Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl has opened up about the band’s hardest chapter yet, admitting it was “really complicated” to carry on after the death of Taylor Hawkins.
Hawkins died in March 2022 at age 50, just hours before the band were set to hit the stage in Bogotá. He’d been behind the kit for 25 years. More than a drummer, Grohl calls him a brother. A best friend.
“Continuing after Taylor was really complicated,” Grohl said in a new interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1. “Not just for us, but for any drummer that was going to come in to fill his shoes.”
The timing hit harder. The interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music 1 happened on what would have been Hawkins’ birthday.
“We talk about him every fucking day,” Grohl said. “In everything we do we want to have that energy for Taylor.”
The Josh Freese Chapter
After Hawkins’ passing, Josh Freese stepped in. A hired gun with serious pedigree, he’s played with A Perfect Circle, Nine Inch Nails, and everyone from Michael Bublé to The Offspring.
He toured with the Foos for just over a year before his abrupt exit in May 2025, a move he later admitted left him “shocked and disappointed.”
Grohl says the decision didn’t happen overnight.
“As a band, we talked about what to do next,” he explained. “We called Josh together. All of us. It wasn’t just me.”
No press release. No drama. Just a call.
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Since then, Ilan Rubin has taken over drum duties, swapping places with Freese in a twist that saw Rubin leave Nine Inch Nails while Freese returned to work with Trent Reznor.
Grohl added that Freese himself summed it up best, saying he didn’t feel the band’s music fully resonated with him.
Sometimes chemistry isn’t about talent. It’s about fit.
Back to Loud
The band also announced their 12th studio album, Your Favorite Toy, dropping April 24. Grohl describes it as packed with “noisy, loud bangers” that feel like “the old days.”
If that’s true, the next era of Foo Fighters won’t be quiet reflection. It’ll be volume. And somewhere in that noise, they’re still playing for Taylor.
