Foo Fighters - The rock stars next door

Dedicated to the memory of Kurt Cobain and Taylor Hawkins

Scream, Nirvana, the experiment of a one-man band: the adventures of young Grohl

It all begins in 1990, when one of the most highly regarded hardcore punk bands on the Washington D.C. underground circuit, Scream, decide to call it quits. Their drummer, a still-21-year-old Dave Grohl, is recruited with enviable timing by Nirvana, who at the time had only released their debut "Bleach" and were still the preserve of a handful of devoted followers of the independent circuit. During his time in what would become the most important band of the Seattle grunge scene, Grohl often finds himself strumming a guitar alongside Kurt Cobain, in rehearsal rooms or backstage before a show, and starts writing a few songs of his own, though he's still too shy to put them forward to the rest of the band with any real conviction. Except for one, "Marigold", which would become the b-side of the single "Heart-Shaped Box". In 1992 Grohl even puts out a cassette, Pocketwatch, under the pseudonym "Late!", which passes completely unnoticed.

Grohl's sociable nature allows him to build a dense network of friends and acquaintances across the American alternative rock circuit, and his unquestionable musical talent earns him plenty of admiration - traits that will prove useful down the line. But at the time of Kurt Cobain's death, on April 5, 1994, few have the foresight to predict that this talented drummer would go on to enjoy a brilliant career as frontman and guitarist of one of the biggest rock bands on the planet, Foo Fighters, an unerring commercial machine built on energetic, infectious guitar rock that never lacks a distinctive melodic appeal, even in its most uncompromising hardcore punk moments. Starting out as a cult band, almost a kind of shy experiment, within the space of a few years they would become a juggernaut of the global mainstream, forever balanced between tongue-in-cheek humor and the ambition of taking on the daunting legacy of Nirvana.

In October 1994, six months after Cobain's suicide, Dave Grohl sets about recording some songs he had set aside, accompanied only by producer Barrett Jones. The resulting album is named after the project's working title, Foo Fighters, borrowed from the term used by the American air force during World War II for the strange light phenomena spotted in the sky, attributed to unidentified objects of the kind usually referred to as UFOs. In the studio Grohl sings all the vocal parts and plays all the instruments, except for a few guitar passages on "X-Static", recorded by Greg Dulli of Afghan Whigs. It's striking to discover Dave's leadership qualities for the first time, and to notice just how close his songwriting style is to Cobain's - close enough to imagine his contribution to Nirvana's songwriting as being far greater than what was ever officially credited.

Grohl, who has solid roots in the hardcore punk and post-hardcore scene, shows he absorbed everything he could from his friend Kurt, to the point that tracks like "Alone + Easy Target", "Weenie Beenie" and "Wattershed" bear the unmistakable imprint of the Nirvana sound, pure grunge to the core (even though grunge, by this point, is already dead). At times you can glimpse, still only faintly, a shift toward a less raw, less violent, more reassuring - dare I say radio-friendly - mode, as with "Big Me" (whose video amusingly spoofs a "Mentos" candy commercial, rebranded for the occasion as "Footos") and "Oh, George". But it's the more driving tracks that define the record's overall mood, like "This Is A Call", "I'll Stick Around" and "Good Grief". The intense electric ballad "Exhausted" closes out, in grand fashion, the first Foo Fighters album - the one-man-band version, recorded in the space of a week and released in the summer of 1995 - a record that revealed to the world many facets of Dave Grohl's artistic personality that had, until then, remained overshadowed by Cobain's towering presence.

Rock stars next door

At this point Dave Grohl needs to recruit some musicians, so he can play the new songs live and turn the Foo Fighters business name into the identity of a real band. The idea of embarking on the new adventure alongside Krist Novoselic, his former Nirvana bandmate, is soon abandoned, to avoid unwelcome comparisons with a past that looms too large. The choice of band members falls on Nate Mendel and William Goldsmith (bass and drums in the emo outfit Sunny Day Real Estate, momentarily on hold for a break) and on Pat Smear, the veteran former guitarist of Germs, who had already played in the final incarnation of Nirvana, the one that recorded the celebrated “MTV Unplugged”. The promotional tour in support of the debut takes them all over the world, drawing attention from the film world too: in 1996 the band records a cover of Gary Numan's “Down In The Park” for the soundtrack of the TV series “X Files”.

