Rocker Ted Nugent weighed in on Foo Fighter’s Taylor Hawkins, who passed away a few days ago, saying (see video below).
He said:
“It’s heartbreaking on so many levels. Fifty years old with a horrible, long-term celebration of substance abuse. I’m not… Well, I am casting judgment because substance abuse is selfish. His wife and daughter, they should have been taken into consideration. Is spending time with your wife and daughter more important than getting high or less important than getting high?
“I’ve told the story many times, but I’ve witnessed it. My bass player Greg Arama, was so gifted at 15; listen to the bass part on ‘Journey To The Center Of The Mind’ by the Amboy Dukes, and the guy was just a gifted, a virtuoso, a savant of groove and musicality. And he started smoking dope and ended up with her*in and died when he was, I don’t know, the early 20s.
”And the future he could have had. I told Jimi Hendrix, I said, ‘No, I don’t want your dope, and it’s gonna kill you, Jimi.’ Bon Scott [AC/DC] would come to the studio when my band was recording ‘Weekend Warriors’ [1978] out of Miami and AC/DC was coming in [and working on] ‘Highway To Hell’, just phenomenal musical powers. And he’d come in drunk every day with a [bottle of] Jack Daniel’s or an Old Grand-Dad [whiskey] and he’d go, ‘Hey, Teddy, try some of this.’ And he smelled like a diaper. What a talent. What a nice guy. These were all nice guys.” […]