History Music / FooFighters

''Wasting Light'', their seventh studio album, was released in April 2011. It was produced by [[Music/{{Garbage}} Butch Vig]] of ''Nevermind'' fame, and features Pat Smear back as a full member of the band. Recently, the band has gotten out of hiatus and recorded their eighth studio album, titled ''Sonic Highways''. It was released on November 10th, 2014. Its production was registered in a documentary series directed by Dave, which debuted on the previous month. This was followed with ''Concrete and Gold'', released on September 15th, 2017, and by ''Medicine at Midnight'', released on February 5th, 2021[[note]]the COVID-19 pandemic only delayed the release; recording had actually finished before the worldwide outbreak[[/note]]. They were also inducted into the UsefulNotes/RockAndRollHallOfFame in 2021, making Dave Grohl part of the select club of musicians inducted more than once (having already been inducted in 2014 as part of Nirvana).

On March 25, 2022, Hawkins was found dead in his hotel room only hours before the band was set to headline a music festival in Bogota, Colombia. He was 50 years old; his cause of death is not yet determined. In light of the news, the festival stage was instead turned into a candlelight vigil for Hawkins, and the band canceled all remaining tour dates.

On June 8, 2022, the surviving members announced plans for two Taylor Hawkins tribute concerts: one on September 3, 2022 at Wembley Stadium in London, England, and another on September 27, 2022 at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles, California. In January 2023, the band announced they would headline three festivals in the summer, with the drummer yet to be revealed. The following May, after much speculation, their new drummer was revealed to be veteran session drummer Josh Freese, known for his work with hundreds of different bands and artists including Music/{{Devo}}, Music/{{Sting}}, Music/TheOffspring, Music/APerfectCircle, Music/GunsNRoses and Music/NineInchNails.

* Josh Freese - Drums (2023-present)

On June 8, 2022, the surviving members announced plans for two Taylor Hawkins tribute concerts: one on September 3, 2022 at Wembley Stadium in London, England, and another on September 27, 2022 at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles, California. In January 2023, the band announced they would headline three festivals in the summer, with the drummer yet to be revealed.

On March 25, 2022, Hawkins was found dead in his hotel room only hours before the band was set to headline a music festival in Bogota, Colombia. He was 50 years old; his cause of death is not yet determined. In light of the news, the festival stage was instead turned into a candlelight vigil for Hawkins, and the band has canceled all remaining tour dates.

On June 8, 2022, the surviving members announced plans for two Taylor Hawkins tribute concerts: one on September 3, 2022 at Wembley Stadium in London, England, and another on September 27, 2022 at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles, California. In January 2023 the band announced they would headline three festivals in the summer, with the drummer yet to be revealed.

* EpicRocking: "Come Back" and "I Am a River" both clock in at over seven minutes. They also fit LongestSongGoesLast.

* '''''But Here We Are'''''

* EmoMusic: "The Colour And The Shape" is frequently the 90s variety, carrying over some of the melodic style of new recruits Nate Mendel and William Goldsmith's previous group Music/SunnyDayRealEstate. The album, (and in particular "Everlong") was influential on the 2000s emo scene, although the group has become both simultaneously heavier and more acoustic oriented over time, thus only bears traces of the style.

* BreakingPointSwearing: While on stage, Dave Grohl is ClusterFBomb incarnate, the lyrics only use swearing for really emphatic lines, such as in "Word Forward" ("They're just fuckin' words!"), "Monkey Wrench" ("EVERY SINGLE WORD YOU SAID, AND ALL THE SHIT"), "Something from Nothing" ("Fuck it all, I came from nothing!") and "Make It Right" ("I don't fuckin' need, I don't fuckin' need, I don't need a martyr!).

* FiveManBand: After Pat rejoined the band in 2010.
** TheLeader: Dave
** TheLancer: Taylor[[note]]until his death in 2022[[/note]]
** TheSmartGuy: Nate
** TheBigGuy: Chris
** TheHeart: Pat
** SixthRanger: Rami

* BrainBleach: Their video for "Keep It Clean" requires a bucket of it. Let's just say it involves a lot of nudity and borders on porn.

* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Wasting Light'', which is quite a bit harder and more serious than previous albums.

* InTheStyleOf: As if Music/HuskerDu wasn't enough an influence, Dave invited Bob Mould to play in "Dear Rosemary" as he was intentionally trying to evoke his band.

