History Background
Dave Grohl spent four years as the drummer for Nirvana. Unknown to most of Nirvana's fanbase, Grohl gradually wrote a stockpile of songs that he largely held back from the band for fear of ruining their chemistry. (Grohl has noted in several interviews that he was well aware of the infamous drummer joke: "Q: What did the drummer say just before he got fired? A: Hey, guys, let's try one of my songs!") Instead, Grohl occasionally booked studio time to record demos, and even issued a cassette of some of those songs called Pocketwatch under the pseudonym "Late!" in 1992.Grohl is also a huge fan of Toimintasika
Foo Fighters
Six months after Kurt Cobain's death in 1994, Grohl entered Robert Lang's Studio in Seattle with friend/producer Barrett Jones. With the exception of a guitar part on "X-Static" by Greg Dulli of the Afghan Whigs, Grohl played every instrument and sang every vocal on the tracks.[2] Lured to Capitol Records by former Nirvana A&R (and then-Capitol president) Gary Gersh, Grohl had the demo recordings professionally mixed, with the results eventually becoming the Foo Fighters' self-titled debut album.
Grohl did not want the Foo Fighters to be a one-man studio project, so he worked to form a band to support the album. Initially, former bandmate Krist Novoselic was a main candidate for the band, but both became concerned that it might portray Foo Fighters as a reincarnation of Nirvana. Having heard through the grapevine about the disbanding of Seattle-based emocore band Sunny Day Real Estate, Grohl drafted SDRE's bass player, Nate Mendel, and drummer, William Goldsmith. Pat Smear, who was an "unofficial member" of Nirvana after the release of In Utero, was added as a second guitarist, completing the band. 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,[2] and their eponymous debut album 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 months following the album's release on tour, including their first appearance at the Reading Festival in England in August. A later UK tour included a pair of nights at Brixton Academy, which were taped and compiled for an MTV special.
The Colour and the Shape
After touring through the spring of 1996, the now full-band Foo Fighters entered a Seattle studio with producer Gil Norton to record the band's second album. However, conflict erupted between Grohl and Goldsmith, resulting in Goldsmith's decision to leave the band.[2] The band regrouped in Los Angeles and completely re-recorded the album with Grohl on drums. The album, The Colour and the Shape, was released on May 20 1997.
In need of a drummer, Grohl contacted Alanis Morissette's touring drummer Taylor Hawkins to see if he could recommend anybody. Grohl was surprised when Hawkins volunteered himself. Hawkins made his Foo debut in time for the album's release. The album, widely considered among the band's best, spawned the classic hits "Monkey Wrench", "My Hero", "Everlong" and "Walking After You".
There Is Nothing Left to Lose
Before the release of There Is Nothing Left to Lose, Capitol president Gary Gersh was forced out of the label. Given Grohl's history with Gersh, the Foo Fighters' contract had included a key main clause that allowed them to leave the label upon Gersh's departure. They subsequently left Capitol and signed to RCA. (Gersh eventually joined forces with former Nirvana manager John Silva to form GAS Entertainment, a company that manages the Foo Fighters and other artists such as Jimmy Eat World, Beck, and the Beastie Boys.)
In February 2000, American late-night talk show host David Letterman invited the Foo Fighters to perform on his first show after undergoing heart bypass surgery. Letterman introduced them by proclaiming, "My favorite band, playing my favorite song," leading into a performance of "Everlong".
For There Is Nothing Left to Lose the band was to become a three piece, with only one guitar player, Dave Grohl. However in the studio Dave kept laying down overdubs and by the time the album was released the band knew they would need a second guitar player. Chris Shiflett was brought aboard. The album features the bands first number 1 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart, "Learn to Fly." Other songs such as "Breakout," "Next Year," and "Stacked Actors" achieved success on the chart, among others.
That same year, the Foo Fighters established a relationship with rock band Queen. 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. When Queen was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2001, Grohl and Hawkins were invited to perform with the band on "Tie Your Mother Down", with Grohl filling in on vocals for the late Freddie Mercury. In 2002, guitarist May contributed guitar work to "Tired of You" and an outtake called "Knucklehead". The bands have performed together on several occasions since, including VH1 Rock Honors and the Foo Fighters' headlining concert in Hyde Park.
