Red Hot Chili Peppers Pay Tribute to Taylor Hawkins at Jazz Fest with Dave Grohl in the Audience

At Sunday’s Jazz Fest in New Orleans, the Red Hot Chili Peppers paid a special tribute to late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins.

Dave Grohl, Hawkins’ widow Alison, and other Foo Fighters members looked on from the sides of the stage.

Chad Smith, the drummer of the Chili Peppers and close friend of Hawkins, had “Taylor” spelled out on his bass drum, surrounded by a hawk symbol.

A few days before their performance, the Peppers dedicated their set to Hawkins, calling it a celebration.

“We’re taking Alison, his wife, with us and it’s going to be a celebration,” Smith explained. “That’s what she wants. She doesn’t want it to be anything other than, ‘Let’s celebrate music, let’s celebrate our friends, let’s celebrate Taylor. This is what he would want and he would be very happy that you guys are playing and he would want it be nothing but a positive experience.’ So we’re going to do all that and she’s going to be part of that and I’m very honored that we can do that with her. … We’re going to play our hearts out.”

The Foo Fighters were initially scheduled to headline Jazz Fest but chose to cancel all tour dates in the wake of Hawkin’s death at the end of March.

“We love the Foo Fighters and we love our brother Taylor Hawkins,” Smith said into the mic toward the end of their set. “It’s meant a lot to us to be able to play for them.” Smith then led the Jazz Fest crowd in a chant, all yelling “We love you, Taylor!”

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Photo credit: Tony Norkus / Shutterstock.com