Queen’s Roger Taylor has refused to confirm or deny if his son Rufus Taylor is going to replace the late Taylor Hawkins as Foo Fighters’ drummer.
The sticksman – who tragically died aged 50 in 2022 – was a Queen mega-fan and following rumours that suggested Rufus, who plays drums for The Darkness, could take Taylor’s seat behind the kit for Dave Grohl and co, Roger has said he’s worthy enough.
The ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ rocker told BBC Radio 2: “Well, Rufus is phenomenal.
“He’s turned into this scary, great drummer with The Darkness […] My son, he’s just annoyingly powerful and he’s become very, very good. I can’t say any more!”
Asked if he could join the band on tour, he insisted: “Well, he does play brilliantly with them. He knows all their stuff, knows them all very well.
“He did play ‘Best of You’ with the Foos, and it was phenomenal at Wembley, and at The Forum in LA. What exactly is happening now, I don’t know.”
Taylor and Roger were good pals.
On his legacy, he added: “We’re never going to forget him. I can’t take him out of my phone.”
Pearl Jam drummer Matt Cameron recently quashed gossip he would be taking over from Taylor.
He told fans on Instagram: “FYI the internet rumours are false, I haven’t joined the Foos.”
The ‘Learn to Fly’ rockers recently returned with their first new song since Taylor’s passing, ‘Rescued’, taken from their upcoming album ‘But Here We Are’.
The follow-up to 2021’s ‘Medicine at Midnight’ is described as: “A brutally honest and emotionally raw response to everything Foo Fighters endured over the last year.”
The ‘Everlong’ rockers reunited with producer Greg Kurstin on the 10-track collection, which signals their new era.
A press release adds that the album is “informed by decades of maturity and depth.”
It continues: “‘But Here We Are’ is the sound of brothers finding refuge in the music that brought them together in the first place 28 years ago, a process that was as therapeutic as it was about a continuation of life.”
Taylor was found dead in his hotel room in Colombia, in March last year, hours before the band was due to play a festival in Bogotá.
No cause of death was given.