Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins Open Up About Depression and Suicide

The music world and its fans have still been processing the deaths of both Chris Cornell and Chester Bennington, who recently died by suicide within a few months of each other. Now, the Foo Fighters have joined the ranks of musicians speaking out about depression and suicide to let fans know they’re not alone.

In an interview with radio station The Rock FM, Foo Fighter bandmates Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins got candid about how both Cornell’s and Bennington’s deaths affected them.

“When it comes to someone like Chris Cornell or Chester, depression is a disease,” Grohl said. “Everybody kind of goes through it their own way. I can’t speak for anybody else’s condition, but the hardest part is when you lose a friend. And I just always automatically think of families and band mates, because going through something like suicide, it’s a long road.”

Grohl is no stranger to suicide loss. The Foo Fighters frontman played drums in Nirvana when its lead singer Kurt Cobain died by suicide in 1994.

He said people need to take mental health and depression more seriously:

There’s a stigma attached to it. That’s unfortunate, because just like you take care of yourselves in every other way, I think that it’s important for people to really try to take care of themselves in that way too. And it ain’t easy, life’s hard.

Hawkins added that you never know what people are going through, no matter how successful they are. The drummer said:

That just goes to show you, it doesn’t matter what’s in your bank account, or how many hits are on your YouTube page, or all that kind of crap. It all goes out the window if you’re not feeling right… If it looks like someone’s down — way down — check on them.

You can watch the entire interview here.

If you or someone you know needs help, visit our suicide prevention resources page.

If you need support right now, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255, the Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386 or text “HOME” to 741-741. Head here for a list of crisis centers around the world.