our kids and I'm, like,
"Will you come sing on my record?"
And she's, like, "Sure, where?" and I'm, like, "In my neighbour...
"I have a studio in my house."
And she came over and I played her this really tripped-out,
sort of Soundgarden meets Pink Floyd meets, you know, Sabbath tune
and she's, like, "You want me to sing on this?"
I'm like, "Yeah!" and she's like, "All right, let's go!"
# Don't forget
# To forget
# Tell yourself that it really wasn't all your fault... #
Now, I am very loath to do this,
but as you're our tutor and you're here
and I think we've got a few minutes,
even given that I have no rhythm...
..can you teach me how to hold a beat...
Yeah! ..if I come over there? I think I can.
OK, Steve. This is what I used to do with girls in high school,
give 'em drum lessons! Ha!
Not going to be quite the same with you, Steve, sorry. Right.
All right, put that one over here and that one under there.
I want you to count to four, hitting that. Hitting the high hat.
One, two, three, four,
one, two, three, four.
Now put your foot on that pedal over there, the kick drum pedal.
There you go. Give it a good proper kick.
HE ADDS KICK DRUM There you go.
Now, on the third beat, you're counting to four still. Uh-huh.
This...
LONDON ACCENT: This little bugger, you hit that.
It's called a snare drum, man. D'ya know what I mean?
No.
One on the kick drum. Start out with just high hat by itself.
Two, three, four,
one, two, three, four,
one, two, three...
Oh, you had one! You did it! You got...
Hey, Steve, guess what the beauty of today is?
Modern recording - that would have been enough.
STEVE LAUGHS
"Oh, you're great! You're done! You can go home now!
"We'll put it together for you! You'll love it!"
It was the shortest recording career known to man.
It's been the best piece of tutoring. Thank you very much.
There's hardly anyone down here - people behind the cameras
and a couple of producers -
but could you all stop what you're doing, please,
and give a massive round of applause
and a thank-you to Taylor Hawkins, ladies and gentlemen?
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE Bless you.
LONDON ACCENT: It's been an absolute pleasure!