Roger Hawkins—one of music history’s most recorded drummers—died peacefully at his home in Sheffield, Alabama, after a few years of declining health. He was 75 years old. Hawkins has been called an architect of the Muscle Shoals sound. He was a member of the house band at producer Rick Hall’s FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, that consisted of keyboardist Barry Beckett, guitarist Jimmy Johnson, and bassist David Hood. What came to be known as The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section can be heard on numerous number ones and top-ten hits, including Percy Sledge’s “When a Man Loves a Woman,” and Aretha Franklin tracks such as “Respect,” “Chain of Fools,” “Baby I Love You,” “I Say a Little Prayer,” “Think,” and “I Never Loved a Man (the Way I Love You).” That’s also Hawkins on Wilson Pickett’s “Land of 1000 Dances” and “Mustang Sally,” Paul Simon’s “Loves Me Like a Rock” […]

August 2021 Issue