Jon Davison was 10 years old when a family from Fort Worth, Texas moved into his neighbourhood in Laguna Beach, Orange County in 1981. The new arrivals had a kid a year younger than him, with a stack of blond hair and a big toothy smile. The kid’s name was Taylor. Taylor Hawkins.
The two youngsters quickly became glued at the hip. Star Wars was their first obsession, but that was soon forgotten about when Taylor excitedly called his buddy one day to tell him about a new record he’d got called The Game, by a band named Queen.
“I can remember it so distinctly,” Davison says now. “He was very much taken by the drummer, Roger Taylor. Taylor would go on about how he admired him because he wasn’t just a drummer, he was a singing, songwriting drummer. It’s funny, Taylor actually looked like a mini Roger Taylor at that age, too.”
Music quickly overtook Darth Vader as the boys’ passion. Taylor’s parents bought their son a drum kit and, with Davison on guitar and bass, the pair would jam away in the Hawkins family’s garage. “Eventually he discovered Rush,” says Davison. “Neil Peart was a big inspiration for him. That’s when he really took off as a drummer.”
That childhood friendship continued through their teenage years and beyond. They played together in high-school bands, and a few more grown-up groups, before their paths diverged. Jon Davison moved to Seattle and joined cult psychedelic rockers Sky Cries Mary as bassist before eventually replacing Jon Anderson as the singer in prog giants Yes. And Taylor Hawkins? He got a job playing with Alanis Morissette, which led to the