Energized by their steadily growing popularity, in the spring of 1996 the Foo Fighters all set to work on a new album, The Color And The Shape, but William Goldsmith leaves the fold early on following friction with Grohl, who – unsatisfied with the first takes – decides to re-record numerous drum parts himself, sparking the drummer's annoyed reaction. It will thus be Grohl himself sitting behind the kit on nearly every song on the record. Gil Norton's production (he had previously worked with Pixies, Counting Crows and Patti Smith) helps give the band a clear change of direction, aimed at leaving the post-grunge roots of the previous record in the background in favor of a fuller, more rounded sound capable of widening their audience. Grohl's goal is probably to step out from under Nirvana's shadow, avoiding endlessly replicating their sound, in order to craft a more personal statement. The bite is still there, especially in tracks like “Enough Space”, or in the brief noise intro of “My Poor Brain”, but softened, stripped of all the anguish that poured out of Cobain's songwriting.

The essence of the new Dave Grohl is well summed up in the songs that will stick most firmly in the collective memory, and here we find several of them, in particular “Monkey Wrench”, “My Hero” and “Everlong”, in which the Foo Fighters begin pushing decisively toward classic-rock territory, a shift that will gradually transform the band from an alternative-rock cult act into one of the biggest mainstream phenomena on the planet. The tracks on The Colour And The Shape carry a guitar-driven sound that is at times fairly polished (“Walking After You”, “February Stars”), designed to win over an audience less tied to the vigorous onslaught of Nineties rock. After the still Nirvana-scented outburst of the previous album, The Colour And The Shape is the record that first defines the sound and style of the Foo Fighters, which over time will become instantly recognizable, a genuine trademark. Some hardcore Nirvana fans will prefer to distance themselves, but countless new converts will be ready to embrace and appreciate the new musical path set out by Grohl.

The Colour And The Shape is released in May 1997 and meets with extraordinary success: to this day the album has sold almost two and a half million copies in the United States alone (where it remains their best-selling record ever, despite never climbing past number 10 on the Billboard chart) and nearly seven hundred thousand copies in the United Kingdom. With their fun videos, catchy melodies and Grohl's appeal, the Foo Fighters quickly become the “rock stars next door”, winning over a solid core of fans, including plenty of very young ones. But the band is immediately hit by a series of line-up shake-ups. Pat Smear leaves the band, officially due to tour exhaustion, but in reality because he takes the side of Jennifer Youngblood, Grohl's first wife, from whom the drummer is separating.

In Smear's place the band recruits Franz Stahl, who had played with Dave Grohl years earlier in Scream. There's also a new arrival on drums, where the band brings in the man who will become a Foo Fighters mainstay, the very blond Taylor Hawkins, already an accomplished drummer with Alanis Morissette. Meanwhile Hollywood's courtship of the band continues: during 1997 the Foo Fighters record several songs for some of the year's blockbusters: the lullaby “Dear Lover” for the soundtrack of “Scream 2”, a new version of “Walking After You” for the film “X Files”, and the ambitious “A320” for “Godzilla”.

Franz Stahl's time in the band proves very short-lived, though: the guitarist is soon pushed out of the group over “compatibility issues”. The following album, There Is Nothing Left To Lose, is therefore recorded by just Grohl, Mendel and Hawkins, with Grohl personally handling all the guitars. Made with producer Adam Kasper, the band's third record shows a stronger first half, opening with the powerful “Stacked Actors”, a song that provokes the fury of Courtney Love, Cobain's widow, after she recognized herself in lyrics aimed at the phoniness of rock stars who are all look and zero substance. Formally flawless, There Is Nothing Left To Lose leans even further than its predecessor toward reassuring sounds (“Gimme Stitches”, “Generator”, “Headwires”), which in some cases become major new hits. That's the case with “Learn To Fly”, which gives the Foo Fighters their first number-one on the US singles sales chart.

