Up until this week, drummer Josh Freese had seemingly remained unsure entirely of why he was let go from Foo Fighters last spring. In May of 2025, he went so far as to publicly joke about the matter. Despite initially stating that he was “shocked and disappointed” about being let go, he has had suspicions regarding what led the multi-platinum alternative rockers to replace him.
In August of 2025, he told The New York Times, “Looking back, it was probably more an issue with their management. It wasn’t music that I really resonated with.”
In a new interview conducted with Foo Fighters vocalist/guitarist Dave Grohl, it would seem that Freese‘s apparent lack of full commitment to the music factored into the band’s ultimate decision to replace him with Ilan Rubin (now formerly of Nine Inch Nails.)
Speaking to Zane Lowe for Apple Music this past Tuesday, February 17th, Grohl went on to publicly address that matter as follows:
“We had Taylor Hawkins as our drummer for 25 years and, beyond being an amazing drummer, he was this incredible spirit. He was this incredible human being and he was our brother. He was our best friend. So, continuing after Taylor was really complicated, not just for us, but for any drummer that was going to come in to like, you know, fill his shoes… you know.”
“It’s Taylor’s birthday today. And so, we wake up in the morning and everybody just texts about how much we miss him and how the world’s not the same without him, but we still feel him very much.”
“We always talk about him every fucking day. In everything we do we want to have that energy – we want to have that energy for Taylor.”
Grohl went on to describe their experience touring with Freese as a “great time”, and mentioned that it was only after taking an extended break in the wake of Grohl‘s infidelity scandal that the band decided to revisit working with Freese. Grohl explained that the decision “didn’t happen overnight”, offering:
“In those six or seven months, as a band, we talked about what to do next, a new direction, and thought, ‘OK, let’s call Josh and let him know that we are going to move on with a different drummer.’”
“We called, as a band, all of us called, it wasn’t just me. Basically, we called Josh, and were like, ‘Hey man, that was awesome. That was such a blast, thank you so much, but we are going to move on and find another drummer.’
After that, we didn’t make a press release, tweet anything or do interviews. We didn’t say anything. Since then, there’s been a lot of talk about it, but I think Josh said it best when he said that he didn’t feel our music really resonated with him, and that’s really important.”
Freese himself would go on to once again assume the drumming role from Nine Inch Nails in the wake of his ousting — an unintentional side effect of Foo Fighters poaching Nine Inch Nails drummer Ilan Rubin. Ironically it was Rubin who had previously replaced Freese in Nine Inch Nails back in 2008. Freese also remains a member of numerous other outfits, including The Vandals, Devo, A Perfect Circle and more.
This week saw Foo Fighters announce their new studio album “Your Favorite Toy“ for an April 24th release date, along with the reveal of its title track.
[via NME]
