In a recent appearance on the “Go With Elmo” podcast hosted by musical director and producer Elmo Lovano, Foo Fighters drummer Ilan Rubin opened up about his career-shifting transition. During the extensive chat, he detailed exactly how he secured the position following the departure of Josh Freese in 2025, and set the record straight on the rumored “drummer swap” with Nine Inch Nails.
The musician explained that the massive opportunity arose just as his nearly two-decade tenure with his previous band was naturally concluding.
“Well, at some point in time I got a call from Dave [Grohl, Foo Fighters frontman]. We talked about some stuff. He knew that my touring commitments [with Nine Inch Nails] at the time were coming to an end, and I was available after that. I know that’s a bit of a vague way of putting it, but there’s some delicacy here. ‘Cause I went from a band I’d played with for almost 17 years. So that was an end of a lengthy, extensive era for me. And this new chapter has been incredible — still very new, obviously. I don’t even know how long it’s been — maybe six, seven months, give or take. I have no idea. But it’s been incredible — the most outgoing, inviting people and organization. Kind of just feeling like everything fits like a glove is great, especially after having played with so many bands for such a long time. I’m not saying that those weren’t great in their own right, but I’m very much a creature of habit. So I like to stay where I am. Even though my career kind of unexpectedly turned into this thing where I’ve played with multiple bands, that was never my intention — ever. But I stay where I go. And going into a whole new world can be very daunting, but it’s just been so welcoming that I couldn’t be happier. Everything’s awesome. So much fun. Everything is fun, which is great. The smiles are real, and I can’t get enough of it. I don’t know how many shows we’ve played up to this point, but it’s still super fresh. Very exciting. And it’s a great place to be and a great group of people,” Rubin explained (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
While Ilan wasn’t in constant contact with the rock icon, the two had crossed paths in the past.
“We had met a few times over the years, but it’s not like we were ‘buddy buddy’ texting all the time. [He had seen me play with the Nine Inch Nails] probably a couple of times over the years, probably going back to, like — I don’t know — if I had to say, maybe 2017 or so. But there would be years in between of seeing one another again.”
“I haven’t really talked about this whole sort of chapter, so this is a new thing,” he continued. “Not that I have anything to hide here, but it was just kind of, like, ‘Hey, you probably didn’t expect to hear from me, but there’s some stuff going on, and I see that your last date is’ — whenever it was; time is a giant blur, regardless of bands and touring. I have two kids, and I don’t know what day it is today. But that’s how it started.”
Addressing the audition process, the drummer noted that the band took great care in ensuring they found the perfect fit for the massive role. Wanting to leave nothing to chance, he approached the rehearsal sessions with meticulous dedication.
“For those who are somewhat familiar with the story or with the band, or this chapter with the band, at some point there were some auditions. And very understandable considering that it’s such a massive band, but things didn’t work out perhaps the way everyone had hoped over the last couple of years. So they really wanted to make sure that whoever kind of came in was — I don’t know— vetted as best as possible. Make sure you check everything else out before you make your choice. These are assumptions here. But, yeah, so I played a second time, and then I was invited. But it was a great time. I mean, sitting down, playing songs. And like I said, very inviting group of people. And the songs are obviously incredibly fun to play,” he explained.
“I like to be prepared. So I’m a bit of a perfectionist in that way,” he continued. “And when I got the batch of songs that they wanted to play, I really did my research, because, obviously, the band’s been around for so long. A lot of these songs have gone through different iterations over the years. And as somebody who’s toured a lot with various bands, I know that things can change from tour to tour. So I really did my research as to what they had been doing for the last couple of years and just showed up as if it was ready to be night one of a tour. And we just played smoothly, and that was that.”
The conversation eventually turned to the public narrative surrounding his departure from Nine Inch Nails and Josh Freese‘s immediate return to that exact vacant drum throne. Ilan Rubin firmly pushed back against the widespread idea that the two bands orchestrated a deliberate “drummer swap.”
