Watch Foo Fighters’ Taylor Hawkins Revisit Eighties in New Solo Video
Song “Range Rover Bitch” appears on drummer’s new ‘KOTA’ LP
Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins cheekily pays tribute to the early Eighties in his video for “Range Rover Bitch,” the funky, hard-rocking lead single from his recently released KOTA solo album.
The clip uses video techniques from the age of Beta as picture-in-picture screens show closeups of keyboards, guitar and, of course, a cowbell before focusing on Hawkins, whose blond hair and dark mustache make him look a bit like Styx’s Tommy Shaw in a ringer tank. Its most retro moment, however, may be the superimposed line of Hawkinses and, for no reason, a zebra. It all harks back to the era of Billy Squier wiggling around in bedroom in the “Rock Me Tonite” clip and Survivor whipping wet hair in the “Eye of the Tiger” video. And it even ends with a visual kicker starring Hawkins himself.
“Liam Lynch did an incredible job on the ‘Range Rover Bitch’ video,” Hawkins told Rolling Stone in a statement. “I think our shared love of that pre-MTV late ’70s/very early ’80s direct-to-video late night television Don Kirshner/Midnight Special vibe really shines through on this video. He really captured that Kim Carnes, Nick Gilder feel.”
Hawkins recently discussed the meaning behind “Range Rover Bitch” in a Consequence of Sound interview. “‘Range Rover Bitch’ came from the fact that I live in Calabasas,” he said. “I live in the neighborhood where the Kardashians live. I look around at my life, and outside of being onstage and all the wonderful crazy fucking shit that we get to do as a band, I lead a very normal life. I have three kids, a wife and we have a date night every week. … So I look around and think how I never ever thought that picking up this pair of drumsticks would make me one of these well-to-do adults. [Laughs] I’m looking around going, ‘Look at these idiots, and how did I become one of them?'”
KOTA, which stands for “King of the Assholes,” contains six new original songs played almost KOTA entirely by Hawkins. He previously has worked outside of Foo Fighters in the bands Coattail Riders, the Birds of Satan and Chevy Metal.