The eleven tracks of There Is Nothing Left To Lose help speed up the band's transformation into a stadium-rock colossus capable of pleasing everyone (just listen to “Breakout”, later featured in the soundtrack of the Jim Carrey film “Me, Myself & Irene”), catchy in just the right way, even at the cost of occasionally growing dull (“Aurora”). The second half of the record tends to settle into a more commercial mode, with a few more forgettable, throwaway moments. The public picks up on it, and US sales dip, settling at around a million copies. There Is Nothing Left To Lose nonetheless brings home the Foo Fighters' first two Grammy Awards: “Best Rock Album” and “Best Music Video”, for the “Learn To Fly” clip. Taylor Hawkins presents his calling card to the public, showing off technical drum passages, and the band appears tight and united, so much so that for the first time a Foo Fighters album is credited to the whole group. Once recording wraps up, the band picks its new guitarist, who will tour to promote the record: Chris Shiflett.

From cult band on the alternative circuit to mainstream rock giants

Around 2001 the Foo Fighters forge a strong bond with Queen, of whom they are huge fans. In March of that year, Grohl and Hawkins deliver the induction speech for the English band's entry into the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame and join the group to perform the 1976 classic “Tie Your Mother Down”, with Hawkins on drums alongside Roger Taylor.

Guitarist Brian May will later record a guitar part for the Foo Fighters' cover of Pink Floyd's “Have a Cigar”, included on the soundtrack of “Mission: Impossible 2”. Since then, the Foo Fighters and Queen have performed together on several occasions.

The completion of the Foo Fighters' fourth album, One By One, later released in October 2002, is repeatedly delayed for two reasons: Taylor Hawkins's forced hospitalization following an overdose of alcohol and painkillers (Grohl, unwilling to change drummers again, insists on Hawkins's presence and is willing to wait as long as it takes for his friend to recover) and the need to re-record all the material after an initial version was deemed weak and “contrived”. Nick Raskulinecz is chosen as producer.

In the free time that results, Grohl plays drums in extraordinary fashion on the Queens Of The Stone Age album Songs For The Deaf, one of the defining rock records of the entire decade, an experience that – as we'll see – will decisively influence the writing of the Foo Fighters' subsequent songs. When the Foos, with new guitarist Chris Shiflett now on board, are ready to return to the studio, their first move is the single “The One”, included on the soundtrack of the film “Orange County”, a preview of what looms as a new phase in the band's career. The “band next door”, the fun-loving, goofy stars of videos like “Learn To Fly” and “Monkey Wrench”, have become a team of mature, aggressive musicians who, with One By One, want to prove to everyone, fans and critics alike, that they are not a faded copy of Nirvana.

The experience gained with Queens Of The Stone Age (with whom Grohl also toured) clearly shapes the writing of the new material, particularly the three songs that open the album: “Low”, the opening “All My Life” (the lead single) and “Have It All”, tense, violent tracks of a kind no one expected from Grohl and company anymore. Also solid is a classically Foo Fighters-style track like “Times Like These”, as is the poignant “Tired Of You”, which features Brian May on guitar. But the album essentially ends there, revealing a second half that is far from essential, even if the technical level shown by the four musicians involved is impressive.

Although met with mixed reviews, especially regarding the album's length (a full fifteen songs, with at least a couple of filler tracks that could have been trimmed), Raskulinecz's production gives the band's sound a grittier, more convincing mood than “There Is Nothing Left To Lose”, and One By One establishes itself as another success: around a million copies sold in the United States (a result on par with the previous record) and almost nine hundred thousand in the United Kingdom. At the Grammy Awards it wins two prizes, in the categories “Best Rock Album” (a second consecutive triumph for the Foos) and “Best Hard Rock Performance” (for “All My Life”). A new world tour proves to be the perfect opportunity for the band to mature further: with Shiflett now a permanent member, the Foo Fighters are finally a complete band, determined to record another album worthy of being remembered.

