Taylor Hawkins, the late Foo Fighters drummer, will tragically not be present at Sunday's Grammy Awards, but his presence will be felt. Not only will the show include some kind of memorial to the musician, but Hawkins could become a posthumous Grammy winner should his band win awards for any of their three nominations.
Hawkins died on March 25 in Bogotá, Colombia, while on tour with the Foo Fighters. The day after his death, Colombian authorities announced a preliminary toxicology test found numerous substances in Hawkins' system. On March 29, the Foo Fighters canceled the rest of their tour, as well as a scheduled performance at the Grammys on April 3.
The Foo Fighters have won 12 Grammy awards, and they've received 31 nominations, including three this year for "Best Rock Album," "Best Rock Song" and "Best Rock Performance." Their most successful showing came during the 54th Annual Grammy Awards in 2012, when they won five awards out of their six nominations, including "Best Rock Album" for Wasting Light. (They lost out on "Album of the Year" to Adele's 21.)
Gold Derby, an awards prediction website, on Wednesday, said the Foo Fighters are the front-runners to win two awards this year. The site placed the band as odds-on favorites to take home "Best Rock Performance" for the song "Making a Fire," as well as for winning "Best Rock Album" for "Medicine at Midnight." However, Paul McCartney's "Find My Way" is predicated to win "Best Rock Song" over the Foo Fighters' "Waiting on a War."
Any Grammys the band wins this weekend won't come as a response to Hawkins' death. The Grammys were originally set to air in January until a spike in COVID-19 cases caused organizers to delay the ceremony. Though the show is taking place Sunday, the voting was tabulated prior to the original January date.
CBS, which will telecast the awards this year, announced the show will include a special moment for the star.
"We will honor his memory in some way," Jack Sussman, an executive vice president at CBS said in a statement to Variety. "We want to figure out what is the right thing to do that is respectful to everyone involved. We're patient. We'll be planning right up until the very end."
While Hawkins may win multiple awards as a member of the Foo Fighters on Sunday, he won't be in the running for holding the distinction of being the person with the most posthumous Grammys. R&B legend Ray Charles, who passed away in 2004, set that mark when he won eight Grammys in 2005 for the album Genius Loves Company.
Newsweek reached out to the Foo Fighters' management for comment but did not hear back in time for publication.
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