Pop superstar Billie Eilish and her collaborator brother, Finneas O’Connell, discussed the passing of FOO FIGHTERS drummer Taylor Hawkins with Access Hollywood’s Scott Evans and Zuri Hall on the red carpet of Sunday’s (March 27) 94th annual Oscars ceremony at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Finneas said: “Taylor was such a legendary player. We were admirers of his work years before we got to meet him. And we only met him a handful of times — I wish we got to spend more time with him — but he couldn’t have been a kinder, cooler, more generous person as well. And such a deeply inspiring person. We’re just heartbroken.” Billie added: “It was incredibly heartbreaking. It was right before we went on stage. And we got the news, and it really, really tore us all apart. It’s horribly, horribly tragic.”

Hawkins died at a hotel in Bogota, Colombia on Friday (March 25). Local officials said an ambulance was sent to the hotel after a man reported having chest pains. The 50-year-old FOO FIGHTERS drummer did not respond to resuscitation efforts and was declared dead, the city’s health department said.

On Saturday, the Colombian attorney general’s office announced that Hawkins had opioids, marijuana and other drugs in his system before he died. A toxicology report showed traces of 10 substances in his body, including anti-depressants, the office said. The statement added that the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences “will conduct the necessary medical studies to ascertain the cause of death” and that it “will continue the investigation and will report the results obtained within the framework thereof in a timely manner.”

FOO FIGHTERS announced Hawkins’s death on their Instagram account. “The FOO FIGHTERS family is devastated by the tragic and untimely loss of our beloved Taylor Hawkins,” the announcement read. “His musical spirit and infectious laughter will live on with all of us forever. Our hearts go out to his wife, children and family, and we ask that their privacy be treated with the utmost respect in this unimaginably difficult time.”

The FOO FIGHTERS were scheduled to perform Friday at the Picnic Stereo festival in Bogota but their performance was canceled.

The band played Lollapalooza Chile on March 18 and Lollapalooza Argentina on March 20. They were scheduled to headline Lollapalooza Brasil on Sunday (March 27).

Hawkins has been open about his history of drug use. He overdosed on heroin in 2001 and spent a week in a coma, just four years after joining the FOO FIGHTERS.

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Perry Farrell has shared a video tribute to his “best friend” Taylor Hawkins who died last Friday (March 25) at the age of 50.

The JANE’S ADDICTION frontman and Lollapalooza founder recorded the message on Saturday and had it played at the Lollapalooza Brasil festival, where the FOO FIGHTERS were the scheduled headliners on Sunday.

In the five-minute video, which can be seen below, Farrell states (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “Taylor Hawkins died yesterday. He was my best friend — beloved in my home by my wife, my children, even my dogs. Whenever Taylor came over, we would make music in the den, [my dog] Cloud would always go and sit right by him. He was one of the most passionate drummers I’ve ever seen in my lifetime. When I think of him, I sum it up with one word: velocity. He had the gift to maintain a confident, striking and stroking velocity on drums.

“There’s a large part of my heart that I had reserved for him. I accepted him into my heart when we became friends because he was such a pure guy, so pure of heart. I would receive texts from Taylor. They were always bits and pieces of songs he was writing or looking to write or wanted me to listen to. I got music tidbits as often as I got ‘I love you’s. We would always start with a song; there was always a song that… Like, ‘Do you listen to YES? The guy kind of sounds like you.’ And I say, ‘Yeah, yeah. I like YES.’ He just was obsessed with music and great songs. My passion for music, that’s what’s our common ground; our friendship was based around that. Then we got to know each other. He would tell me stories of going to JANE’S shows back in the ’80s — shows that were pretty underground. So although I didn’t make his acquaintance back then, we shared a history. It’s almost like the rites of passage. We were young men and we were trying to be great musicians. Little did he know through this one fatal night, he would cement himself in the legends of music for all time. And that’s what I think he deserves.

“The only sense that I can make of the tragedy is to know that Taylor’s now in heaven; he can hear us. What I’m gonna do from this day forward is to try to make music that I think Taylor would really love.”

Hawkins died at a hotel in Bogota, Colombia. Local officials said an ambulance was sent to the hotel after a man reported having chest pains. The 50-year-old FOO FIGHTERS drummer did not respond to resuscitation efforts and was declared dead, the city’s health department said.

On Saturday, the Colombian attorney general’s office announced that Hawkins had opioids, marijuana and other drugs in his system before he died. A toxicology report showed traces of 10 substances in his body, including anti-depressants, the office said. The statement added that the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences “will conduct the necessary medical studies to ascertain the cause of death” and that it “will continue the investigation and will report the results obtained within the framework thereof in a timely manner.”

