Foo Fighters' Taylor Hawkins: 'Liam Gallagher for Prime Minister!'
Watch his interview with Absolute Radio's Claire Sturgess
Last updated 6th Feb 2020
Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins believes that Liam Gallagher is the only man to drag the UK out of these turbulent and divisive political times.
Taylor recently dropped by Absolute Radio HQ to discuss his star-studded new album with his band The Coattail Riders, ‘Get The Money’, which features a veritable smorgasbord of special guests.
The A-list guest performers include Queen's Roger Taylor, Yes singer Jon Davison, The Eagles’ Joe Walsh, Guns N’ Roses’ Duff McKagan, Heart’s Nancy Wilson, Chrissie Hynde, Jane’s Addiction’s Perry Farrell, The Sex Pistols’ Steve Jones, Level 42’s Mark King, LeAnn Rimes and Foo Fighters’ Pat Smear. Oh, and a certain Dave Grohl.
Although Taylor’s good mate Liam Gallagher doesn’t feature on the record, it didn’t take too long for conversation to move to the former Oasis frontman.
Taylor told Absolute Radio’s Claire Sturgess: “I bought his thousand-dollar Parka today. It’s pretty amazing. I told Liam ‘I just spent a thousand dollars on one of your jackets’. He goes (badly mimics Liam’s accent) ‘Ah no, don’t do that man! It’s my ultimate mission to get you American boys looking cool.’ Or, looking ‘irie’, he said.
“I said ‘well then, I’ll send you a box of surf trunks. It’s my ultimate to get you English boys looking cool at the beach.”
Laughing, Taylor added: “Liam Gallagher for Prime Minister… not Noel.”
Featuring the aforementioned Joe Walsh, Chrissy Hynde and Duff McKagan, Taylor revealed that the ‘Get The Money’ title track was inspired by a conversation he had with Walsh when he was bemoaning the gruelling toils of touring life.
“That song was inspired by something Joe (Walsh) said to me when I was on your whining about how tired I was,” Taylor explained.
“He basically told me the story of B.B. King telling him, when he called B.B. (mimics Joe’s accent) “I was lucky enough to know B.B. King and I was whining about being on the road with The Eagles and he says ‘Are you making money, Joe? You got a nice house, Joe? Then get the money!’
“That’s basically (what happened) when I called Uncle Joe to cry about being on tour for too long, and my legs are tired, and my hands are tired, and I miss my kids, and all that stuff.
“He said ‘Get the money and shut the hell up you spoiled brat!’ That’s what the lyrics are literally about. It’s about myself and then watching a few other people in my band… y’know you’re a spoiled brat, you’re acting like you deserve this crap, you’re a grown man crying like a child. That can happen. Especially to rock and roll musicians on the road.”
Moving the conversation back to Liam again, Taylor continued: “I love that Liam Gallagher thing where he has to makes the tea for himself. (Does Liam’s accent) ‘I used to have people do this for me yernowotimean?’ Now he has got to make his own tea… No, I think he’s got a tea maker now. He’s got two nights sold out at The O2 Arena, I’m so happy for him.
“I would definitely be happy to have a Liam Gallagher cup of tea. A cuppa. And then just listen to him talk, it’s the best.”
Elsewhere in the chat with Sturge, Taylor said he’s too busy with the Foo Fighters to actively tour ‘Get The Money’.
“(I could play) a couple of one-off shows maybe, maybe a TV show or two,” Taylor explained. “But right now we’re just so busy in the Foo Fighters world. Yeah we are (working on new material) and so there’s just no time.
“I am hoping I could do shows out of cycle - it doesn’t have to be right when the record comes out - I could come to London and do a UK tour, play the Scala or something.”
You can watch Sturge’s entire brilliant chat with Taylor below where he also talks about the genius of Level 42’s Mark King, his love of making music outside of the day job, Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme being a musical mentor and the story of why he binned an intensely personal song called ‘Son of Me’ in favour of the Thin Lizzy/Sweet/Jane’s Addiction influenced track ‘Middle Child’.
Taylor Hawkins & The Coattail Riders’ new album ‘Get The Money’ is out now. The track-listing as follows:
1 - Crossed the Line (featuring Dave Grohl, Jon Davison)
2 - Don’t Look At Me That Way (featuring Duff McKagan, Nancy Wilson)
3 - You’re No Good at Life No More (featuring Dave Grohl)
4 - I Really Blew It (featuring Dave Grohl, Perry Farrell)
5 - Queen Of The Clowns (featuring Mark King)
6 - Get the Money (featuring Joe Walsh, Chrissie Hynde, Duff McKagan)
7 - C U in Hell (featuring LeAnn Rimes)
8 - Middle Child (featuring Dave Grohl)
9 - Kiss the Ring
10 - Shapes Of Things (featuring Roger Taylor, Pat Smear, Steve Jones, Gannin Arnold)