It’s been a year since Josh Freese was officially unveiled as Foo Fighters’ pick to fill the void left by the late Taylor Hawkins, who passed away on 25 March 2022 while on tour on Bogota, Colombia. Freese has now taken to social media to mark the occasion, saying, “I continue to miss Taylor, as does the band, his family, friends and the rest of the world.”
Freese’s position within the band was announced via a pre-recorded performance titled 'Foo Fighters: Preparing music For Concerts', filmed at Foo Fighters’ Studio 606.
Following a skit where a precession of drummers including Chad Smith, Tommy Lee and Danny Carey individually arrived at the band’s rehearsal under the guise of trivial reasons - all of which were revealed to be clues pointing towards Josh Freese.
Finally, Freese interrupts his bandmates from behind a double-bass drum kit, shouting “Excuse me! Guys, could we just, like, I don’t know…play a song?! Or two, something?”
Posting footage of the session to his Instagram account, Freese said, “A year ago today this aired and I got to stop keeping quiet about what had been referred to as “the worst kept secret in the music business” at the time (though I thought we did a pretty good job on our end.)
"Foo Fighters released an hour long special of us playing some songs at rehearsal. Here’s three clips of the first song. I love the way it came out and am proud of it. I joked that all we really needed was “All My Life” and then move on (because it’s so goddamn good.)
“That being said, I continue to miss Taylor as does the band, his family, friends and the rest of the world. We also continue to try and make the most of the situation by moving forward and doing what we love doing…playing music, honoring Taylor and staying positive."
Freese’s appointment as the drummer for Foo Fighters ended months of speculation following the triumphant Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concerts, during which, Freese put in some impressive, faithful and respectful performances honouring his fallen friend, leading many to see him as the natural fit if the band were to continue.
More recently, Freese filled his Foo Fighters downtime by making a return to A Perfect Circle for the first time in 13 years. While he was on tour with APC, Freese sat down with Rick Beato for an in-depth, candid interview where he spoke about every aspect of his career, from being hired to replace other drummers’ parts on recordings, his beginnings as a pro drummer as a child at Disneyland and of course, getting the call to join Foo Fighters.
"It continues to be bittersweet, in the way that part of me wants to say 'I wish I wasn't there at all.' You know? Like, 'I wish there wasn't a reason for me to be the drummer in the Foo Fighters…
“I think that my coming into the band wasn’t something that I wasn’t planning on by any means, even after Taylor’s passing. The first thing I thought was ‘How are these guys going to move on from this?’. Taylor was such an important component to that band, on and off stage.
He wasn’t just a drummer, he was such a big personality…I wasn’t talking to those guys at that time, just letting everyone have their space. I couldn’t imagine what was going on in that camp, and really, my heart just went out to all of them.
“On my childrens’ lives - I had zero plans of being called to be the drummer…I didn’t ask them that question…I wasn’t going to be another guy coming at Dave going ‘So, dude, if you need a drummer I’m around, just saying.’
"Months went on after that LA performance…right before Christmas 2022 I got a missed call from [Dave Grohl]…I called him back and we small-talked about Christmas and our kids…just silly small talk, family stuff.
“I said ‘Hey, did you go record?’ and he goes ‘Yeah, we recorded a bunch of stuff, I played drums, I’m really happy with the way it sounds. We had the drummer talk, and we want you to be the guy.’
“It felt like someone socked me in the stomach. I didn’t go ‘Wow! Yippee, this is so cool!’ I didn’t get excited like that, it was almost more like getting the wind knocked out of me. I was like ‘My god, here we go.’ Because I knew…what do I say, ‘No’?”
Meanwhile, Foo Fighters are set to begin the next phase of touring for 2023's But Here We Are in June, with a 25-date run taking in the UK, Europe and US. For a full list of dates, click here.