FOO FIGHTERS announced Hawkins’s death on their Instagram account. “The FOO FIGHTERS family is devastated by the tragic and untimely loss of our beloved Taylor Hawkins,” the announcement read. “His musical spirit and infectious laughter will live on with all of us forever. Our hearts go out to his wife, children and family, and we ask that their privacy be treated with the utmost respect in this unimaginably difficult time.”

The FOO FIGHTERS were scheduled to perform Friday at the Picnic Stereo festival in Bogota but their performance was canceled.

The band played Lollapalooza Chile on March 18 and Lollapalooza Argentina on March 20.

Hawkins has been open about his history of drug use. He overdosed on heroin in 2001 and spent a week in a coma, just four years after joining the FOO FIGHTERS.

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New SKID ROW vocalist Erik Grönwall says that he met his bandmates in person for the first time four days before they played their first show together.

The Grönwall-fronted version of SKID ROW made its live debut Saturday night (March 26) at Zappos Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada as the support act on the rescheduled dates for SCORPIONS’ “Sin City Nights” residency.

SKID ROW’s nine-song set included its new single, “The Gang’s All Here”, which was made available on Friday, March 25. The song is the title track of the band’s upcoming album, which will arrive on October 14 via earMUSIC.

On Sunday (March 27), Erik took to his social media to share a photo of the new SKID ROW lineup, and he included the following message: “First show done! Met these lovely gents for the first time this Tuesday. Rehearsed in Vegas Wednesday and Thursday. And did the first show yesterday. First time on stage in two years and here I am with my favorite band @officialskidrow.

“Fuck me. Feels like I’ve been hit by @miketyson . Time to rest and then off to the studio tomorrow to track some more vocals for the new album. Can someone get me in touch with Steven Spielberg to discuss the script for SKID ROW the movie?”

SKID ROW’s setlist for the first concert was as follows:

01. Slave To The Grind
02. Big Guns
03. 18 And Life
04. Piece Of Me
05. Livin’ On A Chain Gang
06. Monkey Business
07. I Remember You
08. The Gang’s All Here
09. Youth Gone Wild

Fan-filmed video is available below.

Grönwall joined SKID ROW as the replacement for ZP Theart who recently left the group after a six-year stint.

SKID ROW recorded “The Gang’s All Here” in Nashville, Tennessee with producer Nick Raskulinecz, who has previously worked with FOO FIGHTERS, STONE SOUR, HALESTORM, EVANESCENCE, RUSH and ALICE IN CHAINS, among many others.

SKID ROW bassist Rachel Bolan and guitarist Dave “Snake” Sabo said in a statement: “We are beyond excited to release this record. It has been a long time in the making and a lot of hard work has been put into it by the band and our producer Nick Raskulinecz. The addition of Erik has lifted the songs to new heights. Add all this to the fact that we start our world tour in Las Vegas with the SCORPIONS residency this Saturday at Zappos Theater makes it easy to say that SKID ROW is going to have a great year.”

Grönwall sang on H.E.A.T.’s last four studio albums — “Address The Nation” (2012), “Tearing Down The Walls” (2014), “Into The Great Unknown” (2017) and “H.E.A.T II” (2020) — before exiting the group in October 2020.

Grönwall was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in March 2021. A short time later, he wrote on his social media: “I am extremely privileged and grateful to live at a day and age where a disease like this is curable. There’s been so much progress made in this field. My body is reacting well to the treatment but it’s a long treatment and it’s going to be the toughest challenge of my life so far, for me and my family.”

Last September, Grönwall released his cover version of SKID ROW’s “18 And Life” via all streaming platforms. At the time, he said about his version of the track: “This song was basically the starting point of my professional career as an artist. I performed this song during my ‘Swedish Idol’ audition back in 2009. 12 years later it’s time to give this bad boy a try again. Here’s my version of the SKID ROW song ’18 And Life’.”

In 2018, Grönwall debuted in the U.S. for 10 million viewers in NBC’s live broadcast of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s and Tim Rice’s musical “Jesus Christ Superstar”. Along with John Legend, Alice Cooper, Sara Bareilles and others, Erik played the key role of Simon Zealotes.

Theart, a former member of DRAGONFORCE, joined SKID ROW in 2016 following the departure of Tony Harnell (TNT, STARBREAKER).

