While Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins is expected to get a tribute this Sunday night at the Grammy Awards, his hometown of Laguna Beach, California, remembered him in a more low-key way on Thursday.
The Orange County Register reports that fans gathered at a local beach at the town for a drum circle in honor of Hawkins, who died March 25 in Bogota, Columbia, at age 50. In addition to playing music around a bonfire, attendees also wrote messages on a memorial.
The paper reports that when he wasn’t on tour, Hawkins would spend time around Laguna Beach, where he grew up and later bought a home, and was also seen surfing at the town’s Thalia Street Beach.
James Pribham, a high school pal of Hawkins who reconnected with him in recent years, tells the paper, “He was just the most genuine, positive, respectful person you could imagine.” Just a few months ago, Pribham says, Hawkins was the first to call him with condolences when his father passed away.
Pribham says Hawkins was “beloved by many” and “resonated with everybody,” because he never considered himself a rock star. He’ll be remembered, Pribham adds, as “[a] great man who was loving and kind who just happened to be one of the most talented and popular rock stars in the world.”
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