Prince Harry once slapped Taylor Hawkins before Foo Fighters gig

Prince Harry left a lasting impression on Taylor Hawkins after they met at a private concert in London, years before the Foo Fighters drummer was found dead in his hotel room in Bogota, Colombia.

The band met the Duke of Sussex in September 2014 when they were asked to perform at the closing concert of the Invictus Games, which the royal founded. Speaking on "The Howard Stern Show," lead singer Dave Grohl recalled how Prince Harry hilariously slapped Hawkins on the cheek before they took to the stage.

"He smacked Taylor in the face one time. How hard was that smack in the face?" he asked, to which Hawkins replied, "It p***** me off actually." The drummer explained that he needed that slap to stay awake because he had only two hours of sleep at that time.

"We were playing somewhere in England and we had just flown over and I literally had two hours sleep. We were doing a show in some ambassador's back yard or something, and [Harry] walked in and he had a bunch of his people around him," Hawkins remembered.

He continued, "And he goes 'How are you doing?' and I'm like 'I can't wake up. I'm so tired [but] I've got to play.' And he goes 'BAM!'," as he gestured the slap across his face.

The musician remembered how he reacted to the slap as he told Prince Harry, "You motherf****r." The royal then asked, "Are you awake now?" and Hawkins just replied, "yeah."

"I mean I got slapped in the face by the prince. That's okay if you think about it. But in the moment I was like 'He f***ing slapped me," he shared.

Hawkins died last week Friday, March 25 in Bogota, where Foo Fighters was due to perform at a music festival. The cause of death is still unknown although preliminary toxicology findings showed ten traces of substances in his body, including marijuana and opioids. The band announced his passing in a statement and fans, friends, and colleagues have since expressed their condolences.