Roger Hawkins, drummer for the legendary rhythm section Muscle Shoals, has died at the age of 75.

Hawkins’ death has been confirmed by the Muscle Shoals Music Foundation. The rocker has reportedly suffered from several health issues, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), in recent years.

Hawkins was born in Mishawaka, India and was interested in drums from a young age. After first knocking on anything he could get his hands on – pots, pans, cans of coffee, etc. – Hawkins received his first drum kit as a gift when he was 13 years old. , To the.

Initially, the rhythm section Muscle Shoals – nicknamed the Swampers – was the house band of FAME studios. In 1969, Hawkins, along with bassist David Hood, keyboardist Barry Beckett and guitarist Jimmy Johnson, split up and started their own business, Muscle Shoals Sound Studios.

Between the two locations, Hawkins would perform on some of the most iconic releases in rock and R&B history. The list of tracks to present her playing includes (but not limited to): “Respect”, “Chain of Fools” and “Think” by Aretha Franklin, “Old Time Rock and Roll” and “We Got Tonight” by Bob Seger, “Mustang Sally” by Wilson Pickett, “Kodachrome” and “Loves Me Like a Rock” by Paul Simon, “When a Man Loves a Woman” by Percy Sledge and “I’ll Take You There” by the Staple Singers.

In addition to these timeless pieces, Hawkins has worked alongside notable artists such as Glenn Frey, Rod Stewart, Eric Clapton, Art Garfunkel, Levon Helm, Linda Ronstadt, Cher, Leon Russell and Mavis Staples.

In the early 1970s, Hawkins and his cohorts of Swampers were also briefly members of the Traffic group, at the helm of Steve Winwood, appearing on their 1973 album. Shoot at the Fantasy Factory.

“I was a better listener than I was a player and I think the other guys were too,” Hawkins recalls of the Swampers in a 2019 conversation with AL.com. “Because they loved music and they had catalogs of music in their brains, just like I had a catalog of things where I could extract certain things and make them work with newer things.”

Hawkins was inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 1995 and the Musicians Hall of Fame in 2008.

In a post to his Facebook page, the Muscle Shoals Music Foundation recalled the drummer as “a kind and generous man who loved his family, friends and fellow musicians.”