“There is no story, honestly. I think it’s just a very logical thing. There was nothing behind it. And it’s very logical in the sense that Josh played with Nails from, I wanna say ’05 to the end of ’08. I auditioned in ’08, took over the next shows, I think it was February of ’09, and was with the band up until last summer. The last tour I did was a European tour of the ‘Peel It Back‘ cycle. And as I said earlier, when I was gotten in touch with, Dave and management, everyone was very well aware that I had a commitment up to this point, and was I doing anything afterwards? And at the time there was nothing I knew about. The tour that Nine Inch Nails had just triumphantly wrapped up was not on the books. So as far as I knew, my contract ended on a date. After that, it was, what am I doing next? And when this happened and the opportunity presented itself and it was just an obvious great fit and a great thing for me…”
He continued: “I guess I need to take a step back, is that at some point in time, for whatever reason, Josh was no longer with Foo Fighters. And that was the first thing. So it’s not like Josh was no longer with the band and they had already been talking. None of that was a thing. They dealt with whatever they dealt with. They needed a drummer. And whenever it was getting a little too close for comfort in terms of shows that were coming up in a few months, I was gotten in touch with. As a result of me taking that opportunity, obviously Nine Inch Nails needed a drummer. And I would imagine that at this point in time, Trent [Reznor, Nine Inch Nails leader] doesn’t wanna spend however many weeks at a rehearsal studio playing the same songs over and over and over again to break in a new drummer. And aside from that, Josh has already done it before, so it was very logical on that. I mean, why else would you go find somebody else? And going back to what we were talking about earlier, in terms of wanting to feel comfortable, Trent wouldn’t have to think about anything ’cause he knows that Josh can do it and has done it. So I don’t think there’s anything particularly surprising there. But when the news leaked, ’cause it did leak, it was kind of billed as this drummer swap. Now that would imply that Trent and Dave were, like, ‘Hey, you know what would be a great idea? Why not?’ Which is the dumbest thing. But the dots were obviously connected where there was a switch. But it was certainly not a swap. I left my tenure with Nine Inch Nails to join Foo Fighters. Nine Inch Nails needed a drummer, and the drummer they got was the guy who was no longer with Foo Fighters. And that’s literally what it was.”
Ultimately, the musician expressed frustration with how the leaked information painted his exit, clarifying that the final transition timeline was mutually agreed upon to benefit both bands.
“The only thing that kind of really bothered me at the time when that news leaked was that it kind of gave the impression that I just kind of said, ‘Well, this came up. I’m outta here. Have fun, guys,’ which was not the case at all. Everyone knew what my commitments were, and I’m a very, very loyal guy and I do what I say I’m gonna do. So it just happened to work out better that even though I was available for that [Nine Inch Nails summer 2025] tour, it worked out better for Nails to just have Josh, who was then gonna go do the stuff in 2026. And it worked out great for me that rather than having to… And get this: had everything gone the way it was originally supposed to, I would’ve finished that American leg of the Nine Inch Nails tour, I would have had a week to rehearse with Foo Fighters and then play a festival in Jakarta. That’s what it would’ve been. That’s what everyone had agreed to, and that’s what it was. I was gonna go play with Nails, have my last tour, and then jump in and really put in the work to go learn all the songs that they wanted to do, and that was that. But because it worked out this way, I had so much more time on my hands, just because Trent had made the decision, ‘Well, we might as well have Josh just play now because he’s gonna be playing the next leg of the tour. Let’s just rip off the Band-Aid’ — my words, not his — ‘and just do it now rather than doing it later.’ But that allowed me to, rather than have a week with the band, to have a couple of months to leisurely learn 40 songs or whatever it was, hang out with the guys, get to know everybody really well. And it gave us the opportunity to play these smaller kind of pop-up secret shows.”
Ilan Rubin officially hit the stage with the Foo Fighters for the first time on September 14, 2025, at the Fremont Theater in San Luis Obispo, California. The band publicly announced his addition to the legendary lineup—alongside Dave Grohl, Nate Mendel, Pat Smear, Chris Shiflett, and Rami Jaffree—in July 2025.
Josh Freese previously held the position from 2023 until May 2025, stepping in after the tragic 2022 passing of longtime beloved drummer Taylor Hawkins, who had played with the band since 1997.
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
Earlier in February, Dave Grohl explained Foo Fighters’ move to split with Josh Freese last year.
During an interview with “The Zane Lowe Show” on Apple Music 1, 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.
“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.”
Grohl then 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.”
