“We want to have that energy for Taylor”: Dave Grohl talks Foo Fighters’ next chapter

Dave Grohl has opened up about the loss of Taylor Hawkins, and how Foo Fighters are channeling the late drummer’s energy and spirit going into their next chapter as a band.

In an interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, the frontman reflects that, “We had Taylor Hawkins as our drummer for 25 years and, beyond being an amazing drummer, he was this incredible spirit. He was this incredible human being and he was our brother. He was our best friend.

“So, continuing after Taylor was really complicated, not just for us, but for any drummer that was going to come in to like, you know, fill his shoes… you know, we’re having this conversation on Taylor’s birthday [the interview was done on February 17]. It’s Taylor’s birthday today. And so, we wake up in the morning and everybody just texts about how much we miss him and how the world’s not the same without him, but we still feel him very much. We always talk about him every fucking day.

“In everything we do we want to have that energy – we want to have that energy for Taylor.”

That ties in beautifully with Foos’ approach to making new album Your Favorite Toy, with Dave explaining of his mindset going into the record: “I got to this place where I was like, ‘Okay, so what’s the intention? What’s the ambition? Like, what are we?’ It’s our 12th record. We’ve been a band for 30 years and as people, we’re evolving and we’re growing. Where do we go from here? What do we do?’

“And that’s when all the boundaries just sort of fall away and that’s where you realise the intention and the ambition is all within yourself. So, whatever’s going to make us jump around and smile and scream… and that’s the purest intention. And we found it in this song [yesterday’s newly-released title-track]. And this particular song was the springboard for the rest of the record. When we hit this, it was like we hit this little vein of gold and were like, ‘That’s the feeling, that’s the vibe, that’s the energy.’ And then we just blasted everything out in like three or four weeks.”

Check out an interview clip below:

Your Favorite Toy is due out on April 24 via Roswell Records/Columbia Records.

Catch the band making their return across the pond this summer:

Foo Fighters UK and Europe tour 2026

June

10 Oslo Unity Arena
12 Stockholm Strawberry Arena
15 Warsaw PGE Narodowy
17 Munich Allianz Arena
19 Paris Paris La Défense Arena
25 Liverpool Anfield Stadium
27 Liverpool Anfield Stadium

July

1 Berlin Olympiastadion
3 Vienna Ernst-Happel-Stadium
5 Milan I-Days
8 Madrid Mad Cool Festival
10 Oeiras NOS Alive Festival

Read this next:

• “It’s about passion and courage and fighting for things you believe in”: The story of Foo Fighters’ In Your Honour
• The story of Foo Fighters’ Concrete And Gold: “All of the music we’ve made has left us a pretty open playing field”
• “I don’t consider it to be our proudest moment”: The story of Foo Fighters’ One By One