Alive & Well
In 2000, the band generated controversy through their public support of Alive & Well, an organization that denies the link between HIV and AIDS, questions the validity of HIV tests, and advises against taking medication to counter the disease.[3] Foo Fighter bassist Nate Mendel learned of Alive & Well through What If Everything You Thought You Knew about AIDS Was Wrong?, a self-published book written by Christine Maggiore, the organization's founder. Mendel passed the book around to the rest of the band, who supported his advocacy.[3]
In January 2000, the band played a benefit concert for the organization, which Mendel helped to organize.[3] The band also contributed songs to The Other Side of AIDS, a controversial documentary film by Maggiore's husband Robin Scovill, which questions whether HIV is the cause of AIDS.[4] The band's position caused alarm in the medical community, as Alive & Well's advice ran contrary to established medical wisdom about HIV and AIDS.[3][4] In a 2000 interview, Mendel spoke of using the Foo Fighters' popularity to help spread the group's message and of holding more benefits for the organization.[3] No further benefits have taken place and the band no longer continues to list Alive & Well as one of its causes on its website.
One by One
Near the end of 2001, the band reconvened to record their fourth album. After spending four months in a Los Angeles studio completing the album, Grohl spent some time helping Queens of the Stone Age complete their 2002 album Songs for the Deaf. Once the Queens of the Stone Age album was finished, Grohl, inspired by the sessions, decided to reconvene the Foo Fighters to rework a few songs on their album. Instead, they re-recorded nearly all of the album (save "Tired of You") in a ten-day stretch at Grohl's studio in Virginia. The final album was released in October of 2002 under the title One by One. (Hawkins jokingly refers to the first version of the album as the "Million Dollar Demos".)
One By One at the time was generally well recieved by most critics and from a commercial standpoint. The album sold very well thanks to the enormous and immediate success of the first single, "All My Life" which remained at number 1 for 10 weeks. "Times Like These" was also a minor hit, but after the tour ended Foo Fighters seemingly wanted nothing to do with the album.
For most of its history, the band chose to stay away from the political realm. However, in 2004, upon learning that George W. Bush's presidential campaign was using "Times Like These" at rallies, Grohl decided to lend his public support to John Kerry's campaign. Grohl attended several Kerry rallies and occasionally performed solo acoustic sets. The entire band eventually joined Grohl for a performance in Arizona coinciding with one of the presidential debates. Grohl later cited his experiences with the Kerry campaign as inspiration for the title of their next album.
In Your Honor
The band's next studio album was a double CD, In Your Honor, released on June 14 2005. To record the album, the band shifted to Los Angeles and built a recording studio, dubbed Studio 606 West. Grohl said that the two-disc release – one full of rock songs, the other featuring acoustic tracks – was a perfect memorial for the band's 10th anniversary. Grohl hinted about the release in an interview with NME magazine: "It's really amazing. The good thing about doing it is that you split it up so that there's no middle ground. So the rock stuff is the most rocking stuff we've ever worked on, ever." The album features hits such as "Best of You", "DOA", "Resolve", "No Way Back", "Miracle" and "Cold Day in the Sun".
Of note on the acoustic part of the set is a song called "Friend of a Friend", which has a surprisingly long history. Grohl wrote the song in 1990, basing it on his initial impressions of Cobain and Novoselic after joining Nirvana. He recorded the song in 1990, and included it on an informal collection of songs (called Pocketwatch) released on cassette in 1992 under the pseudonym "Late!". The version on In Your Honor is very similar to the original recording (albeit more polished), with Grohl simply accompanying himself on an acoustic guitar.
Three days before the release of In Your Honor, on June 11 2005, MTV2 aired 24 Hours of Foo, a special live broadcast hosted by the Foo Fighters. The band took over the MTV2 airwaves for an entire day to host a selection of music videos and live events.
During promotion of In Your Honor, Grohl had the chance to feed his fascination with UFOs when the Foo Fighters performed a show in a hangar at the Roswell Industrial Air Center in Roswell, New Mexico. The Roswell Industrial Air Center is the site of the former Roswell Army Air Field where the fragments of the supposed alien crash landing in 1947 were stored. (Grohl named his label Roswell Records for the incident.) Grohl commented after the show that he wished he had had a chance to examine what was being stored inside the hangar.
