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How did Taylor Hawkins die?
Taylor Hawkins
February 17, 1972 — March 25, 2022
Bogotá, Colombia
Taylor Hawkins died on March 25, 2022 in Bogotá, Colombia, aged 50. The official cause of death was not formally released. Readers here find the most likely explanation to be: a fatal rhythm in a dangerously enlarged heart, triggered by the mix of what he'd taken (48 of 54 find it likely).
Oliver Taylor Hawkins was born in Fort Worth and raised in Laguna Beach, where he learned drums by playing along to Queen records in his bedroom and never stopped being the kid who got to do that for a living. He was fifty when he died in a hotel room in Bogotá, hours before the Foo Fighters were due to headline a festival there.
He toured with Alanis Morissette before Dave Grohl, who had been a drummer himself, hired him in 1997 and then spent twenty-five years saying he was the better one. He sang, he wrote, he had a side band called the Coattail Riders and another one called Chevy Metal that played covers in bars for the fun of it, and he was, on stage, the most visibly happy person in any arena. He nearly died of a heroin overdose in London in 2001 and talked about it afterward as the thing that made him grow up. He had a wife, Alison, and three children.
The tribute concerts in London and Los Angeles that September ran six hours each. Roger Taylor of Queen played his drums.
Photos with Taylor
If you met him, this is where that photo goes. No one has added one yet.
The record
What is established, from the authorities and the people who were there.
Official cause: Not formally released. Colombian authorities reported cardiovascular collapse; preliminary toxicology found ten substances, including opioids, benzodiazepines, antidepressants, and THC. (Colombian Attorney General's Office, March 26, 2022)
On the evening of March 25, 2022, in Bogotá, where the Foo Fighters were due to play the Estéreo Picnic festival, he called for help from his room at the Four Seasons Casa Medina complaining of chest pain. An ambulance arrived, found him unresponsive, and attempts to revive him failed. He was 50.
The next day Colombia's Attorney General's Office said a preliminary urine toxicology test had found ten substances, including THC, tricyclic antidepressants, benzodiazepines, and opioids. Reports citing the investigation described his heart as significantly enlarged, roughly twice normal size for his weight. No final cause of death was ever formally published; the Colombian authorities said the investigation was in the hands of prosecutors and the family, and the family has not released one.
In May 2022, Rolling Stone published a piece quoting friends saying he had been exhausted by touring and had talked about wanting to cut back; the band's management disputed parts of it, and Hawkins's family has said very little publicly since.
What happened
The family hasn’t confirmed a cause. These are the community’s theories, in the order the community finds them most likely. Everyone here is anonymous.
Chest pain, a heart twice the normal size, ten substances in a preliminary test, and no final cause ever released. Did his heart give out, or did something that night push it over?
The page creator
- Most likely48 of 54 readers find this likely
A fatal rhythm in a dangerously enlarged heart, triggered by the mix of what he'd taken
The reading that fits the preliminary findings. A heart that size is already at risk; tricyclics and opioids together are known to provoke arrhythmias; chest pain was the first symptom. He likely had a heart problem no one had fully diagnosed and took a combination that, on a normal heart, would have been survivable. No final report exists to confirm it, which is why this is "most likely" and not "confirmed."
Anonymous. Says they are a cardiologist.
ReportThe page creator can confirm or correct this. - Also raised33 of 46 readers find this likely
An overdose, plainly, and the family's silence is about the word
Ten substances including opioids and benzodiazepines, in a man who had nearly died of heroin twenty years earlier. The ordinary reading of that is an overdose. The never-published report, the family's privacy, and the band's push-back on the Rolling Stone piece all read, to some people, as protecting a word rather than a mystery. The enlarged heart would then be a contributing factor, not the cause.
Anonymous.
- Also raised27 of 38 readers find this likely
Exhaustion: a body run down by a tour he'd said he wanted to leave
The Rolling Stone account: he'd told friends he couldn't keep up the pace, had collapsed on a plane in late 2021, and was taking things to get through shows and things to come down afterward. Not a cause in the coroner's sense. The context the band disputed and the family hasn't addressed.
Anonymous.
- Also raised19 of 36 readers find this likely
Heart disease on its own, and the drugs were background
A heart twice normal size can kill a 50-year-old man in a hotel room with nothing else involved. The urine screen might reflect prescribed medication and days-old use rather than anything taken that night. On this reading he had a cardiac event that was coming regardless, and the toxicology became the story because it was the only thing released.
Anonymous.
When the family confirms the cause, the confirmed answer moves to the top and gets this mark. Theories stay, but are labeled as what people thought before the family knew.
An enlarged heart (cardiomegaly) is not a diagnosis by itself; it is a sign of long-standing strain, from high blood pressure, from a weakened heart muscle, or from years of stimulant and opioid use. A heart twice normal size is a heart with very little reserve. Add any combination of a sedative, an opioid, and a tricyclic antidepressant (a class with known effects on heart rhythm) and a fatal arrhythmia becomes plausible with no single drug at a "fatal" level.
Ten substances in a urine test sounds like more than it may be: urine screens detect things taken days earlier and include prescribed medications and their breakdown products. Without the final report, which was never published, no one outside the family and the Colombian prosecutors knows what was taken when. That absence is the whole reason this page is open.
Fiscalía General de la Nación (Colombia), statement of March 26, 2022 Semana (Colombia), reporting on the preliminary autopsy findings, March 2022 Rolling Stone, "The Final Days of Taylor Hawkins," May 2022, and the band's response Wikipedia, "Taylor Hawkins"
Questions people ask
- What was Taylor Hawkins's cause of death?
- The official cause of death was not formally released.
- When did Taylor Hawkins die?
- Taylor died on March 25, 2022, at the age of 50, in Bogotá, Colombia.
- What happened to Taylor Hawkins?
- 4 theories have been raised on this page and ranked by readers. The cause is settled; the theories are about understanding how it happened.
- Who else died in 2022?
- See everyone on Ohbit who died in 2022. Taylor was 50.
Add a theory
Say what you think happened and why. You’re anonymous. If you have a reason to know (you were there, you do this for a living), you can say so.