Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
Josh Freese, the former drummer for Foo Fighters, had not been fully certain of the reasons behind his dismissal from the band until this week, as per theprp. He even made a public joke about the issue in May of 2025. He had doubts about what caused the multi-platinum alternative rockers to replace him, even if at first he claimed to be “shocked and disappointed” about it. According to a recent interview with Foo Fighters guitarist and singer Dave Grohl, the band ultimately decided to replace Freese with Ilan Rubin (formerly of Nine Inch Nails) because of Freese’s apparent lack of dedication to the music. Grohl went on to openly address that issue in an interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music this past Tuesday, February 17.
We had Taylor Hawkins as our drummer for 25 years and, beyond being an amazing drummer, he was this incredible spirit. He was this incredible human being and he was our brother. He was our best friend. So, continuing after Taylor was really complicated, not just for us, but for any drummer that was going to come in to like, you know, fill his shoes… you know.
It’s Taylor’s birthday today. And so, we wake up in the morning and everybody just texts about how much we miss him and how the world’s not the same without him, but we still feel him very much. We always talk about him every fucking day. In everything we do we want to have that energy – we want to have that energy for Taylor.
Grohl continued by calling their tour with Freese a “great time” and adding that the band only agreed to work with Freese again after taking a long hiatus following Grohl’s adultery scandal. The choice “didn’t happen overnight,” Grohl clarified.
In those six or seven months, as a band, we talked about what to do next, a new direction, and thought, ‘OK, let’s call Josh and let him know that we are going to move on with a different drummer.’ We called, as a band, all of us called, it wasn’t just me. Basically, we called Josh, and were like, ‘Hey man, that was awesome. That was such a blast, thank you so much, but we are going to move on and find another drummer.’
After that, we didn’t make a press release, tweet anything or do interviews. We didn’t say anything. Since then, there’s been a lot of talk about it, but I think Josh said it best when he said that he didn’t feel our music really resonated with him, and that’s really important.
Following his dismissal, Freese would later take up Nine Inch Nails‘ drumming duties once more, an inadvertent consequence of Foo Fighters stealing drummer Ilan Rubin from Nine Inch Nails. Paradoxically, Rubin had already taken Freese’s place in Nine Inch Nails in 2008. In addition, Freese is still a part of many other bands, such as A Perfect Circle, Devo, and The Vandals.
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