* PrecisionFStrike: A few songs, especially "Word Forward", "Monkey Wrench", "Something from Nothing" and "Make It Right".

** On the other hand, at concerts, Dave Grohl is ClusterFBomb incarnate.

Grohl decided to draft in a full band for live shows and for the second album, ''The Colour and the Shape''. Bassist Nate Mendel and drummer William Goldsmith came from cultly admired Music/{{emo}} {{trope codifier}}s [[Music/SunnyDayRealEstate Sunny Day Real Estate]], while Pat Smear, a member of Music/TheGerms and the fourth member of Nirvana for its last few years, played guitar. Goldsmith left after the album was recorded, as Grohl had replaced most of Goldsmith's drums tracks with his own. Smear left shortly after the album was released. Replacements were found in Music/AlanisMorissette ex-bandmember Taylor Hawkins on drums and Franz Stahl in place of Smear (who was himself replaced by Chris Shiflett after the release of their third album, ''There Is Nothing Left to Lose''; that album was recorded by Grohl, Mendel and Hawkins as a trio specifically because of the lineup instability).

''Wasting Light'', their seventh studio album, was released in April 2011. It was produced by [[Music/{{Garbage}} Butch Vig]] of ''Nevermind'' fame, and features Pat Smear back as a full member of the band. Recently, the band has gotten out of hiatus and recorded their eighth studio album, titled ''Sonic Highways''. It was released on November 10th, 2014. It shares its title with a documentary series directed by Dave, which debuted on the previous month. This was followed with ''Concrete and Gold'', released on September 15th, 2017, and by ''Medicine at Midnight'', released on February 5th, 2021[[note]]the COVID-19 pandemic only delayed the release; recording had actually finished before the worldwide outbreak[[/note]]. They were also inducted into the UsefulNotes/RockAndRollHallOfFame in 2021, making Dave Grohl part of the select club of musicians inducted more than once (having already been inducted in 2014 as part of Nirvana).

On June 8, 2022, the surviving members announced plans for two Taylor Hawkins tribute concerts: one on September 3, 2022 at Wembley Stadium in London, England, and another on September 27, 2022 at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles, California.

* EarlyBirdCameo: An [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kpmq5xDGPes instrumental]] of "White Limo" was originally used as backing music for the "In Your Honor" documentary in 2005, before the finished song eventually appeared on "Wasting Light" in 2011.

** LongRunnerLineUp: After Chris, it has since become stable, with the only changes being Pat returning to full-time member status with ''Wasting Light'' and keyboardist Rami Jaffee joining full time in 2017.[[note]]Both had joined as touring musicians starting with the ''In Your Honor'' tour.[[/note]]

** The opening riff in "A Matter of Time" is a nod to Music/{{Rush}}'s "Tom Sawyer".

* StepUpToTheMicrophone: "Cold Day in the Sun", "Sunday Rain" and their covers of Music/PinkFloyd's "[[Music/WishYouWereHere Have a Cigar]]" and Joe Walsh's "Life of Illusion" are sung by Taylor Hawkins. Covers of "Danny Says" by Music/TheRamones and "Kiss the Bottle" by Music/{{Jawbreaker}} are sung by Chris Shiflett.

** TheLancer: Taylor

** Music/TenaciousD appear in the video for "Learn to Fly" as custodians who spike the coffee.

* AlbumTitleDrop: with the album ''One By One'', in the first track "All My Life" ("One by one, hidden up my sleeve").

** Subverted by ''Sonic Highways'', except if you count a TitleDrop in the TV series ("You can tie all these people and places together with these Sonic Highways").

Foo Fighters is an alternative rock band, which was formed by Music/{{Nirvana}} drummer Music/DaveGrohl after Music/KurtCobain's suicide in 1994. From 2017 to 2022, the band was comprised of Grohl on vocals and rhythm guitar; Chris Shiflett on lead guitar and backing vocals; Pat Smear on second lead guitar; Nate Mendel on bass; Rami Jaffee on keyboards; and Taylor Hawkins on drums and backing vocals.

