{"id":436225,"date":"2026-02-20T14:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T14:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/436225\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T14:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T14:14:09","slug":"dave-grohl-explains-josh-freeses-firing-from-foo-fighters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/436225\/","title":{"rendered":"Dave Grohl explains Josh Freese’s firing from Foo Fighters"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dave<\/p>\n

(Credits: Elizabeth Miranda \/ Lipservice21)<\/p>\n

Fri 20 February 2026 10:28, UK <\/p>\n

Dave Grohl<\/a> has broken his silence on the departure of Josh Freese from Foo Fighters last year for the first time.<\/p>\n

Freese served in Foo Fighters from 2023, following Taylor Hawkins\u2019 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\u2019s. <\/p>\n

The drummer first announced his exit on Instagram<\/a> last May, explaining, \u201cThe Foo Fighters called me Monday night to let me know they\u2019ve decided \u2018to go in a different direction with their drummer.\u2019 No reason was given.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then, in an interview with the New York Times, Freese said<\/a> it was a difficult task to be \u201cthe guy that\u2019s supposed to save the day after the beloved Taylor Hawkins died.\u201d He also admitted, \u201cIt wasn\u2019t music that I really resonated with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additionally, earlier this month<\/a>, he told Modern Drummer, \u201cI enjoyed being around those guys, they were generous and good to me\u2026 and that\u2019s what makes the whole thing even more of a mystery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, for the first time, Grohl has addressed Freese\u2019s firing, telling Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, \u201cThe thing about Foo Fighters is that we\u2019ve had four drummers in 30 years, but with the Foo\u2019s, 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grohl then explained that it was going to be \u201ccomplicated\u201d for \u201cany drummer\u201d that came into the band as Hawkins\u2019 replacement.<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cWith Josh Freese, Josh is a consummate professional. He has a storied career of playing with everyone from Michael Buble to The Offspring, he\u2019s had thousands of studio recordings.\u201d<\/p>\n

After continuing to list Freese\u2019s impressive CV, Grohl said of his time in the band, \u201cSo 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grohl then explained that the decision over Freese\u2019s future \u201cdidn\u2019t happen overnight\u201d and occurred over a \u201csix or seven-month\u201d period. He shared, \u201cIn those six or seven months, as a band, we talked about what to do next, a new direction, and thought, \u2018Okay, let\u2019s call Josh and let him know that we are going to move on with a different drummer\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n

The frontman also clarified, \u201cWe called, as a band, all of us called, it wasn\u2019t just me,\u201d rather than the message being relayed to Freese through.<\/p>\n

Grohl continued, \u201cBasically, we called Josh, and were like, \u2018Hey man, that was awesome. That was such a blast, thank you so much, but we are going to move on and find another drummer.\u2019 After that, we didn\u2019t make a press release, tweet anything or do interviews. We didn\u2019t say anything. Since then, there\u2019s been a lot of talk about it, but I think Josh said it best when he said that he didn\u2019t feel our music really resonated with him, and that\u2019s really important.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Foo Fighters singer then said that with new drummer Ilan Rubin that \u201cwe feel like a band again\u201d and said their new record, Your Favorite Toy<\/a>, is \u201ca band album\u201d. <\/p>\n

Foo Fighters\u2019 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.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The Far Out Music Newsletter<\/p>\n

All the latest music news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Elizabeth Miranda \/ Lipservice21) Fri 20 February 2026 10:28, UK Dave Grohl has broken his silence on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[23794,96,21017,21018,128,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-436225","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-dave-grohl","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-foo-fighters","11":"tag-josh-freese","12":"tag-music","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}