Watch the trailer for ‘Let There Be Drums!’ featuring Taylor Hawkins’ last known interview

Greenwich Entertainment have shared the first trailer for Let There Be Drums!, a documentary set to premiere later this month.

The film is directed by Justin Kreutzmann — the son of The Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann — and according to its synopsis, will focus on “the art of drumming [and] the musicians who’ve mastered it”. In addition Kreutzmann, Let There Be Drums! will feature interviews with a swathe of the world’s best-known drummers, including one of Taylor Hawkins’ final-ever interviews before his passing in March.

Elsewhere, the documentary will feature the likes of The Beatles’ Ringo Starr, Stewart Copeland of The Police, Chad Smith of Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Tré Cool of Green Day, among many others. “The second I sat on those drums,” Hawkins says in the trailer, “it was like a bolt of lightning went through my body, and I’ll never forget that day.”

Watch the trailer for Let There Be Drums! below:

The documentary will hit Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, and select theatres on October 28. In addition to exploring their musical careers, the film will also spotlight the drummers’ personal lives, with Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham discussing fatherhood and Starr contributing pre-Beatles footage. Elsewhere, Let There Be Drums! will chronicle the generational impact of its titular instrument.

“Drums, and the drummers that play them, have been a major component of my entire life,” Kreutzmann said in a statement to Deadline. “[The documentary] examines the essential role drumming plays in great bands and how music passes from generation to generation.”

Let There Be Drums! marks Grateful Dead’s latest venture to the big screen, following news of the band’s upcoming biopic directed by Martin Scorsese. Kreutzmann and his bandmates Bob Weir, Phil Lesh and Mickey Hart will serve as executive producers for the untitled project, with Jonah Hill attached to play frontman Jerry Garcia.

Meanwhile, in addition to his appearance in Let There Be Drums!, Hawkins was also posthumously recognised at his namesake tribute concerts earlier this year. Performing across the two shows in Hawkins’ honour — one in London and another in LA — were the likes of his former band The Coattail Riders, Mark Ronson, Liam Gallagher, Brian May and Miley Cyrus.