In the twenty-plus years since Dave Grohl stepped out from behind the drums and strapped on a guitar, The Foo Fighters have become modern rock royals.
After eight albums and countless tours, the band has shared the stage with everyone from Joan Jett to John Fogerty, all while celebrating the loud and rambunctious spirit of rock and roll. To toast to that success, here are a few of the more interesting facts about the band.
Their first album is basically a Dave Grohl solo record.
Having previously released a demo called Pocketwatch in 1992 on cassette under the pseudonym Late!, Grohl recorded all the songs for what would become the band’s debut album in 1994, playing every instrument except for one. Afghan Whigs frontman Greg Dulli, who played with Grohl for the soundtrack to the Beatles movie Backbeat was brought in by Grohl to play a single guitar part on the song “X-Static.”
All Foo Fighters songs are released on Grohl’s independently owned label, Roswell Records.
Naming his band after one kind of UFO folklore, Grohl started his own vanity imprint during the recording of the first record. He named it Roswell Records after the town in New Mexico where a UFO allegedly crashed in 1947. It was first launched under the umbrella of Capitol Records, then moved on to RCA Records after the band’s first two albums.
Drummer Taylor Hawkins used to tour with Alanis Morissette.
After their first drummer, William Goldsmith, left the band, Grohl recruited Taylor Hawkins, who had been touring with Alanis Morissette at the time. Hawkins had met Grohl on the festival circuit, and the two made enough of an impression on one-another that Hawkins agreed to join the Foo Fighters despite Morissette’s popularity in 1997.
Their riders put other bands’ to shame.
While Jack White’s guacamole recipe had people talking earlier this year, it should be pointed out that these days, no one does an extravagant performance rider quite like The Foo Fighters. Some highlights include a 2008 request for fresh cereal, not “left over from last night’s Dio show,” and several pages of activities explaining the specifics of their backstage “demands.”
Misspelling the band’s name or a band member’s name can cost you.
While it’s common to have some kind of enforcement to ensure the right billing of the band’s name, their rider from 2010, states that any “misspellings or other stupid typos” will cost the promoter a $100 fine.
Dave Grohl isn’t allowed to drive – in Australia.
One night, after a gig down under in 2000, Grohl attempted to ride back to his hotel on a scooter he’d rented. He was stopped at a sobriety checkpoint and, as he recalled on stage in 2015, was thrown in jail for drunk driving before having his licensed revoked. He used the incident to caution his fans over the long-standing repercussions of drinking and driving.
Yes, “Let It Die” is about Kurt and Courtney.
On their 2007 album Echoes, Silence, Patience, and Grace, the song “Let It Die” seemed to touch on the longstanding public feud between him and Cobain’s widow, Courtney Love. He explained to Rolling Stone that year that it was “a song that’s written about feeling helpless to someone else’s demise,” referring specifically to Cobain, among others he’d known in his life.
Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic considered joining at first.
As Grohl was putting together the band to tour, he and his former Nirvana bandmate discussed playing together again, but ultimately decided against it. Novoselic has joined them on stage and in the studio on a handful of occasions, though, and after catching a live show recently, he declared the Foo Fighters to be “the best band in the world.”
They were almost part of a Led Zeppelin semi-reunion tour.
In 2007, there was some speculation that the three surviving members of Led Zeppelin were contemplating a reunion tour. While Robert Plant had no interest in the project, members of the Foo Fighters had been rehearsing with Jimmie Page and John Paul Jones, along with the likes of Steven Tyler and Myles Kennedy. Not long after members of Led Zeppelin joined The Foo Fighters on stage in 2008, Grohl and Jones went on to form Them Crooked Vultures with Queens of the Stone Age’s Josh Homme, and the Zeppelin reunion was never brought up again.
Copies of their album ‘Wasted Light’ contained bits of the analog tape the album was recorded on.
Recorded entirely in Dave Grohl’s garage using only analog recording equipment, the band elected to destroy the master copy by cutting up the tape into one-inch sections and put them in copies of the finished album. The band did keep a second-generation backup reel, as well as digital copies of the song files just in case, though.