If One By One could come across as a sprawling effort, the following album blew past any remaining restraint, delivering a full twenty songs for an hour and twenty-three minutes of music. The genesis of In Your Honor began when Grohl decided to work up some acoustic material for a hypothetical side project. Those new sketches ended up being finished with the rest of the band and folded into a double album, split between an electric first half and an acoustic second half. Produced once again by Nick Raskulinecz, the record came out in June 2005, and turned out to be the most ambitious Foo Fighters album yet, the one where — despite a few stretches that drag on too long — the band shows off the widest stylistic range of their songwriting.

The first part of the tracklist, the electric one, lines up ten powerful, dynamic new stadium anthems, propped up by spot-on choruses, that lean hard into stoner rock without too many compromises: "In Your Honor", "Hell" and "Free Me" rank among the strongest moments. There's also a new worldwide hit: "Best Of You". The second part, the acoustic one, impresses for its wealth of carefully crafted shades. Guests abound: John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin plays piano on "Miracle" and mandolin on "Another Round", Petra Haden adds violin to "Miracle", the jazzy bossa nova "Virginia Moon" is sung as a duet with Norah Jones, and the psych-folk "Razor" features Josh Homme of Queens Of The Stone Age on guitar. "Cold Day In The Sun", with its pop hook worthy of the Beatles, is sung by Taylor Hawkins, swapping roles with Grohl. Special mention goes to "Friend Of A Friend", which recalls the unplugged anguish of late-period Nirvana: Grohl wrote it in 1990 (an early version appeared on Pocketwatch) right after joining Kurt Cobain's band, capturing his first impressions of his new bandmates. This time international critics applauded unanimously, acknowledging that Foo Fighters had reached artistic maturity, even if a stricter edit of the tracklist would have made the record even more effective.

The following Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace (September 2007) is instead a fairly harmless slab of FM rock, built to take a straightforward shot at the top of the charts. By this point Foo Fighters have craft to spare, and once again they land a couple of good songs (the single "The Pretender", the convincing "Long Road To Ruin", the enveloping "…Stranger Things Have Happen…"), while also allowing themselves a few unexpected detours, as with the brief acoustic folk of "Ballad Of The Beaconsfield Miners", influenced by Led Zeppelin's third album. The weaker moments cluster toward the end of the record, where tracks like "Statues" and "Home" (Grohl plays at being a crooner, sitting at the piano and bringing in orchestral arrangements) fall objectively a notch below the band's usual standards.

But by now Foo Fighters can count on a solid fanbase, and Dave Grohl is the talented musician with the storied past (nobody ever forgets his time in Nirvana, among the most beloved and influential bands of all time) that everybody loves. So it's no surprise that Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace brings home two more Grammy Awards, for "Best Rock Album" (their third win) and "Best Hard Rock Performance", thanks to "The Pretender".

