Foo Fighters Trivia: 17 interesting facts about the band!

Foo Fighters is an American rock band, formed in Seattle, Washington in 1994.

Let’s see some fun facts about them!

1. It was founded by Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl as a one-man project following the dissolution of Nirvana after the death of Kurt Cobain.

2. The group got its name from the UFOs and various aerial phenomena that were reported by Allied aircraft pilots in World War II, which were known collectively as foo fighters.

3. Prior to the release of Foo Fighters’ 1995 debut album Foo Fighters, which featured Grohl as the only official member, Grohl recruited bassist Nate Mendel and drummer William Goldsmith, both formerly of Sunny Day Real Estate, as well as Nirvana touring guitarist Pat Smear to complete the lineup.

4. It’s no easy task, taking the seat behind the drum kit when the band leader in question is one of the most lauded drummers of the late 20th century, but Taylor Hawkins was up for the challenge when he took up with the Foo Fighters in 1997. Before joining the band, Hawkins was Alanis Morissette’s touring drummer, meaning that he’s the one responsible for obliterating eardrums with drum fills behind her scorned screams.

5. The band began with performances in Portland, Oregon.

6. Goldsmith quit during the recording of the group’s second album, The Colour and the Shape (1997), when most of the drum parts were re-recorded by Grohl himself.

7. Smear’s departure followed soon afterward, though he would rejoin them in 2006.

8. They were replaced by Taylor Hawkins and Franz Stahl, respectively, although Stahl was fired before the recording of the group’s third album, There Is Nothing Left to Lose (1999).

9. The band briefly continued as a trio until Chris Shiflett joined as the band’s lead guitarist after the completion of There Is Nothing Left to Lose.

10. The band released its fourth album, One by One, in 2002. The group followed that release with the two-disc In Your Honor (2005), which was split between acoustic songs and heavier material. Foo Fighters released its sixth album, Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, in 2007.

11. The band’s seventh studio album, Wasting Light, produced by Butch Vig was released in 2011, in which Smear returned as a full member. In November 2014, the band’s eighth studio album, Sonic Highways, was released as an accompanying soundtrack to the Grohl-directed 2014 miniseries of the same name.

12. Over the course of the band’s career, four of its albums have won Grammy Awards for Best Rock Album. As of 2015, the band’s eight albums have sold 12 million copies in the U.S., and 30 million worldwide.

13. After the death of Kurt Cobain and before starting up the Foo Fighters, Grohl found himself sitting in as an honorary Heartbreaker. Tom Petty brought Grohl onstage as his drummer for a few gigs, including an episode of Saturday Night Live, and eventually offered Grohl the job in a permanent capacity.

14. The track off 2007’s Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace refers to an “intravenous, intertwined” couple, and Grohl confirmed that the line refers to his late bandmate Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love. “[It’s] a song that’s written about feeling helpless to someone else’s demise,” he told Rolling Stone shortly before the record dropped. “I’ve seen people lose it all to drugs and heartbreak and death. It’s happened more than once in my life, but the one that’s most noted is Kurt. And there are a lot of people that I’ve been angry with in my life, but the one that’s most noted is Courtney. So it’s pretty obvious to me that those correlations are gonna pop up every now and again. I still remain a little secretive about it all.”

15. Grohl and his mama are close. Grohl says she’s always understood his musical needs, even if those needs meant dropping out of high school and letting the punk flag fly.

16. After Kurt Cobain’s death, Grohl almost joined Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Seven months after Kurt Cobain tragically put an end to Nirvana, Grohl sat in with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers when they played ‘Saturday Night Live.’ He later declined Petty’s offer of a full-time gig.

17. To clear his head, Dave Grohl plays with other bands. When he isn’t making music with Foo Fighters or filming documentaries, Grohl plays drums for, among others, Tenacious D, Nine Inch Nails and Queens of the Stone Age.