Foo Fighters have looked back on the sacking of Josh Freese, describing it as a “decision that was best for all parties”, and spoken about William Goldsmith’s exit from the line-up back in 1997.
The group opened up as part of a new interview with The Guardian, which also saw them speak about new album ‘Your Favorite Toy’, the death of drummer Taylor Hawkins in 2022, and frontman Dave Grohl going to “therapy six days a week for 70 weeks” after announcing in 2024 that he’d become a father “outside of my marriage”.
The band spoke about their dynamic, and how they are always working within Grohl’s vision.
“It produces great songs,” said bassist Nate Mendel, adding that both he and guitarist Chris Shiflett each make their own music outside Foo Fighters, but are happy with the current structure of the band.
“I’ll go and make a weird-ass record that no one listens to, and I’m satisfied,” the bassist added, also revealing that the frontman has “some passive-aggressive ways of communicating things” – giving the example of the events that led to William Goldsmith leaving the band nearly three decades ago.
Goldsmith was the original drummer for Foos, and played with them between 1995 and 1997. Grohl was dissatisfied with the drum tracks Goldsmith did for their album ‘The Colour and the Shape’ and secretly re-recorded nearly all of the parts himself. The drummer left the line-up after discovering this later on, and was replaced by Taylor Hawkins.
“I didn’t like that,” said guitarist Pat Smear, discussing how things ended with Goldsmith. “Dave was just learning to be a bandleader; we could have handled the whole thing better. It left a bad taste.”
In 2017, Goldsmith made headlines when he hit out at Grohl for his treatment, saying he was left feeling “creatively raped” by the frontman and comparing him to a “mean” high school bully.
Taylor Hawkins then defended Grohl, and reminded fans that Goldsmith chose to leave the group. Last year, Grohl looked back at his time with the original drummer when he thanked past members – including Goldsmith and Freese – showing gratitude for their contributions, celebrating 30 years of Foo Fighters and sharing ‘Today’s Song’.
Speaking about working with Grohl – who admitted to the outlet that he is “not often able to say the thing that I really want to say” – Mendel joked to The Guardian that the singer “sends smoke signals, not memos”, while Shiflett agreed, quipping that the frontman will often say “That could be cool” as a way of actually saying “No, we’re never doing that.”
After talking about the departure of the original drummer from the line-up, the band then went on to discuss the decision to boot Josh Freese from the line-up.
Freese had joined the band as their touring drummer in 2023 following the sudden passing of Taylor Hawkins in March 2022. He toured with them throughout 2024, and in May last year, the Foos announced that he had been let go – a move that the sticksman said he was “shocked” and “disappointed” by.
The Guardian reports that they were told ahead of the interview that Grohl would not be discussing the decision to let Freese go, and so asked the other bandmates about if it was true that the drummer was not given a reason for his firing.
“Yeah,” said Mendel. “We made a decision that it was best for all parties. To get into the personal details [with Freese] of why that didn’t necessarily sync up, just didn’t seem like it was going to benefit anybody.”
“Some things are OK to be like: this is what’s best for us, and we’re going in a different direction,” he added, also sharing that the band were still grateful for Freese joining after the death of Hawkins, and “doing exactly what needs to be done musically to make it work”.
Since he was kicked out of the group, Ilan Rubin has taken on the role of sticksman. He and Freese have swapped groups; Rubin left Nine Inch Nails to join Foos, and Freese returned to work with Trent Reznor and co.
While he didn’t discuss the departure of Freese in the interview with The Guardian, Grohl did open up about the decision during a recent interview with Zane Lowe – saying that they had a “great time” working with the drummer, but ultimately thought they needed to go for “a new direction”.
“We called, as a band, all of us called, it wasn’t just me,” he said, emphasising that the decision “didn’t happen overnight”.
“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.”
Since the sacking, Freese has spoken of life after his exit from the band saying “no one should feel sorry” for him, and reiterated that he is still unsure of exactly why he was let go.
Foo Fighter’s 12th studio album, ‘Your Favorite Toy’, is due for release on April 24 via Roswell Records/Columbia Records.
Last month, Grohl revealed that the album was stacked with “uptempo” and “noisy, loud bangers” that feel like they’re from “the old days”, and today (Friday March 20) they dropped a new single called ‘Caught In The Echo’.
They also showcased an as-yet-unreleased tune, ‘Of All People’, at their recent run of intimate UK and Ireland shows in Dublin, London and Manchester, and later this summer they will embark on their European ‘Take Cover’ tour, including two concerts at Anfield stadium in Liverpool (find any remaining tickets here).
They’ll play some North American dates over the summer and autumn, too, and have announced an Australia and New Zealand leg for 2026 and 2027.
