How Josh Freese feels playing drums for fellow drummer Dave Grohl

Before forming the Foo Fighters, Dave Grohl stood out as one of the greatest rock drummers in the 1990s along with Nirvana. Not just anyone is able to assume the drumsticks in their projects.

Therefore, to replace the giant taylor hawkins — died in March 2022 at the age of 50 —, grohl and his bandmates turned to someone almost indisputable. josh freese studio musician who has played under various names ranging from Evanescence to Offspring and Avril Lavigne to Guns N’ Roses, was elected to the post, as announced last May.

However, Freese knows he will always be on a tightrope. After all, the skill of his “boss” on the drums makes the analysis of his work ever more thorough.

In an Instagram post, the “rookie” revealed what it’s like to play the instrument for grohl. The report was accompanied by a video of a recent presentation by the Foo Fighters. The recorded moment brought a very curious situation: in the middle of the song “Breakout”,freese performed a solo that mixed elements of “You Know What You Are?”, song of Nine Inch Nails – with whom he toured between 2005 and 2008.

As noted by the website Igor Miranda, there is a curious element in the choice of music for NIN: it was Grohl who recorded the drums for this and other tracks on the album “With Teeth” (2005), at the invitation of Trent Reznor. Initially, josh comment:

“Touching the bridge of ‘breakout‘ at my 3rd show with foo fighters in Columbus, Ohio. Out of the blue, I decided to reference the song’You Know What You Are’ by Nine Inch Nails, that I used to play every night on tour while dave recorded it on disc in the studio.”

And will grohl did you get the reference? But of course.

“I love it when he catches the reference and gets excited. At the end, you can see me asking if he got it.”

What It’s Like Being Dave Grohl’s Drummer

Finally, josh freese answered the question presented in the title of this article: what is it like to be a drummer in a band led by none other than Dave Grohl? The musician highlighted that, in addition to being great, it is not a “stressful” experience.

“By the way, playing drums behind one of the greatest drummers in the world is a journey. Surprisingly, it’s not stressful, but really inspiring and fun.”

Rigidity with Foo Fighters drummers

In addition to the talent josh freese the situation seems to have gotten easier after Dave Grohl have learned better how to lead a band. O Foo Fighters, as many fans already know, was born by chance after the end of Nirvana, given that grohl even considered abandoning the artistic branch when Kurt Cobain died. Becoming a frontman wasn’t something he had in mind; it happened by chance, and with it came responsibilities.

The first album of Foo Fighters, eponymous and released in 1995, it was recorded entirely by Dave. As he also wanted to do shows, he had to summon musicians to accompany him. The first drummer was William Goldsmith, originally from the group Sunny Day Real Estate. However, he was dismissed not long after, in a tumultuous situation, because the “boss” was too demanding.

Goldsmith, including, must be one of the few people in the music world to say negative things about Grohl. In an interview with the podcast Conan Neutron (via website Igor Miranda), he commented:

“It is the only band that, if I could, I would erase from my history. It was nothing more than a pain in the ass. only the foo fighters it’s like the Disney. everyone loves the Mickey Mouse, regardless of what he does behind the scenes. That is, it is a situation where there is no way to win. So I would like to delete her from my career.”

The stiffness continued even with his replacement, taylor hawkins who remained for so many years in Foo Fighters. Although it debuted on the band’s second album, The Color and the Shape (1997), the drummer only played on half of the tracks. Dave took over the drumsticks for the other part of the album, as he was not satisfied with the performance of the hired man. In later interviews, taylor admitted that it was too “green” and committed to improving, which ended up happening over the course of the shows.