The spirit of a garage band, even while playing in the big leagues

After the happy detour of Them Crooked Vultures (an album released in late 2009, with John Paul Jones on bass and Josh Homme on guitar), Grohl went back into the studio to shape a new chapter for Foo Fighters. He decided to record in his own garage, welcomed returning member Pat Smear back into the lineup, brought in Butch Vig (the producer of "Nevermind") behind the desk, and invited Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic to play on "I Should Have Known". Wasting Light came out in April 2011, the closest Foo Fighters have ever come to stoner rock, a record of devastating power from the very first notes: "Bridge Burning" is pure Queens Of The Stone Age, adrenaline shooting straight into your blood and bones. The following "Rope" (chosen as the first single) is a kind of simplified math-rock, enriched by a series of hair-raising off-beats and an innate melodic instinct that bursts out in the chorus. "Dear Rosemary" is a fine duet with Bob Mould of Husker Du. Then comes the bullet "White Limo": one of the most aggressive songs in the entire Foo Fighters catalogue. And after a run of anthems built for the big arenas (chief among them "Back & Forth"), the closing fireworks take the shape of the cathartic power rock of "Walk": one of those songs that can make you feel like a kid at the center of the world, destined to remain among the best the Foos have ever recorded.
Wasting Light is a record of thrilling power that brings Foo Fighters back to the glory of their early days, without ever taking themselves too seriously, steering clear of the misfit-rockstar routine, with the self-deprecating humor that has always set them apart. Just take a look (as usual) at the promotional videos, chief among them the one for "White Limo", featuring Lemmy (yes, that Lemmy) as a genial chauffeur driving the band around Los Angeles in a limo. It's a golden moment for the band: Wasting Light debuts at number 1 on the Billboard chart, something that had never happened to Grohl & co. before, and nearly every stop of the world tour sets attendance records. It's another flood of accolades, including no fewer than four Grammy Awards: "Best Rock Album", "Best Hard Rock Performance" (for "White Limo"), "Best Rock Performance" and "Best Rock Song" (both for "Walk"). This time it's a genuine landslide, for what's widely regarded as one of the two or three best Foo Fighters albums ever made.

In April 2011 the documentary film Back & Forth was released (and it too won a Grammy), telling the band's turbulent story, from Cobain's death through the lineup changes, all the way to the recording of Wasting Light, which marks a kind of newfound balance for every member of the group. A hundred gripping minutes full of unseen archive footage and interviews, directed by Oscar-winner James Moll.

That same April, to mark Record Store Day, the compilation Medium Rare was released, gathering almost all the covers Foo Fighters had recorded since 1995. Zombies, Gary Numan, Prince, Pink Floyd, Ramones and Cream are among the artists honored on this compilation, which showcases the eclecticism and range of musical influences running through the Foos' music.

On November 10, 2014 came the eighth Foo Fighters album: Sonic Highways, paired with an eight-part TV miniseries directed by Grohl himself, each episode telling the story behind one song on the record. Eight songs, for eight great American cities, for eight documentaries, for eight guests, for the eighth Foo Fighters album, built by crisscrossing America's sonic highways far and wide, with cover art depicting a fictional metropolis assembled from icons of American architecture, from the Space Needle to the Statue of Liberty. What's actually inside Sonic Highways, though, isn't exactly the best of the Foo Fighters' catalogue: everything is written and played to perfection, but everything also feels overly calculated, lacking in truly memorable ideas. It's a flood of pleasant, brisk mainstream rock that almost never lets loose, and almost never feels like the work of the scrappy garage band the Foo Fighters like to claim they still are.

From the already-familiar crescendo of "Something For Nothing" to the strings closing out the super-ballad "I Am A River", there's not much to get excited about, aside here and there from the languid "Subterranean", which brings out the usual dusting of nostalgia, and the road-trip riffing of "Outside", featuring the guitar of Joe Walsh. Both the power-pop of "In The Clear" and "Congregation", and the rock of "The Feast And The Famine", come off as inoffensive; even the two-part electric ride "What Did I Do? / God As My Witness" owes more to the cheesy FM 70's rock of Boston than to the New York hardcore scene Grohl dreams of channeling. Sonic Highways is a project with a strong defining concept, and for that it will be remembered over time, but this time there's more to discuss about the packaging than about the music itself. It's a perfect record for anyone who loves classic-rooted rock, maybe a touch too polished, reassuring and hummable enough. A little less perfect for those who still expect rock to take bold risks and follow crooked paths. Given the massive production effort, the heavy promotional push and the personalities involved, one was entitled to expect something more.

