Foo Fighters
The Foo Fighters are an American rock band formed in Seattle in 1994. Initially founded as a one-man project by former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl, the band comprises vocalist/guitarist Grohl, bassist Nate Mendel, guitarists Pat Smear and Chris Shiflett, keyboardist Rami Jaffee and drummer Ilan Rubin. Guitarist Franz Stahl and drummers William Goldsmith, Taylor Hawkins, and Josh Freese are former members.
Grohl created the Foo Fighters to release solo material after Nirvana disbanded in 1994, and recorded their eponymous debut album mostly alone in six days. After the songs drew label interest, he recruited Mendel and Goldsmith, both formerly of Sunny Day Real Estate, and Smear, who had played with Nirvana on tour. The band made their first public performance in February 1995, five months before the album's release.
Goldsmith quit during the recording of their second album, The Colour and the Shape, with Grohl re-recording most of the drum parts, and Smear departed soon afterward; they were replaced by Hawkins and Stahl, respectively. The latter had been in Scream, the band Grohl had drummed for before joining Nirvana. Stahl was fired before the recording of the group's third album, There Is Nothing Left to Lose, and the band briefly continued as a trio until Shiflett joined after the completion of There Is Nothing Left to Lose. The group released their fourth album, One by One, in 2002, followed by the two-disc In Your Honor, which was split between acoustic songs and heavier material. The Foo Fighters released their sixth album, Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, in 2007.
For the Foo Fighters' seventh studio album, Wasting Light, produced by Butch Vig, Smear returned as a full-time member, after having appeared frequently with the band since 2005. Sonic Highways was released as the soundtrack to the television miniseries directed by Grohl. Concrete and Gold was the second Foo Fighters album to top the charts in the United States and the first to feature Jaffee, their longtime session and touring keyboardist, as a full member. Their tenth album, Medicine at Midnight, was the last before Hawkins' death in March 2022. He was replaced by Freese from 2023 to 2025, and Rubin from 2025 onwards. Their eleventh album, But Here We Are, was released in June 2023.
The Foo Fighters have won 15 Grammy Awards, including Best Rock Album five times, making them among the most successful rock acts in Grammy history. In 2021, the band was announced as recipients of the first "Global Icon" award at the 2021 MTV Video Music Awards. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021, their first year of eligibility.
History
Background and first demos (1990–1994)
In 1990, Dave Grohl joined the grunge band Nirvana as the drummer. During tours, he took a guitar with him and wrote songs, but was too intimidated to share them with the band. He was "in awe" of the songs written by Nirvana's frontman, Kurt Cobain. Grohl occasionally booked studio time to record demos and covers, and released an album of demos, Pocketwatch, under the pseudonym Late! in 1992.Nirvana disbanded after the death of Kurt Cobain in April 1994. Grohl received offers to work with various artists. Press rumors indicated he might join Pearl Jam, and he almost accepted a position as drummer in Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Grohl later said: "I was supposed to just join another band and be a drummer the rest of my life. I thought that I would rather do what no one expected me to do." He instead entered Robert Lang Studios in October 1994 to record 15 of his own songs. With the exception of a guitar part on "X-Static", played by Greg Dulli of the Afghan Whigs, Grohl played every instrument and sang every vocal. He completed an album's worth of material in five days and handed out cassette copies of the sessions to his friends for feedback.
Grohl hoped to stay anonymous and release the recordings in a limited run under the name Foo Fighters, taken from foo fighter, a World War II term for unidentified flying objects. He hoped the name would lead listeners to assume the music was made by several people. He said later: "Had I actually considered this to be a career, I probably would have called it something else, because it's the stupidest fucking band name in the world." The demo tape circulated in the industry, creating interest among record labels.
Formation and debut album (1994–1995)
Grohl formed a band to support the album. He spoke to Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic, about joining the group, but he decided against it. Grohl said it would have felt "really natural" for them to work together, but would have been "weird" for the others and place more pressure on Grohl. Instead, Grohl recruited bassist Nate Mendel and drummer William Goldsmith, both of the recently disbanded Seattle emo group Sunny Day Real Estate. Nirvana touring guitarist Pat Smear joined as the second guitarist. Grohl licensed the album to Capitol Records, releasing it on his new label, Roswell Records.The Foo Fighters made their live public debut on February 23, 1995, at the Jambalaya Club in Arcata, California, followed by performances at Satyricon in Portland on March 3 and the Velvet Elvis in Seattle on March 4. The show on March 3 had been part of a benefit gig for the investigation of the rape and murder of Gits singer Mia Zapata. Grohl refused to do interviews or tour large venues to promote the album. The Foo Fighters undertook their first major tour in the spring of 1995, opening for Mike Watt. The band's first single, "This Is a Call", was released in June 1995, and their debut album, Foo Fighters, was released the next month. "I'll Stick Around", "For All the Cows", and "Big Me" were released as subsequent singles. The band spent the following months on tour, including their first appearance at the Reading Festival in England in August.