----[floatboxright:
Related Acts:
+Late!
+Music/{{Nirvana}}
+Probot
+Music/ThemCrookedVultures
+Music/QueensOfTheStoneAge (Grohl occasionally plays with them)
+No Use For a Name (Chris Shiflett)
+Jackson United (Chris Shiflett)
+Me First and the Gimme Gimmes (Shiflett too)
+Music/SunnyDayRealEstate (Nate Mendel)
+The Fire Theft (Mendel)
+Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders
+Music/TenaciousD
]
'''Members''':

'''Former Members''':

'''Discography''':[[note]]Studio albums in '''bold'''[[/note]]

The name is a reference to a term for unidentified flying objects sighted by pilots during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII[[note]] which in turn harkens back to "foo lights", a New England term referring to the glowing lights produced by swamp gas, and produced the metasyntactic variables foo and foobar[[/note]]. Grohl is on record as saying he hates the name, and would never have used it if he'd thought the band would get anywhere.

Foo Fighters was originally a [[IAmTheBand one-man project]] started by Dave Grohl after the dissolution of Music/{{Nirvana}} (though he had [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocketwatch_%28album%29 written and recorded future Foo Fighters songs]] while still in the band), and he plays all the instruments on every song on the first, [[Music/FooFightersAlbum self-titled Foo Fighters album]] (with the exception of "X-Static", which featured Greg Dulli of Music/TheAfghanWhigs on guitar). At first, Grohl hid behind the Foo Fighters name, preferring that people judge the album on its own merits rather than on Grohl's name or the fans' desire to fill the vacuum left by Nirvana. [[Music/PearlJam Eddie Vedder]] played a few songs on his radio show, and the positive response motivated Grohl to move forward.

The band has been praised highly by critics, stepping out of the shadow of Music/{{Nirvana}} to become one of the most influential alternative rock bands of recent years. To date, all but 2 of their albums were nominated for the "Best Rock Album" Grammy, with four of them actually winning. However, some critics believe that their mainstream popularity and many radio hits mean that Dave Grohl has been [[ItsPopularNowItSucks "selling out"]] Kurt Cobain's legacy. (Grohl himself wondered this in "Hey, Johnny Park!", where he sang "Am I selling you out?")

On March 25, 2022, Hawkins was found dead in his hotel room only hours before the band was set to headline a music festival in Bogota, Colombia. He was 50 years old; his cause of death is not yet determined.

Foo Fighters is an alternative rock band, which was formed by Music/{{Nirvana}} drummer Music/DaveGrohl after Music/KurtCobain's suicide in 1994. From 2017 to 2022, the band comprised of: Grohl on vocals and rhythm guitar; Chris Shiflett on lead guitar and backing vocals; Pat Smear on second lead guitar; Nate Mendel on bass; Rami Jaffee on keyboards; and Taylor Hawkins on drums and backing vocals.

-->--'''Jon Stewart''', ''Series/TheDailyShow''

On March 25, 2022, Hawkins was found dead in his hotel room only hours before the band was set to headline a music festival in Bogota, Colombia. He was 50 years old; his cause of death was revealed to be as a result of having 10 substances in his system.

* Dave Grohl - Vocals/Secondary Guitar (since 1994)
* Nate Mendel - Bass (since 1995)
* Pat Smear - Guitar (1995-1997, since 2010)
* Chris Shiflett - Guitar, Backing Vocals (since 1999)
* Rami Jaffee - Keyboard, Piano (since 2017)

* Taylor Hawkins - Drums, Backing Vocals (from 1997 to his death in 2022)

On March 25, 2022, Hawkins was found dead in his hotel room only hours before the band was set to headline a music festival in Bogota, Colombia. He was 50 years old; his cause of death has not yet been determined.

The band has been praised highly by critics, stepping out of the shadow of Music/{{Nirvana}} to become one of the most influential alternative rock bands of recent years. To date, all of their albums have been nominated for the "Best Rock Album" Grammy, with four of them actually winning. However, some critics believe that their mainstream popularity and many radio hits mean that Dave Grohl has been [[ItsPopularNowItSucks "selling out"]] Kurt Cobain's legacy. (Grohl himself wondered this in "Hey, Johnny Park!", where he sang "Am I selling you out?")

* Dave Grohl - Vocals/Secondary Guitar
* Nate Mendel - Bass
* Pat Smear - Guitar
* Chris Shiflett - Guitar, Backing Vocals
* Rami Jaffee - Keyboard, Piano

* Franz Stahl - Guitar
* William Goldsmith - Drums
* Taylor Hawkins - Drums, Backing Vocals