To make up for Sonic Highways, and to pad out its somewhat skimpy runtime, November 2015 brought the self-produced EP Saint Cecilia, five tracks that add quality to the band's recent output and further cement their reputation as stadium-filling rockers. One song in particular gives real weight to this new material, a gut-punch that will have every hardcore nostalgic licking their chops, "Saviour Breath", a sort of "White Limo II". There's a renewed urgency to these self-produced songs, recorded in one go during a particularly fruitful session in Austin, and given away for free in the days following the tragic attacks in Paris, as if to offer comfort through their own music.
That urgency shows up in the shredding riffs of "Sean" and "The Neverending Sigh", in the very Tom Petty-flavored classic rock of "Saint Cecilia" (a tribute to the patron saint of musicians, as well as a nod to the hotel where the band stayed in Austin), and in the refined electro-acoustic ballad "Iron Rooster". Foo Fighters always seem to be having the time of their lives, and beyond the stunts designed to keep people talking, they prove once again, with little apparent effort, that they've earned their place in the great book of the best bands of our era, holding onto their rank while continuing to win over new generations and grow an attentive, loyal audience.

The next step is Concrete And Gold, released on September 15, 2017, featuring Paul McCartney on drums on "Sunday Rain", a track that over a scant four minutes hands the microphone from Dave Grohl to drummer Taylor Hawkins. Sir McCartney's presence may also have shaped the writing of "Happy Ever After (Zero Hour)": one imagines the knighted Beatle must have given his blessing for the game of Beatles references chasing each other through half-quotes of "Blackbird", "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window", "Across The Universe" and "Octopus's Garden" (you might spot a few more besides…). Having McCartney as a guest is big news, but Concrete And Gold also features contributions (sometimes barely noticeable) from Alison Mosshart of the Kills (on "The Sky Is A Neighborhood" and "La Dee Da"), Shawn Stockman of Boyz II Men, Dave Koz's saxophone, and even Justin Timberlake. Amid the rounded alt-pop curves of "Dirty Water" you can also pick out Inara George, who co-runs The Bird And The Bee together with Greg Kurstin, fresh off winning the 2017 Grammy for "Best Producer". Grohl handed him production duties for the whole album, written in solitude in the wake of the on-stage accident that, two years earlier, forced him to finish a tour seated on a throne. That incident was supposed to be followed by a period of voluntary downtime, but once the drummer ran the songs for Concrete And Gold past the rest of the band, the urge to get straight back on the road proved too strong — in fact the lineup was even expanded to six members, officially bringing in keyboardist Rami Jaffee (formerly co-founder of The Wallflowers alongside Jakob Dylan), who had in practice already been a steady Foos collaborator since 2005.
Concrete And Gold, a solid record with a very powerful sound, confirms the band's conventional style: a string of predictable songs ("Arrows") in which good-natured Dave would rather keep waving from his own comfortable patch of ground than try to shake things up. There are, however, some interesting moments, like the opening "T-Shirt", which in a minute and a half spins together falsetto soul and FM rock, or the devastating impact of the following "Run", which keeps shifting shape, moving from acoustic arpeggios to growling vocals through a rhythm section worthy of the old Queens Of The Stone Age. Compared to "Sonic Highways" everything seems to click better: there's no shortage of big guitars ("Make It Right"), nor of the right dose of epic scale ("The Line" is a great track, no doubt about it), and even an attempt at doing something different, like the vaguely Pink Floyd-ish, psychedelic atmosphere given to the title track. These eleven new songs are more than enough to send Foo Fighters straight back to the top of international charts across half the world and to justify another sold-out tour. The album hits number one on the sales charts in the United States, the UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Austria, Switzerland and the Czech Republic. Concrete And Gold thus establishes itself as the new treatise on music marketing, written by the biggest mainstream stadium rock band on the planet.

To celebrate twenty-five years of their career, between 2019 and 2020 Foo Fighters made available, streaming-only, a series of EPs called Foo Files, collecting b-sides recorded by the band since their earliest years along with a selection of live recordings. The titles list the year the tracks were originally released followed by the number "25", in celebration of the band's twenty-fifth anniversary. The series doesn't include the tracks that had already appeared on the covers album Medium Rare, released in 2011.

