Devastated to hear of the loss of rock great Taylor Hawkins. My heart goes out to his family and his band.

I’m a drummer and Taylor was the great drummer for a band lead by a another great rock drummer. This one hurts the drum family especially hard.

This picture is an inside joke to drummers of a certain generation. Taylor’s playing a Gretch kit here, probably worth in the neighborhood of $20k. On the front bass drum head, he’s written in Sharpie, “CB 700”. He and I are only separated in age by a few years. If you were a kid drummer of our generation, it’s possible your first drumkit was a CB 700. They were trash drums. But they were the bottom of the range of real instruments.

Seeing this picture today brought me back to that time, being excited to go into music stores and check out the gear…

RIP Taylor. You were one of the good ones.