Musician Taylor Hawkins, drummer of the Foo Fighters and an Orange County native, has died, according to a statement from the Foo Fighters.

“The Foo Fighters family is devastated by the tragic and untimely loss of our beloved Taylor Hawkins. His musical spirit and infectious laughter will live on with all of us forever. Our hearts go out to his wife, children and family, and we ask that their privacy be treated with the utmost respect in this unimaginably difficult time,” a statement from the band’s publicist read.

The statement was posted to the band’s social media accounts.

Hawkins was 50 years old.

Hawkins was a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted with. the Foo Fighters in the class of 2021.

Foo Fighters were on tour in Bogotá, Colombia, to perform at Festival Estereo Picnic. On Sunday, the band was set to headline Lollapalooza Brasil.

Hawkins was also the frontman of ’70s rock cover band Chevy Metal, which played Costa Mesa’s 60th anniversary celebration in 2013, and was known to jump in front of the microphone to take the lead vocals on a classic rock song during Foo Fighters’ sets, including Queen and David Bowie’s “Under Pressure.”

With his long blonde hair and penchant for board shorts, Hawkins was the quintessential Southern California surfer dude, quick with a smile and a laugh. He was also a musician who never stopped being a music fan.

In a 2016 interview about his solo album “K.O.T.A,” he cited Stewart Copeland of the Police and Queen’s Roger Taylor as his biggest influences and said all of his kids had shown interest in the drums.

“Stewart Copeland wrote these crazy, weird songs on Police records that were kind of goofy, but they were great,” he said. “He couldn’t compete with Sting, but that’s all right. Roger Taylor always had a song on every Queen album and when he sang he had this kind of scratchy, cool voice, which I always did try to sound like when I was younger, which is probably why I sound like him now on accident. I always identified with that. I wanted to be in a band, but I also wanted to be with a microphone back there signing and being able to write a song every once in a while.”

When he wasn’t behind the kit, he used his downtime to go mountain biking on Southern California trails or surfing near where he grew up in Laguna Beach.

He described growing up in south Orange County with longtime friend Jon Davison, the current singer for rock band Yes.

“We literally started music together like on the same day,” Hawkins said in 2016. “We decided this was what we were going to do, you know, after miming to Queen’s ‘Live Killers.’ My dad took this picture of us and I remember we were standing there trying to look cool, holding a guitar and some drumsticks like ‘This is it!’ Back then, though, I wanted to play guitar or be the singer, I hadn’t found drums yet.”

Davison joined his childhood friend to sing Rush’s “Tom Sawyer” at a 2015 Foo Fighters show at Honda Center in Anaheim.

This story is developing. Check back for updates.

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