Over the course of their career, Foo Fighters have released two hugely successful compilations: Greatest Hits, put out in November 2009, which sold over a million copies in the United States alone, and The Essential Foo Fighters, released in October 2022. In November 2006 an acoustic live album was also released, Skin And Bones, fifteen tracks captured during three concerts held on August 29, 30 and 31, 2006 at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles. There's also a DVD edition, expanded to twenty-one tracks, directed by Danny Clinch, who himself appears on stage playing harmonica on "Another Round". The box set put together for the UK edition also includes the (electric) performance given at Hyde Park, also in 2006.

The 2020s: unbearable losses fail to slow an unstoppable run of success

Conceived just before the pandemic, and left on hold because of the impossibility of promoting it properly, Medicine At Midnight comes out on February 5, 2021, one of the sunniest and most positive Foo Fighters records. Grohl now runs a perfect machine, one that can't help but aim for the top of the charts, while at the same time feeling the weight of constantly having to convince everyone he hasn't sold out to the majors. The result is a permanent balancing act that sometimes works, and sometimes a little less so. On Medicine At Midnight the path taken replicates the formula of carefully alternating between cleverly radio-friendly songs (“Shame Shame”) and sincere hardcore punk jolts (“No Son Of Mine” is the sharpest), between syrupy ballads (the plasticky “Waiting On A War”, the intriguing “Chasing Birds”, with its strong seventies flavor) and tracks driven by overbearing electric drive (the quasi-funk drift of “Cloudspotter”), with female backing vocals (also courtesy of Violet, Grohl's daughter) on the opening song “Making A Fire” softening the mood.
It's a chase for immediacy, aiming to please on first listen, even at the risk of growing stale just as quickly. But the ability to handle the song format is a merit that can't be denied to these gentlemen, who land a masterstroke with “Medicine At Midnight” (the title track). It's the only truly unexpected track, a pleasantly retro slice of classic rock that recalls both early Talking Heads and Bowie's “Let's Dance” period. Songs like this one, or the closing “Love Dies Young” (and also “Holding Poison”), give the album a tilt toward “pop” — pop as only the Foo Fighters can conceive it, meant to be played with guitars blazing inside a packed stadium (hopefully that will be possible again soon, given we're still in Covid restriction territory). The album works, and achieves the goals it was conceived for, even if — again — for every fan who'll call it a miracle, there'll be another who would have preferred more adventurous solutions. 

On July 17, 2021, for Record Store Day, the Foo Fighters release, under the name Dee Gees, Hail Satin', a limited-edition vinyl featuring four Bee Gees covers and one by younger brother Andy Gibb on Side A. Side B, meanwhile, holds five tracks reworked from Medicine At Midnight, recorded live at Studio 606, the band's headquarters.
Dave Grohl also produces a phenomenal bestselling book, putting together the hugely successful autobiography titled “The Storyteller”, in which he dwells in particular on the early, formative part of his career, and on the incredible encounters his profession has afforded him.

In October 2021 the band is inducted into the Rock'n'Roll Hall Of Fame, in their first year of eligibility. It's the icing on the cake of a career packed with successes and accolades, among which fifteen Grammy Awards stand out, out of 34 nominations received overall. The band has been honored no fewer than five times in the “Best Rock Album” category (the most recent for Medicine At Midnight in 2022), three times in the “Best Rock Song” category and three times in the “Best Hard Rock Performance” category, effectively making them the most Grammy-awarded rock band of all time. But sadly, very painful moments are also on the way...

