Foo Fighters is an American
rock band, formed in
Seattle in 1994. It was founded by
Nirvana drummer
Dave Grohl as a one-man project following the death of
Kurt Cobain and the resulting dissolution of his previous band. The group got its name from the
UFOs and various aerial phenomena that were reported by
Allied aircraft pilots in
World War II, which were known collectively as
foo fighters. Prior to the release of Foo Fighters' 1995 debut album
Foo Fighters, which featured Grohl as the only official member, Grohl recruited bassist
Nate Mendel and drummer
William Goldsmith, both formerly of
Sunny Day Real Estate, as well as fellow Nirvana touring bandmate
Pat Smear as guitarist to complete the lineup. The band began with performances in
Portland, Oregon. Goldsmith quit during the recording of the group's second album,
The Colour and the Shape (1997) when most of the drum parts were re-recorded by Grohl himself. Smear's departure followed soon afterward.
They were replaced by
Taylor Hawkins and
Franz Stahl, respectively, although Stahl was fired before the recording of the group's third album,
There Is Nothing Left to Lose (1999). The band briefly continued as a trio until
Chris Shiflett joined as the band's lead guitarist after the completion of
There Is Nothing Left to Lose. The band released its fourth album,
One by One, in 2002. The group followed that release with the two-disc
In Your Honor (2005), which was split between
acoustic songs and heavier material. Foo Fighters released its sixth album,
Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace,
in 2007. In 2010, it was confirmed that Smear had officially rejoined
the band after touring with Foo Fighters as an unofficial member between
2006 and 2009. Over the course of the band's career, four of its albums
have won
Grammy Awards for
Best Rock Album. The band's seventh studio album,
Wasting Light,
was released in 2011. Grohl stated in January 2013 that the band had
started writing material for an eighth studio album. Producer
Butch Vig is set to produce his second album with the group.
History
Formation and debut album (1994–1995)
Dave Grohl (pictured in 2006) founded Foo Fighters after his previous band
Nirvana broke up in 1994.
Grohl joined the
grunge group
Nirvana
as its drummer in 1990. During tours, he took a guitar with him and
wrote songs. Grohl held back these songs from the rest of the band; he
said in 1997, "I was in awe of [frontman
Kurt Cobain's songs], and [I was] intimidated. I thought it was best that I kept my songs to myself."
[4]
Grohl occasionally booked studio time to record demos and covers of
songs he liked and even issued a cassette of some of those songs called
Pocketwatch under the pseudonym "Late!" in 1992.
[5]
Frontman
Kurt Cobain
was found dead in his Seattle home on April 8, 1994, and Nirvana
subsequently disbanded. Grohl received offers to work with various
artists; he almost accepted a permanent position as drummer in
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Ultimately Grohl declined and instead entered
Robert Lang Studios in October 1994 to record fifteen of the forty songs he had written.
[5] 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 on the tracks.
[6]
"I was supposed to just join another band and be a drummer the rest of
my life," Grohl later said. "I thought that I would rather do what no
one expected me to do. I enjoy writing music and I enjoy trying to sing,
and there's nothing anyone can really do to discourage me." Grohl
completed an album's worth of material in five days and handed out
cassette copies of the sessions to his friends for feedback.
[5]
Grohl hoped to keep his anonymity and release the recordings in a limited run under the title "Foo Fighters", taken from the
World War II term "
foo fighter", used to refer to
unidentified flying objects.
[5] However, the demo tape circulated in the music industry, creating interest among record labels.
[7] Grohl formed a band to support the album. Initially, he talked to former Nirvana band mate
Krist Novoselic
about joining the group, but both decided against it. "For Krist and I,
it would have felt really natural and really great", Grohl explained.
"But for everyone else, it would have been weird, and it would have left
me in a really bad position. Then I really would have been under the
microscope."
[8] Having heard about the disbanding of
Seattle-based rock band
Sunny Day Real Estate, Grohl drafted the group's bass player,
Nate Mendel, and drummer,
William Goldsmith. Grohl asked
Pat Smear, who served as a touring guitarist for Nirvana after the release of its 1993 album,
In Utero, to join as the group's second guitarist.