Sebastian Bach fronted SKID ROW until 1996, when he was fired. Instead of throwing in the towel, the remaining members took a hiatus and went on to play briefly in a band called OZONE MONDAY. In 1999, SKID ROW reformed and, after a bit of shuffling over the years, featured a lineup consisting of Bolan and guitarists Sabo and Scotti Hill, alongside drummer Rob Hammersmith and singer Johnny Solinger. SKID ROW fired Solinger over the phone in April 2015, a few hours before announcing Tony Harnell as his replacement. Eight months later, Harnell exited the band and was replaced by Theart, the South African-born, British-based singer who previously fronted DRAGONFORCE, TANK and I AM I.

First show done! Met these lovely gents for the first time this Tuesday. Rehearsed in Vegas Wednesday and Thursday. And…

Posted by Erik Grönwall on Sunday, March 27, 2022

Follow The Pure Rock Shop for more coverage Erik Grönwall SKID ROW

Posted by Kara Marie on Saturday, March 26, 2022

Follow The Pure Rock Shop for more coverage ?Erik Grönwall SKID ROW

Posted by Kara Marie on Saturday, March 26, 2022

LIVE in VEGAS ????

Posted by SKID ROW on Saturday, March 26, 2022

SKID ROW

Posted by Jessica Chase on Saturday, March 26, 2022

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Swedish progressive metallers OPETH will release “In Cauda Venenum (Extended Edition)” on May 13 via Atomic Fire Records. This release, available on digipak, contains the English and Swedish versions of OPETH’s latest album, “In Cauda Venenum”, with new illustrations by internationally renowned Travis Smith in the booklet. In addition, there is also a third CD including three previously unreleased bonus tracks, both in English and Swedish: “The Mob” / “Pöbeln”, “Width Of A Circle” / “Cirkelns Riktning” and “Freedom & Tyranny” / “Frihet & Tyranni”.

“In Cauda Venenum (Extended Edition)” is now available for pre-order. Also on May 13, the album’s strictly limited “Connoisseur Edition” vinyl boxset, which includes the same bonus tracks but remastered by Mikael Åkerfeldt specifically for vinyl, will be available in the North American retail stores for the first time. Both album editions will also be available at the band’s merch table on the upcoming North American tour.

“In Cauda Venenum” was originally released in September 2019 via Moderbolaget / Nuclear Blast Entertainment. Recorded in 2018 at Stockholm’s Park Studios, the effort was made available in two versions, in both Swedish and English languages.

Regarding the decision to release “In Cauda Venenum” in Swedish, Åkerfeldt told Revolver: “Doing it in Swedish was just an idea that popped into my head, like, ‘Maybe I should fry my egg in the morning instead of boiling it.’ It wasn’t any deeper than that. And I figured the music climate has changed so much, does it really matter which language it’s in? That was it. And it didn’t have me writing more lyrics — it just had me writing more music. And the music didn’t sound more Swedish or anything like that. But it was a gateway that opened, and it was fun.

Mikael added that he is “not regretting” the fact that “In Cauda Venenum” was also recorded in English. “A lot of people [in the U.S.] are saying they only listened to the English version,” he said. “So I was proven right, in a way. I can say a thousand times that the Swedish version is the original version, but it’s up to people to choose. I can just hope that they check out both versions. But I do think the Swedish version is slightly better — only because it was first. It’s more innocent. With the English version, regardless of what you think about it, that’s me trying to copy a vocal line I had done in another language. So it’s less exciting to me.”

OPETH played its first show with drummer Sami Karppinen (THERION) last November in Asheville, North Carolina at the opening date of the band’s tour with MASTODON and ZEAL & ARDOR.

Karppinen stepped in to play with OPETH after the Swedish metallers parted ways with their longtime drummer Martin “Axe” Axenrot due to what they called “a conflict of interests.”

When Axenrot’s exit was first announced, Åkerfeldt said in a statement: “However sad it is to not have Axe in the band anymore, we’re not in a position to linger on anything that is going to hold us back. We need to soldier on.

“Needless to say, we’re incredibly thankful that Sami is helping us out, making this tour possible and all. On top of that, he’s quite outstanding, really!

“All of us wish the best for Axe in all and any of his future endeavors. He has been a incredibly important part of the band for many years now, and we’re all heartbroken it didn’t work out in the end. But that’s life, I guess…”

Axenrot officially joined OPETH a decade and a half ago as the replacement for Martin Lopez, who left the band in May 2006 after being plagued by illness and anxiety attacks, which forced him to miss several of OPETH’s tours.

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Jill Biden, America’s first lady, was among public figures mourning the death of FOO FIGHTERS drummer Taylor Hawkins, who passed away Friday evening (March 25). He was 50.