In 2022 a couple of devastating losses hit Dave Grohl. First of all, the dramatic and sudden death of Taylor Hawkins, not simply the Foo Fighters' drummer, but also the frontman's closest friend, companion in countless adventures and excesses. A shock comparable to the one following Kurt Cobain's suicide. The other devastating blow, this one more personal, concerns the loss of his mother, to whom Grohl was particularly close. Out of processing these two losses come the ten songs that make up But Here We Are, released in early June 2023, on which Dave goes back to playing the instrument that made him an icon: the drums. For the time being Hawkins isn't replaced; that will be addressed once these songs need to be played live.
From the lively, testosterone-fueled stadium rock one-two of “Rescued” / “Under You”, through the more melancholy “Hearing Voices”, the first half of the album goes by in one breath, following the most classic of Foo Fighters-style mainstream rock blueprints. In the second half — as is often the case with the Foos — the record tends to soften: on “Show Me How” the voice of Grohl's daughter Violet appears, the sprawling ten-plus minutes of “The Teacher” are dedicated to the memory of Dave's mother, while “Rest” is tasked with providing a heartfelt farewell, a classic that starts out acoustic before exploding at the end. On the upcoming tour, Josh Freese will take a seat behind the drums, fresh off leaving A Perfect Circle, a seasoned and reliable musician who has played on over four hundred albums in his career.

Your Favorite Toy, released in April 2026, is the hardest record the Foo Fighters have ever completed. It's their twelfth album, and it nearly didn't happen, given that Dave Grohl had announced his intention to put the band on indefinite hiatus. A natural consequence of one of the most complicated periods for the former Nirvana drummer, who, having processed the grief over the loss of his friend Taylor Hawkins, found himself in a moment of deep confusion, culminating in a profound family crisis that landed him on the front pages of tabloids worldwide, following the public announcement that he'd had a son as a result of an extramarital affair. The result is an album far more nervous than its predecessor, at times downright angry, the first studio effort with new drummer Ilan Rubin, former Nine Inch Nails member, who replaced Josh Freese in 2025. An album that dispenses its author's messages, drowning them amid saturated guitar riffs, wild drum rolls, lyrics screamed into the mic and yet more stadium anthems in the making.
The Foo Fighters help their leader turn crisis into energy, and the results are evident from the very first bars of “Caught In The Echo”, which, along with the title track, is one of the most successful moments on Your Favorite Toy. The radio-ready “Child Actor” also works well, as does the suitably polished hardcore punk of “Spite Shine”. Grohl tells us about friends who were former heroin dealers on “Of All People” and tries to tackle his personal problems on “Unconditional”. Fast, thunderous songs that nonetheless remain firmly within the American band's comfort zone, the reassuring routine of a band that too often falls victim to its own iconography, to the sonic gigantism of arena rock. A predictability that erases any potential element of surprise, depriving the listener of that thrill that only creative unpredictability can deliver. On the Billboard chart the album doesn't get past number 23, and it fails to top the charts in any country. In the 2020s the Foo Fighters have become so good at being the Foo Fighters that they've stopped trying to be anything else, trapped within a gilded perimeter that, however solid, is starting to look like an impassable limit. Too comfortable a zone to ever decide to step out of?

Setting aside the inevitable critical remarks about their most recent projects, the path taken by the Foo Fighters is an absolutely virtuous one, dotted with huge successes and prestigious accolades, a journey whose sharpest chapters came with the explosive, self-titled debut (still influenced by the Nirvana sound), the bestselling The Colour And The Shape (almost a greatest-hits record given how many hits it contains), the sprawling In Your Honor (in which, despite a few overlong stretches, the band displays the widest possible range of its songwriting), and the muscular Wasting Light (with its pronounced stoner streak, a legacy of Grohl's experience in Queens Of The Stone Age).

In recent years the Foo Fighters have kept producing honest records, never lacking notable moments, in which there's no particular drop in inspiration, if anything a certain conservative instinct, a certain stylistic inertia, perfect for reassuring their longtime fans. These days the American band leaves its mark above all through the spectacle of its explosive live shows, always energetic and fun, which reliably sell out every corner of the globe. Fixtures at the biggest music festivals and the most coveted arenas, the Foo Fighters have found in the live dimension the mode in which they keep giving their best, buoyed by a loyal following that shows no sign of shrinking.

Contributions by Alex Poltronieri, from “The Colour And The Shape” to “In Your Honor”

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