[9] Grohl ultimately licensed the album to
Capitol Records, releasing it on his new record label, Roswell Records.
[5]
Foo Fighters made its live public debut on February 23, 1995 at the Jambalaya Club in Arcata, California and then March 3 at
The Satyricon
in Portland. They followed that with a show at the Velvet Elvis in
Seattle on March 4. The March 3 show had been part of a benefit gig to
aid the finances of the investigation into the rape and murder of
The Gits singer
Mia Zapata. Grohl refused to do interviews or tour large venues to promote the album.
[9] Foo Fighters undertook its 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,
[6] and its 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.
[9]
The Colour and the Shape (1996–1997)
After touring through the spring of 1996, 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 with him to Los
Angeles, intending to finish up his vocal and guitar parts. While there,
Grohl realized that he was not happy with how the mixes were turning
out, and the band "basically re-recorded almost everything".
[4]
During the L.A. sessions, Grohl had played drums on the songs. Unhappy
with Goldsmith's drumming, Grohl removed it from the recordings and
re-recorded the drum tracks. As Goldsmith was about to come down to L.A.
to find out why he wasn't being called upon to re-record his parts, he
called Mendel from Seattle inquiring if he should make the trip. Grohl
then called Goldsmith saying, "Dude, don't come down here, I'm recording
some of the drum tracks." Shocked by this, Goldsmith met up with Mendel
in Seattle and repeated Grohl's claim to be re-recording "some" of the
tracks. Mendel asked, "Is that what he told you?" Goldsmith affirmed it,
and Mendel stated, "No, man -- he did them all."
Long-time drummer
Taylor Hawkins (pictured in 2012) joined the band in 1997.
Grohl explained that he'd wanted the drums to sound a certain way on
the album. He wanted Goldsmith to play for the tour even though it would
not be his drumming but Grohl's on the album. Feeling betrayed,
Goldsmith left the band. To this day Grohl still feels guilty for his
decision, saying "I was an immature kid at the time." However, he felt
that he did what he had to do to give the record the right sound and
make it successful.
[10]
In need of a replacement for Goldsmith, Grohl contacted
Alanis Morissette's touring drummer
Taylor Hawkins to see if he could recommend anybody. Grohl was surprised when Hawkins volunteered his own services as drummer.
[4] 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", "
My Hero", and "
Everlong".
Pat Smear announced to the rest of the group that he wanted to leave
the band claiming exhaustion and burnout but agreed to stay with the
band until a replacement could be found for him. Four months later in
September 1997 at the
MTV Video Music Awards, Smear simultaneously announced to the public his departure from the band and introduced his replacement, Grohl's former
Scream bandmate
Franz Stahl.
[11]
Stahl toured with the band for the next few months, and appeared on two
tracks that the band recorded for movie soundtracks, a re-recording of "
Walking After You" for
The X-Files and "
A320" for
Godzilla. A B-side of the album, "Dear Lover", appeared in the horror film
Scream 2.
There Is Nothing Left to Lose (1998–2001)
In 1998, Foo Fighters traveled to Grohl's home state of Virginia to
write music for its 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 the band
to reunite with Sunny Day Real Estate, only to reverse his decision the
next day.
[12] The remaining trio of Grohl, Mendel, and Hawkins spent the next several months recording the band's third album,
There Is Nothing Left to Lose, in Grohl's Virginia home studio that he bought and built. The album spawned several singles, including "
Learn to Fly", the band's first single to reach the US
Billboard Hot 100.
Before the release of the album, Capitol president Gary Gersh was
forced out of the label. Given Grohl's history with Gersh, Foo Fighters'
contract had included a "key man clause" that allowed them to leave the
label upon Gersh's departure. They subsequently left Capitol and signed
with
RCA, who later acquired the rights to the band's Capitol albums.
[12]
After recording for
There Is Nothing Left to Lose was completed, the band auditioned a number of potential guitarists, and eventually settled on
Chris Shiflett, who performs with
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, and previously performed with California punk band,
No Use for a Name.
Shiflett initially joined the band as touring guitarist, but achieved
full-time status prior to the recording of the group's fourth album.
