Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins had 10 different substances in his body at the time of his death, the Colombian Attorney General’s Office said on Saturday.
According to a press release, “an initial forensic examination” found “THX (Marijuana), tricyclic antidepressants, benzodiazepines and opioids, among others.”
It said the National Institute of Forensic Medicine “continues to conduct the necessary medical studies to ascertain the cause of death” and the Attorney General’s Office “will duly inform the findings of forensic examinations in due time.”
Colombian media outlets reported that Hawkins called the front desk of Bogotá’s Four Seasons Casa Medina complaining of chest pain and first responders found the musician unresponsive in his suite and attempted to revive him.
Hawkins was declared dead at the scene. He was 50.
Semana reported that Hawkins died of “an overdose of heroin mixed with antidepressants and benzodiazepines.” It claimed his heart weighed at least 600 grams – roughly twice the average for a man his age. (In an interview with Rolling Stone last June, Hawkins said his doctor told him “your heart’s big, because you exercise a lot.”)
According to El Tiempo, “hallucinogens” were found in Hawkins’ room.
In 2001, Hawkins spent two weeks in a coma after he overdosed on heroin while in London. “Everyone has their own path and I took it too far,” he told Kerrang! last year. “I believed the bulls**t myth of live hard and fast, die young.”
He told Beats 1 in 2018: “There’s no happy ending with hard drugs. You’re gonna experiment, you’re gonna do all that s**t, but at the end of the day, there’s no happy ending.”
In the Rolling Stone interview last year, Hawkins said: “I’m good. I got the message, which was very important. And I’m lucky. I’m just lucky that I did get the message at the right time.”
Hawkins insisted he was leading a healthy lifestyle but when asked by journalist Brian Hiatt about his sobriety, he replied: “I don’t want to go into all that … I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t want my son reading it.”
The musician said he got “really bad” sinus infections and struggled with severe anxiety about performing live.
Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl and his bandmates were photographed after returning to Los Angeles on a private plane Saturday night.