(Credits: Elizabeth Miranda / Lipservice21)
Fri 20 February 2026 10:28, UK
Dave Grohl has broken his silence on the departure of Josh Freese from Foo Fighters last year for the first time.
Freese served in Foo Fighters from 2023, following Taylor Hawkins’ death, until his dismissal in 2025, and has spoken on a handful of occasions about being surprised to discover that his services were no longer required in the Foo’s.
The drummer first announced his exit on Instagram last May, explaining, “The Foo Fighters called me Monday night to let me know they’ve decided ‘to go in a different direction with their drummer.’ No reason was given.”
Then, in an interview with the New York Times, Freese said it was a difficult task to be “the guy that’s supposed to save the day after the beloved Taylor Hawkins died.” He also admitted, “It wasn’t music that I really resonated with.”
Additionally, earlier this month, he told Modern Drummer, “I enjoyed being around those guys, they were generous and good to me… and that’s what makes the whole thing even more of a mystery.”
Now, for the first time, Grohl has addressed Freese’s firing, telling Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, “The thing about Foo Fighters is that we’ve had four drummers in 30 years, but with the Foo’s, we had Taylor Hawkins as our drummer for 25 years, and beyond being an amazing drummer, he was this incredible spirit, this incredible human being, he was our brother, he was our best friend.”
Grohl then explained that it was going to be “complicated” for “any drummer” that came into the band as Hawkins’ replacement.
He added, “With Josh Freese, Josh is a consummate professional. He has a storied career of playing with everyone from Michael Buble to The Offspring, he’s had thousands of studio recordings.”
After continuing to list Freese’s impressive CV, Grohl said of his time in the band, “So he came in, we went out on tour, and we had such a blast. We had a great time. It was like a year-and-a-half of touring, the shows were great and we had a lot of fun. And, the last show that we did, I think it was in September 2024, we did our last show, and all stepped away from the band.”
Grohl then explained that the decision over Freese’s future “didn’t happen overnight” and occurred over a “six or seven-month” period. He shared, “In those six or seven months, as a band, we talked about what to do next, a new direction, and thought, ‘Okay, let’s call Josh and let him know that we are going to move on with a different drummer’.”
The frontman also clarified, “We called, as a band, all of us called, it wasn’t just me,” rather than the message being relayed to Freese through.
Grohl continued, “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.”
The Foo Fighters singer then said that with new drummer Ilan Rubin that “we feel like a band again” and said their new record, Your Favorite Toy, is “a band album”.
Foo Fighters’ new album, which they previewed on February 19th with the title track, is their first with Rubin and is set to arrive on April 24th.
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