[13]
Around 2001, Foo Fighters established a relationship with rock band
Queen, of whom the band (particularly Grohl
[14] and Hawkins
[15]) were fans. In March of that year, Grohl and Hawkins inducted the band into the
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame[16] and joined them on stage for a rendition of the Queen 1976 classic "
Tie Your Mother Down", with Hawkins playing drums alongside
Roger Taylor, while Grohl was playing rhythm guitar and handling vocal duties.
[17] Guitarist
Brian May added a guitar track to Foo Fighters' second cover of
Pink Floyd's "
Have a Cigar", which appeared on the soundtrack to the movie
Mission: Impossible II.
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 Foo Fighters' headlining concert in
Hyde Park.
One by One (2001–2004)
Near the end of 2001, the band reconvened to record its
fourth album.
After spending four months in a Los Angeles studio completing the
album, the album "just didn't sound right" and the band had no
confidence in the album to sell many records. With the album not
reaching their expectations, and much infighting amongst the members,
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, and touring had
started for both Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age, the band was
on the verge of breaking up entirely as the animosity grew amongst the
members. Grohl reconvened with Hawkins, Shiflett and Mendel to have them
play at the
Coachella Festival,
with Queens of the Stone Age playing one day and Foo Fighters the
following. After the Queens of the Stone Age played, Hawkins and Grohl
talked about retrying the
One by One album and had agreed to
finishing it and seeing where they would go from there. The group went
and re-recorded nearly all of the album (save "Tired of You") in a
ten-day stretch at Grohl's home studio in Alexandria,
Virginia.
[13] The original version of
One by One, referred by the band as "Million Dollar Demos",
[18]
has never been heard in its entirety, except for snippets which leaked
before the album's premiere, and a few more snippets leaked by a fan on
the band's website in 2007. Two songs from these sessions were leaked in
2012.
The final album was released in October 2002 under the title
One by One. Singles from the album included "
All My Life", "
Times Like These", "
Low", and "
Have It All".
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 - "There’s no way of stopping the president playing your
songs, so I went out and played it for John Kerry’s people instead,
where I thought the message would kinda make more sense".
[19]
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.
[20]
In Your Honor (2005–2006)
Foo Fighters performing an acoustic show
Having spent a year and a half touring behind
One by One,
Grohl did not want to rush into recording another Foo Fighters record.
Initially Grohl intended to write acoustic material by himself, but
eventually the project involved the entire band.
[21]
To record its fifth album, the band shifted to Los Angeles and built a
recording studio, dubbed Studio 606 West. Grohl insisted that the album
be divided into two discs–one full of rock songs, the other featuring
acoustic tracks.
[22] In Your Honor was released in June 2005. The album's singles included "
Best of You", "
DOA", "
Resolve" and "
No Way Back/Cold Day in the Sun".
During September and October 2005, the band toured with
Weezer on what was billed as the '
Foozer Tour' as the two bands co-headlined the tour.
[23] On June 17, 2006, Foo Fighters performed its largest non-festival headlining concert to date at London's
Hyde Park. 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 Foo Fighters, playing part of "We Will Rock You" as a lead into "Tie Your Mother Down".
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 member
Pat Smear, who rejoined the band as an extra guitarist,
Petra Haden on violin and backup vocals,
Drew Hester on percussion, and
Rami Jaffee of
The Wallflowers on keyboards/piano. While much of the setlist focused on
In Your Honor's
acoustic half, 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 stint in Los Angeles.
Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace and Greatest Hits (2007–2009)
The band performing live in 2007
For the follow-up to
In Your Honor, the band decided to call in
The Colour and the Shape producer Gil Norton.
Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace was released on September 25, 2007. The album's first single, "
The Pretender", was issued to radio in early August. In mid-to-late 2007 "The Pretender" topped
Billboard's Modern Rock chart for a record 19 weeks. The second single, "
Long Road to Ruin", was released in December 2007, supported by a music video directed by longtime collaborator
Jesse Peretz (formerly of
the Lemonheads).
[24]
In October 2006, Foo Fighters started its world tour in support of
Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace.
The band performed shows throughout the United States, Canada, Europe,
Australia, New Zealand and Asia, including headlining the
Virgin Mobile Festival in
Baltimore on August 9. At the European MTV Music Awards in 2007 Pat Smear confirmed his return to the band.
Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace was nominated for five
Grammy Awards in 2008. Foo Fighters went home with
Best Rock Album and
Best Hard Rock Performance
(for "The Pretender"). The album was also nominated for Album of the
Year, while "The Pretender" was also nominated for Record of the Year
and Best Rock Song.
[25]
On June 7, 2008, the band played
Wembley Stadium, London and was joined by
Jimmy Page and
John Paul Jones of
Led Zeppelin
to play "Rock and Roll" (with Grohl on drums and Hawkins on vocals) and
"Ramble On" (sung by Grohl, drums by Hawkins). As Page and Jones left
the stage before a final encore of "Best Of You", an ecstatic Grohl
shouted "Welcome to the greatest fucking day of my whole entire life!".
[26] Throughout the tour for
Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace,
Foo Fighters had been writing and practicing new songs at sound checks.
After Foo Fighters had completed this tour in September 2008, they
recorded 13 new songs in studio 606, shortly after announcing a hiatus
from touring (which would last until January 2011). These sessions
likely lasted from late 2008 - early 2009. While the members of Foo
Fighters had initially planned for their new album (composed of songs
from this recording session) to have come out in 2009 with almost no
touring support, they ultimately decided to shelve most of the songs
from these sessions. Three of these songs were later released - "Wheels"
and "Word Forward" (which were directly placed on their greatest hits
album), and a newly recorded version of "Rope" (which ended up making
the final cut of "Wasting Light").
[27]
On November 3, 2009, the band released a compilation album,
Greatest Hits, which features two new songs, "Word Forward" and the single "
Wheels".
[28]
These songs were recorded during a session which occurred between
"Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace" and "Wasting Light" coming out. In
order to promote their greatest hits album, Foo Fighters performed a
show at studio 606 in October 2009 (which was broadcast online), during
which the band took fan requests.
[29]
Wasting Light (2010–2012)
Foo Fighters in 2009, from left to right: Hawkins, Shiflett, Grohl, Mendel
In August 2010, the band began recording their seventh studio album with producer
Butch Vig, who had previously produced the two new tracks for the band's
Greatest Hits album.
[30]
The album was recorded in Dave Grohl's garage using only analog
equipment. The album won five Grammys and was nominated for six. Vig
said in an interview with MTV that the album was entirely analog until
post-mastering.
[31]
Pat Smear was present in many photos posted by Grohl on Twitter and a
press release in December confirmed Smear played on every track on the
album and was considered a core member of the band once again, having
initially left as a full-time member in 1997 before returning as a
touring guitarist in 2006.
[32]
The first single from
Wasting Light, "
Rope", was released to radio in February 2011.
[33] On April 16, 2011, Foo Fighters released an album of covers,
Medium Rare, as a limited-edition vinyl for
Record Store Day.
[34] The promotion for the album has been highly praised for its originality.
[35] Wasting Light debuted at number one on the
Billboard 200 chart, being the first Foo Fighters album to do so.
[36]
Alongside
Wasting Light's release, Foo Fighters released a rock documentary, directed by Academy Award-winner
James Moll. The film, entitled
Back and Forth,
chronicling the band's career—from the dissolution of Nirvana due to
the death of frontman Kurt Cobain to the formation of Foo Fighters as
Dave Grohl's "one-man band" to the status of the band in 2011. All the
current and past bandmembers, plus producer Butch Vig, tell the story of
the band through interviews. After debuting on March 15, 2011 at the
SXSW festival in
Austin, Texas,
[37] it was eventually released on DVD on June 2011.
On May 21, 2011, Foo Fighters headlined the middle day of the
Hangout Music Festival in Gulf Shores, Alabama. On June 4, 2011, they played a surprise set at the 2011
KROQ Weenie Roast. They also headlined two sold out shows at the
Milton Keynes National Bowl on July 2 and 3, supported by artists such as
Alice Cooper,
Seasick Steve and
John Paul Jones. They headlined the final night at the 20th anniversary of
Lollapalooza in
Chicago's Grant Park on August 7, 2011, performing part of their set in a driving rainstorm.
[38]
In December 2011 Foo Fighters played its final shows of the year
through Australia and New Zealand with support from Tenacious D,
finishing at Western Springs,
Auckland, New Zealand on December 13.