''The Colour and the Shape'' (1996–1997)
After touring through the spring of 1996, the Foo Fighters entered Bear Creek Studio in Woodinville, Washington, with producer Gil Norton to record its second album. While Grohl once again wrote all the songs, the rest of the band collaborated on the arrangements. With the sessions nearly complete, Grohl took the rough mixes to Los Angeles, intending to finish his vocal and guitar parts. While there, Grohl realized that he was not happy with the drumming and replaced most of Goldsmith's drum tracks with his own. Though Grohl hoped that Goldsmith would still play on the tour, Goldsmith felt betrayed and left the band.In need of a replacement for Goldsmith, Grohl contacted Alanis Morissette's touring drummer Taylor Hawkins for a recommendation. Grohl was surprised when Hawkins volunteered himself. Hawkins made his debut with the group in time for the release of its second album, The Colour and the Shape, in May 1997. The album included the singles "Monkey Wrench", "Everlong" and "My Hero".
Smear left the Foo Fighters in 1997, citing exhaustion and burnout, and was replaced by Grohl's former Scream bandmate Franz Stahl. Stahl toured with the Foo Fighters for the next few months and appeared on two tracks recorded for movie soundtracks, a re-recording of "Walking After You", also released as a single, for The X-Files and "A320" for Godzilla. A B-side from the "My Hero" single, "Dear Lover", appeared in the horror film Scream 2. The tour for The Colour and the Shape album in 1998 included performances at Glastonbury Festival and the Reading Festival.
''There Is Nothing Left to Lose'' (1998–2001)
In 1998, the Foo Fighters traveled to Grohl's home state of Virginia, to write their third album. However, Grohl and Stahl were unable to co-operate as songwriters; Grohl told Kerrang! in 1999, "in those few weeks it just seemed like the three of us were moving in one direction and Franz wasn't." Grohl was distraught over the decision to fire Stahl as the two had been friends since childhood. Shortly after that, Mendel called Grohl to say he was quitting to reunite with Sunny Day Real Estate, only to reverse his decision the next day. The remaining trio of Grohl, Mendel, and Hawkins spent several months recording the band's third album, There Is Nothing Left to Lose, in Grohl's home studio. The album spawned several singles, including "Learn to Fly", the band's first to reach the US Billboard Hot 100. Other singles included "Stacked Actors", "Generator", "Next Year", and "Breakout".Before the release of the album, Capitol Records president Gary Gersh was forced out of the label. Given Grohl's history with Gersh, the Foo Fighters' contract had included a "key man clause" that allowed them to leave the label upon Gersh's departure. They left Capitol and signed with RCA, who later acquired the rights to the band's Capitol albums.
After recording There Is Nothing Left to Lose was completed, the band auditioned a number of potential guitarists and settled on Chris Shiflett, who performed with Me First and the Gimme Gimmes and California punk band No Use for a Name. Shiflett initially joined as a touring guitarist but achieved full-time status prior to the recording of the group's fourth album.
In January 2000, Mendel led a benefit concert in Hollywood for the AIDS denialist group Alive & Well AIDS Alternatives, with a speech by the founder, Christine Maggiore, and distribution of free copies of her self-published book, What If Everything You Thought You Knew About AIDS Was Wrong?. The Foo Fighters website featured a section devoted to Alive & Well. Sandra Thurman, the director of the Office of National AIDS Policy, said this was "extraordinarily irresponsible behavior... There is no doubt about the link between HIV and AIDS in the respected scientific community." All links and references to Alive & Well were removed from the Foo Fighters website by March 2003.
Around 2001, the Foo Fighters established a relationship with the English rock band Queen, as they were fans. That March, Grohl and Hawkins inducted them into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and joined them to perform the 1976 classic, "Tie Your Mother Down", with Hawkins playing drums alongside Roger Taylor. The guitarist Brian May added a guitar track to the Foo Fighters' second cover of Pink Floyd's "Have a Cigar", which appeared on the soundtrack to the movie Mission: Impossible 2. In 2002, May contributed guitar to "Tired of You" and the outtake "Knucklehead". The Foo Fighters and Queen have performed together on several occasions since, including VH1 Rock Honors and the Foo Fighters' headlining concert in Hyde Park.