Foo Fighters Biography
The brainchild of former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl, the Foo Fighters were born in the wake of Kurt Cobain's untimely death in 1994. Prior to moving to Seattle to join Nirvana, the group that was the vanguard of Seattle's early '90's grunge scene, the multi-talented Grohl had been a guitarist, songwriter and drummer in the Washington D.C. area and a staple of the local hardcore punk scene as a member of Scream area. Once he joined Nirvana in 1990, his solo work was put on the back burner. In the wake of his friend's death and the end of Nirvana, he booked time at a professional studio and recorded material he had been compiling over the years.
What was originally supposed to be a 15-song demo with only 100 cassette copies made ended up as the first Foo Fighters album after a bidding war ensued for the project. The self titled LP was a major success; it was released in the summer of '95 and went platinum by early '96. What was even more impressive is that Grohl played all the instruments on the album with the exception of a single guitar track contributed by Afghan Whig/Twilight singer Greg Dulli. Grohl decide to make the Foo Fighter a full fledged band enlisting the talents of Sunny Day Real Estate bassist Nate Mendel, SDRE drummer William Goldsmith and former Germs and Nirvana guitarist Pat Smear. William Goldsmith left the band in '96 while they were in the studio recording their sophomore effort The Colour And The Shape, leaving Grohl to drum on half of the tracks. Goldsmith would be replaced with Taylor Hawkins just as The Colour And The Shape was released in May '97. A couple of months later, Pete Smear would leave the group while the album yielded one FF hit after another, including "Monkey Wrench", "Everlong", "My Hero", "Walking After You".
Paired down to the core trio of Grohl, Mendel and Hawkins, the Foos retreated to Grohl's home studio in Alexandria, VA to create 1999's There Is Nothing Left To Lose. Heralded by the infectious "Learn To Fly", the album was in large part their answer record to the testosterone-drenched rap-metal onslaught of that year. The band recruited guitarist Chris Shiflett and embarked on yet another global conquest in support of the album, concluding with two Grammy victories: Best Rock Album and Short Form Music Video ("Learn To Fly").
One By One followed in 2002 and a difficult birth it was. The result of two passes at recording, it once again tested the band's unity -- resulting in Grohl's leave-of-absence to gain much needed perspective: recording and touring for a spell as drummer for Queens Of the Stone Age. Regrouping, regenerating and putting the record to bed, Foo Fighters released One By One to rave reviews and followed with the band's biggest world tour to date-including two sold out nights at London's Wembley Arena and a headlining stand at the Reading Festival. By 2004, One By One had become the fourth FF record to surpass the platinum mark, putting two more Grammies on the band's mantle: Best Hard Rock Performance for the "All My Life" single and a second consecutive Best Rock Album statuette.
Now in '05, after branching off to do individual side projects (Grohl's Probot, Mendel's Fire Theft, Hawkins' Coattail Riders and Shiflett's Jackson United) the Foo Fighters have prepared In Your Honor, their most ambitious opus to date, a double album with one disc representing the aggressive hard rock they're known for and the other a lush, melodic, acoustic set.
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