Foo Fighters' frontman Dave Grohl joined the grunge group Nirvana as its drummer in 1990. During tours, he took a guitar with him and wrote songs. Grohl held back these songs from the rest of the band; he said in 1997, "I was in awe of [frontman Kurt Cobain's songs], and [I was] intimidated. I thought it was best that I kept my songs to myself." Grohl occasionally booked studio time to record demos and covers of songs he liked and even issued a cassette of some of those songs called Pocketwatch under the pseudonym "Late!" in 1992.
Grohl hoped to keep his anonymity and release the recordings in a limited run under the title "Foo Fighters", taken from the World War II term "foo fighter", used to refer to unidentified flying objects. "Around the time that I recorded the first FF tape, I was reading a lot of books on UFO's. Not only is it a fascinating subject, but there's a treasure trove of band names in those UFO books!" he said. "So, since I had recorded the first record by myself, playing all the instruments, but I wanted people to think that it was a group, I figured that FOO FIGHTERS might lead people to believe that it was more than just one guy. Silly, huh?" Continuing, Grohl insisted that a more appropriate name could have been chosen. "Had I actually considered this to be a career, I probably would have called it something else, because it's the stupidest fucking band name in the world."
However, the demo tape circulated in the music industry, creating interest among record labels. Grohl formed a band to support the album. Having heard about the disbanding of Seattle-based rock band Sunny Day Real Estate, Grohl drafted the group's bass player, Nate Mendel, and drummer, William Goldsmith. Grohl asked Pat Smear, who served as a touring guitarist for Nirvana after the release of its 1993 album, In Utero, to join as the group's second guitarist. Grohl ultimately licensed the album to Capitol Records, releasing it on his new record label, Roswell Records.
Foo Fighters is an American rock band, formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1994. It was founded by Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl as a one-man project following the dissolution of Nirvana after the suicide of Kurt Cobain. 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".
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. The band began with performances in Portland, Oregon. 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. Smear's departure followed soon afterward, though he would rejoin them in 2006.
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). 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. 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. 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. On September 15, 2017, the band released their ninth studio album, Concrete and Gold, which became their second to reach number one in the United States and was the band's first studio album to feature longtime session and touring keyboardist Rami Jaffee as a full member.
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 has sold 12 million copies in the United States alone.
Dave Grohl is the founder, frontman, lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist and primary songwriter of the rock band Foo Fighters since 1994.
Nate Mendel was invited by Dave Grohl to join the Foo Fighters in 1994. He has remained a bandmember ever since as a bass player.
Pat Smear was a founding member of the influential punk band The Germs, and was touring guitarist for the grunge band Nirvana from 1993 to 1994. He currently plays guitar in the Foo Fighters. Smear joined the band in 1994 but left in 1997, and did not rejoin them until 2005.
Taylor Hawkins is the drummer for Foo Fighters and has been in the band since 1996. Many Foo Fighters concerts feature Hawkins singing lead vocals on at least one cover song.
Chris Shiflett has been the lead guitarist of Foo Fighters since 1999. Shiflett auditioned to be in the band while they were recording the album There Is Nothing Left to Lose.
Rami Jaffee plays the keyboard and began collaborating with Foo Fighters in 2005. He toured with the band for 12 years before becoming an official member in 2017.
Foo Fighters (1995)
The Colour and the Shape (1997)
There Is Nothing Left to Lose (1999)
One by One (2002)
In Your Honor (2005)
Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace (2007)
Wasting Light (2011)
Sonic Highways (2014)
Concrete and Gold (2017)
This website was created by Valerie Eldridge as a project for DTC 355 at Washington State University Vancouver. All of the information above is from the band's Wikipedia.