For the last few months, it feels like there is a void left in the world of rock and roll without Taylor Hawkins. While he may not have written every song by the Foo Fighters, his good time spirit and partner in crime status he had with Dave Grohl made him feel like a member of the family, and it’s anyone’s guess as to whether the Foos will continue without him.
Long before any of this happened though, Dave already had some concerns about his old friend a decade beforehand.
When writing the beginnings of the album In Your Honor, Dave originally had the idea to break up the record into two separate halves, one being the more rock-focused side with typical arena rock songs, paired with an album that was full of more somber acoustic cuts.
That gave the audience a lot of time to decompress, but also a lot of time to listen, especially when the band scaled down from their traditional arenas to playing to theaters.
Though many fans were centering around the song “Friend of a Friend” allegedly being about Kurt Cobain, Dave made mention of the meaning behind the song “On the Mend,” which he said was inspired by a scary episode that happened while the Foos were on one of their recent tours.
After a show, Taylor had been partying and ended up overdosing on heroin, spending days in a coma with Dave by his side. While Dave was worrying about his friend, he had written the song “On the Mend” about those days in recovery, saying:
“I’ve never told him it’s about him. HELL NO. It’s my love song to a dying best friend. And I put it on the record and I thought ‘O God, he probably thinks this is about him.’ But we have never ever come close to having that conversation.”
Coming after Taylor’s death, this song is all the more spooky, as fans wonder whether Dave actually did have that conversation with Taylor. We’ll never know whether or not Taylor ever had that talk with Dave, but it almost doesn’t matter. These guys were musical soulmates onstage, and that kind of bond can last beyond death.