In recent weeks, a couple of topics have been hotly discussed in the music community. There’s “nepo babies,” or artists whose parents or other relative(s) paved the way in the entertainment industry before them. Later, Foo Fighters revealed they planned to continue on as a band after Taylor Hawkins’ death. To tie those things together, Foo Fighters fans have been discussing who they think should take over Hawkins’ spot in the band, and one of the most-mentioned names was Rufus Taylor, drummer of The Darkness and son of Queen drummer Roger Taylor.
Now, in a new interview with MusicRadar, Taylor, who performed with Foo Fighters at the Hawkins tribute concerts last year, has discussed his relationship with Hawkins and Foo Fighters, explaining that Hawkins took notice of how Taylor didn’t try to use his family name to get ahead in the music business. He said of Hawkins:
“He always supported every single thing I ever did. He always said that I approach drums and music the hard way, which I really respected him for saying. The fact that he noticed stuff like that was just so cool to me. […] I auditioned for a bunch of stuff. Even for the We Will Rock You musical. I just did a bunch of really hard work before venturing into the… bigger leagues, I guess. I was really touched by how he picked up on that stuff. I had a lot of people slating me at the time because I’d just started playing drums professionally. They just always assumed it was to do with my dad, but Taylor just always got that, where most people didn’t.”
He also called Hawkins “my hero, my mentor, my big brother” and detailed their relationship, saying, “I think I was six years old when I first met him. My dad introduced me to him as his close mate. I was instantly just in love with the guy, I just thought he was the coolest person I’d ever met. He was always really sweet to me. We just kind of clicked together immediately, and the more I grew up, it was just strange how similar we were — a lot because I idolized him and everything — but we ended up like twins, in the end.”
Read the full interview here.