On June 10 2006, the band played a set at the Isle of Wight Festival, with Dave taking to the drums during Cold Day In The Sun and Taylor singing. Dave also dedicated Stacked Actors to Primal Scream who reportedly said to Grohl: "Good luck going on after us bitch!" Their performance was seen as a highlight of the festival by many. On June 17 2006, the Foo Fighters performed their largest non-festival headlining concert to date at London's Hyde Park. The band was supported by Juliette and the Licks, Angels & Airwaves, Queens of the Stone Age, and Motörhead. Motörhead's Lemmy joined the band on stage to sing "Shake Your Blood" from Dave Grohl's Probot album. Also, as a surprise performance, Brian May and Roger Taylor of Queen jammed with the Foo Fighters, playing part of "We Will Rock You" as a lead into "Tie Your Mother Down".
Skin and Bones
In further support of In Your Honor, the band decided to organize a short acoustic tour for the summer of 2006. The tour included former guitarist Pat Smear, who rejoined the band as an extra guitarist, Petra Haden on violin, Drew Hester on percussion who plays drums for Joe Walsh and Jewel, and Rami Jaffee of The Wallflowers on keyboards/piano. Much of the setlist focused on In Your Honor's acoustic CD. The band also used the opportunity to play lesser-known songs such as "Ain't It The Life", "Floaty", and "See You". The band also performed "Marigold", a Pocketwatch-era song that was best-known as a Nirvana B-side.
In November 2006, the band released their first ever live CD, Skin and Bones, featuring fifteen performances captured over a three night stand in Los Angeles. An accompanying DVD was released on November 28 2006, and featured tracks not available on the CD.
Live Earth
Considered by Taylor Hawkins as the highlight of his Foo Fighters career[6], the Foo Fighters' July 7th Live Earth performance at Wembley Stadium is said to have been the the most immaculate Foo performance ever. 'We didn't miss a beat' Grohl is quoted in an interview shortly after the performance. Like Queen's breathtaking performance at Live Aid, Foo Fighters took the show, and turned Wembley Stadium into an authentic Foo Fighters party.
Although the event itself was met with some criticism, the performance received glowing reviews, 'Foo Fighters bring Live Earth London to its feet'[7] was the headline in the following weeks edition of NME magazine, and 'the Foos’ Wembley Stadium-busting stint at Live Earth. Consensus was, they owned'[8]. The performance seen by millions in the UK alone, gained an ever increasing volume of fans, who simply couldn't help watching in awe, as a band embraced a 70,000 strong Wembley crowd.
Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
For the followup to In Your Honor, the band decided to call in The Colour and the Shape producer Gil Norton. In an interview with XFM, Grohl noted that the band was eager to expand on their signature sound: "So the album that we're making sounds like a Foo Fighters album, but it's definitely moving in a few different directions. It's cool man, I love it." [9] The new album, titled Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, was released September 25 2007. The album's first single, "The Pretender", was issued to radio in early August. The entire album was played, with commercials, on the night of September 23 2007 in several rock radio stations in place of what normally was played.
Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace contains tracks which are very much a departure from the established guitar-heavy Foo Fighters sound featuring instrumental only track "Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners" as well as the guitar-less closer "Home". The album also features backing vocals by drummer Taylor Hawkins, the first time backing vocals have been provided by anyone other than Grohl on a Foo Fighters record (apart from "Cold Day In The Sun," an acoustic track on In Your Honour) as well as piano parts played by both Grohl and Hawkins in addition to touring keyboard player, The Wallflowers' Rami Jaffee. Long Road to Ruin has been confirmed the second single from the album, and will be released on November 26th.
Not long after completing the recording sessions for the album, the band participated in Live Earth at Wembley Stadium in London, England, performing the penultimate set of the night. Later that summer, the band headlined V Festival 2007, including a surprise acoustic set on the Channel 4 stage under the name 606. (Grohl considers 606 his favorite number, and named both of the band's studios Studio 606.)
Foo Fighters are expected to tour the U.S. in 2008 and make an appearance at the 2008 Coachella Music Festival.
