Dave Grohl has addressed Foo Fighters’ move to split with drummer Josh Freese last year. The veteran sticksman was dismissed in May 2025, roughly two years after stepping in to replace the late Taylor Hawkins.
When Freese revealed his departure on Instagram, he explained that the band had contacted him earlier that same week to inform him they had chosen “to go in a different direction with their drummer.” He also noted that “no reason was given.”
On the same day, he followed up with a hilariously self-deprecating list titled “Top 10 Possible Reasons Josh Got Booted From the Foo Fighters” — a tongue-in-cheek response that quickly made the rounds among fans and fellow musicians.
Here’s the full list, as shared by Freese:
10) Once whistled “My Hero” for a week solid on tour.
9) Could only name one Fugazi song.
8) Two words: polyrhythms.
7) Metronome-like precision behind the kit deemed “soulless.”
6) Demanded starting every rehearsal with a 20-minute cowbell sound bath.
5) Never even once tried growing a beard.
4) Didn’t show up to studio because Mercury was in retrograde.
3) Promised Noodles [The Offspring] he could be 4th guitarist.
2) Refused to perform unless he was guaranteed a Ouija board and nunchucks after every show.
1) The whole poodle thing was getting to be a bit much
In the wake of his exit, former Nine Inch Nails drummer Ilan Rubin stepped in to handle drumming duties for the Foo Fighters.
In a new interview with “The Zane Lowe Show” on Apple Music 1 (via NME), Grohl said: “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,” he explained.
He went on to say that the conversation was unfolding on a particularly emotional date, as it coincided with what would have been Taylor Hawkins’ birthday.
“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,” Dave continued.
“We always talk about him every f**king day. In everything we do we want to have that energy – we want to have that energy for Taylor.”
He then broke his silence on the departure of drummer Josh Freese. Grohl said that the decision to split with Freese was made while Foo Fighters paused from touring in 2024.
“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’,” Grohl added, also revealing that the decision “didn’t happen overnight”.
“We called, as a band, all of us called, it wasn’t just me,” he continued. “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.”
Grohl’s remark appears to point to an interview Josh Freese gave to The New York Times in August 2025, where he reflected on his time playing with the Foo Fighters.
He said at the time: “It wasn’t music that I really resonated with. I’m coming in as Dave Grohl‘s drummer, and the guy that’s supposed to save the day after the beloved Taylor Hawkins died.” He added that the pressure made him feel “like I had to be firing on all cylinders all the time.”
Taylor Hawkins tragically died in March 2022 at the age of 50. He was discovered unresponsive in a hotel room in Colombia just hours before Foo Fighters were scheduled to perform at a festival in Bogotá. An official cause of death was never publicly disclosed.
Hawkins had served as the band’s drummer for 25 years, having joined in 1997 after replacing William Goldsmith.
