Playing for the People

Few dudes like him ever miss the Motel 6.

They don't pine for life on the road in a cramped van that smells like a roving gym sock, truck stop eats greasier than the average crankshaft or humping their own gear into small clubs to play in front of even smaller crowds.

They don't long for the blood, the sweat, the beers.

But sometimes Taylor Hawkins does.

Hawkins is best known as the wild-eyed, hard-hitting drummer for rockers the Foo Fighters, but these days, he's touring with his own band, Taylor Hawkins & the Coattail Riders, who just put out their second record, "Red Light Fever," which might be best described as contemporary classic rock.

Of late, Hawkins has swapped sold-out concert halls for sweaty bar gigs.

Catering?

Only if Denny's counts.

"A lot of people would say, 'Why are you roughing it? Why do you need to do this?' " Hawkins asks of himself. "I need to do it, because I just really get a lot out of it musically, satisfactionwise, and just for the hang.

"After Coattail Riders shows, on our last tour, we would always just kind of hang out with all the people afterwards," he continues. "Our crowds were usually pretty small, but mighty. We played some places, like Lubbock, Texas, where there'll be like 50 people there, and they felt like they got this really personal show. Then we'd all hang out afterwards and talk about what's going on in their town. There's something that you get out of that that you don't get when you're sitting in the back of an arena all day long. It's just such a different experience."

Hawkins, animated and chatty, is an almost disarmingly down-to-earth guy.

Talking music with him is akin to chatting with an overcaffeinated record store clerk as opposed to someone whose face has appeared on the cover of magazines.

"My son, who's 3 almost, came up to me and he was holding one of my guitars, and he goes, 'Daddy, I'm a rock star,' " Hawkins recalls. "I went, 'You know what, buddy? That's a term that we don't use. If you want to be a musician, that's great, and I'll help you along the way. But there's no rock stars in this house.' Rock stars are people who don't live in any real reality that I want to be a part of."

And yet, Hawkins' latest disc is full of rock star-worthy moments.

It's a big sounding album, a throwback kind of record in a way, rooted in the out-sized pop and rock of the '70s, from glam to just a hint of prog, with Hawkins singing, drumming and playing a variety of instruments.

It's a highly melodic affair, a mix of some technical playing and huge hooks, lending the album an immediacy, but also some depth.

"Some of my favorite songs have those balancing acts," Hawkins says. "Take a song like 'Ghosts in the Material World' by The Police. I mean, that's a weird song -- it really is -- the beats turn around, and it's kind of progressive in that sense. And yet, it still has a pop sensibility. At the end of the day, I love Mahavishnu Orchestra, but I can't really remember any of their songs. But I can listen to a Yes album and those are great songs on 'Fragile' -- it's not just wicked playing. I like that mix."

In the end, it's this blend of the larger-than-life and a healthy measure of approachability that defines Hawkins' music.

And in a way, it defines the man in question as well.

"I remember doing my first real interviews and signing my first autographs and kind of being outside of my own body going, 'Well, I'm just sort of a spy here, I'm not really supposed to be here.' And I still feel like that sometimes," he says. "At the end of the day, you're no more different or special than anybody, really. You just happen to play an instrument fairly decently, and some people enjoy it."

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476.