The band announced the loss on social media, calling Hawkins’s death “tragic and untimely.” He was found dead in a hotel room in Bogota, Colombia. A cause of death has not yet been announced, but a preliminary report from the Colombia’s Attorney General’s Office found Hawkins had 10 different substances in his body, including “THX (Marijuana), tricyclic antidepressants, benzodiazepines and opioids.”

On Saturday (March 26), U.S. president Joe Biden’s wife of 45 years took to her Twitter to write: “A ferocious drummer, dedicated father, and dear friend gone far too soon.

“Sending love to Taylor Hawkins’ family and fans of the FOO FIGHTERS everywhere.”

In January 2021, the FOO FIGHTERS were part of the virtual “Celebrating America” concert special for Joe Biden’s inauguration, during which they performed “Times Like These”.

Hawkins was a vocal opponent to former U.S. president Donald Trump on several occasions in recent years. In a 2017 interview with Onet News, Taylor stated about the political climate in the United States: “It’s insane, but it really is a mirror image of our culture in America right now. So people blame [Trump], but he’s just a symptom of a generation of reality TV-obsessed, selfie-obsessed, Facebook-obsessed, tweet-obsessed, self-obsessed people. So we got that president because I think, unless the Russians really did hack in, we got what we deserve.”

“I think in a certain way, it’s a good chance for people to take a look at where we are as a culture and say, is this where we want to be?” Hawkins continued. “An orange, fake-haired, tweeting president who tweets childish remarks about people who say little mean things about him, because that’s where we are right now. It’s a fricking weird freaky time, but it’s really representative of where our culture is right now.”

In February 2021, FOO FIGHTERS frontman Dave Grohl told Tom Power, host of “Q” on Canada’s CBC Radio One, about the experience of performing at Joe Biden’s inauguration: “You have to understand that sometimes it seems so surreal that I feel like I’m standing beside myself and watching it happen. I’ve actually written a little bit about how it’s like your life flashing before your eyes as it’s happening. So it’s strange.

“It’s hard for me to connect all of those dots, because there is a lot of ‘full circle’ going on there,” he continued. “I grew up outside of Washington, D.C. My father was a Republican speech writer. He was involved in politics. I spent time on Capitol Hill.

“So, putting all those things together, with the the First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden, being a teacher, and my mother being a public school teacher for 35 years — retired now — all of these things kind of connected together to then this performance of a song that I wrote 18 years ago that’s not a political song at all. It’s just a song about hitting some crossroads in your life where you feel that you need some sort of rebirth, or some restart. But you have hope.”

Grohl added: “I’ve always thought that when someone dear to you, someone close to you passes away, you have to start all over again. So you have to do everything in life all over again — your first cup of coffee since you’ve lost that person; your first trip to the grocery store since you’ve lost [that person]; and so on and so on and so on. It’s basically what that song’s about — about learning to love again, learning to live again; things like that.

“I think the reason why we were asked to perform was because, in the States, we need that. So it’s a rebuilding in a hopeful way. And I think that’s why they requested that we play that song. And it was an honor.”

Back in 2018, Grohl said that he was “ashamed” of having Donald Trump as the U.S. leader, explaining that the billionaire real estate mogul “seems like a massive jerk.”

“Today, the American Dream is broken,” Grohl told the British GQ magazine at the time. “I’ve probably travelled internationally more than our current president and the one thing I understand that he doesn’t is that the world isn’t as big as you think it is. It is all in your neighborhood. India, Asia, Iceland aren’t other solar systems. I am ashamed of our president. I feel apologetic for it when I travel.”

In 2017, Grohl said in an interview with Switzerland’s SRF 3 that criticism of Trump’s extremist rhetoric by musicians and Hollywood stars only served to embolden and fuel his base. “I think that for years maybe they felt like the minority and now all of a sudden there’s a voice that they can sort of attach themselves to, and the more pushback they get from that, it’s like the stronger they feel in a lot of ways,” Grohl explained. “So all you can do is fight the good fight every day when you wake up and try to be a good person and treat everybody with respect.”

Asked how he, as a responsible parent, talked with his kids about the often-inflammatory behavior we saw from America’s 45th president on a daily basis, Grohl told SRF 3: “I remember the night of the election, I had to sit down and have a talk with my daughter. She was terrified, man. And I basically told her what I’d just told you. I was, like, ‘You can’t give up hope. You just have to fight the good fight. And the things you believe in… You have to stand up and represent the things that you actually believe in.’ That’s what everybody should do. But I think it’s hard for a kid to understand that.”

A ferocious drummer, dedicated father, and dear friend gone far too soon.
Sending love to Taylor Hawkins’ family and fans of the Foo Fighters everywhere.

— Jill Biden (@FLOTUS) March 26, 2022

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