On August 27, 2012, Foo Fighters ended its European tour with a performance at
Reading and Leeds Festival. On September 21, 2012, the band headlined the Music Midtown Festival in
Atlanta, Georgia. The following evening, the band headlined the DeLuna Festival in
Pensacola Beach, Florida. On September 29, 2012, the band performed at the Global Citizens' Festival, before embarking on a break.
[39]
Eighth studio album (2013–present)
Despite initially announcing a break after supporting
Wasting Light, Grohl later stated in January 2013 that the band had started writing material for an eighth studio album.
[40] On February 20, 2013 at the
Brit Awards, Grohl said he was flying back to America the following day to start work on the next album.
[41] In an interview with
XFM,
Grohl announced that their next album has been slated for a 2014
release. Grohl said “Well, I’ll tell you, we have been in our studio
writing and in the past few weeks we’ve written an album and we are
going to make this album in a way that no-one’s ever done before and
we’re pretty excited about it… It’s a little ways off – it’s not ready
to happen right now – but I think next year is going to be a really big
year for the Foo Fighters, without question.”
On September 6, 2013, Shiflett posted a photo to his
Instagram
account that indicates 13 songs are being recorded for the new album
and later described the album in an interview as "pretty fucking fun".
[42] Rami Jaffee has recorded parts for three songs, one of which is entitled "In The Way."
[43] Butch Vig, who worked with the band on
Wasting Light, confirmed via
Twitter in late August 2013 that he is producing the album.
[44][45]
The band confirmed that it will end its hiatus and play two shows in
Mexico City,
Mexico on December 11 and 13, 2013. On October 31, 2013, a video
appeared on the official Foo Fighters YouTube channel showing a
motorcyclist, later shown as actor
Erik Estrada, delivering each of the band members an invitation to play in Mexico.
[46]
On January 16, 2014 a picture was posted to The Foo Fighters Facebook page with several master tapes with some labeled "LP 8."
[47]
Other appearances
On Friday night, September 21, 2012, Foo Fighters played to a sold
out audience at Music Midtown in Piedmont Park in Atlanta, capping off a
day of music that featured Van Hunt, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts,
T.I.,
The Avett Brothers and Foo Fighters. Late in the evening, Dave Grohl
invited Joan Jett back out on stage, twice, the first time to dedicate
"Monkey Wrench" to her, and the second time to get her to sing "Bad
Reputation" with Foo Fighters.
It was announced on September 28, 2011, that Foo Fighters would be performing during the closing ceremony of
Blizzard Entertainment's annual video game convention,
BlizzCon.
[48]
On September 5, 2012, the band performed a show at the Fillmore in
Charlotte, NC as a benefit for
Rock The Vote. The show, which occurred at the same time that the 2012
Democratic National Convention
was being held in Charlotte, NC, was announced only two weeks prior.
All tickets to the 2000 capacity venue sold out in under 60 seconds,
setting a record for the venue.
[49]
The band set another personal record during the show itself, which was
the longest that the band had played to date, lasting just under 3.5
hours with a setlist consisting of 36 songs.
[50]
On September 12, 2012, the band performed at the Apple Press Event at which the
iPhone 5 and the new iPod line-up were unveiled.
On December 2, 2012 Foo Fighters performed two songs honoring
Led Zeppelin at the 35th
Kennedy Center Honors.
Foo Fighters have recorded a version of the 1969
Creedence Clearwater Revival anti war classic "Fortunate Son" with the composer, John Fogerty. The song is included on Fogerty's forthcoming album
Wrote a Song for Everyone
which is due for release though Vanguard Records on May 28, 2013. John
Fogerty is also an ad hoc member of the Sound City Players, the
supergroup Grohl assembled in conjunction with his
Sound City film project.
September, 2011 Foo Fighters joined
Roger Waters to perform '
In the Flesh?' from
Pink Floyd's 1979 album '
The Wall' on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
On February 21, 2000, David Letterman, when returning from quintuple
bypass surgery, asked Foo Fighters to perform on his first show back.
Foo Fighters had to leave a South American tour to fly to New York for
Letterman. Letterman's introduction was, "Here they are, my favorite
band playing my favorite song. Ladies and Gentlemen, The Foo Fighters."
The band went on to play "Everlong" which Letterman has stated several
times is his favorite rock song.
Musical style and legacy
When Grohl first started the band, its music was often compared to
that of his previous group, Nirvana. Grohl acknowledged that Nirvana
singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain was a major influence on his songwriting.
Grohl said, "Through Kurt, I saw the beauty of minimalism and the
importance of music that's stripped down." Foo Fighters also utilize the
technique of shifting between quiet verses and loud choruses, which
Grohl said was influenced by the members of Nirvana "liking
The Knack,
Bay City Rollers,
Beatles, and
ABBA as much as we liked
Flipper and
Black Flag, I suppose".
[4]
Writing and recording songs for the first Foo Fighters album by
himself, Grohl wrote the guitar riffs to be as rhythmic as possible. He
approached the guitar in a similar manner to his playing a drumkit,
assigning different drum parts to different strings on the instrument.
This allowed him to piece together songs easily; he said, "I could hear
the song in my head before it was finished."
[5] Once Grohl assembled a full band, his bandmates assisted in song arrangements.
[4]
The members of Foo Fighters meld melodic elements with heavier ones. Grohl noted in 1997, "We all love music, whether it's the
Beatles or
Queen or
punk rock.
I think the lure of punk rock was the energy and immediacy; the need to
thrash stuff around. But at the same time, we're all suckers for a
beautiful melody, you know? So it is just natural."
[4]
Grohl said in 2005, "I love being in a rock band, but I don't know if I
necessarily wanna be in an alternative rock band from the 1990s for the
rest of my life." Grohl noted that the band's acoustic tour was such an
attempt to broaden the group's sound.
[51]
Campaigning and activism
Foo Fighters's official website formerly linked to
Alive & Well AIDS Alternatives, a group led by controversial AIDS activist
Christine Maggiore.
[52] In January 2000 they held a benefit concert in
Hollywood for the group with a speech by Maggiore and free copies of her book,
What If Everything You Thought You Knew About AIDS Was Wrong?.
[53] However, as of February 2012, the band's website no longer contains a link to the group.
[54][not in citation given]
In September 2011, before a show in Kansas City, the band performed a counter-protest parody song in front of a protest by the
Westboro Baptist Church.
The song mocked the church's opposition to homosexuality, and was
performed in the same faux-trucker garb that was seen in the band's "Hot
Buns" promotional video.
[55][56]
Members
- Dave Grohl – lead vocals, rhythm and lead guitar, drums (1994–present)
- Nate Mendel – bass guitar (1995–present)
- Pat Smear – lead guitar, backing vocals (1995–1997), rhythm guitar (2010–present); touring (2006–2010)
- Taylor Hawkins – drums, backing and lead vocals (1997–present)
- Chris Shiflett – lead guitar, backing vocals (1999–present)
- Touring
- Rami Jaffee – keyboards, piano, organ, accordion, harmonica (2006–present)
- Former
Timeline
Discography
Awards
Pitchfork Media described Grohl and the band as "his generation's answer to
Tom Petty—a consistent hit machine pumping out working-class rock."
[57]
Foo Fighters first received a
Grammy Award for their music video for "
Learn to Fly" in 2000 and have won ten others in total. These include 4 for
Best Rock Album for
There Is Nothing Left To Lose,
One by One,
Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace and
Wasting Light; and 3 for
Best Hard Rock Performance for the songs "
All My Life", "
The Pretender" and "White Limo".
[58] The band also received three
Kerrang! Awards. At the
2011 MTV Video Music Awards, the band won Best Rock Video for "
Walk". They won the
Radio Contraband "Major Label Artist of the Year" in 2011.
In 2012 the band performed at the
54th Grammy Awards on February 12, 2012, playing "Walk" along with the remix version of "Rope", featuring
deadmau5. The band was nominated for 6
Grammy Awards including
Album of the Year,
Best Rock Performance,
Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance,
Best Rock Song,
Best Rock Album and
Best Long Form Music Video (for
Back and Forth). They won 5 out of the 6, losing only to
Adele in the Album of the Year category.
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