Seven months after his abrupt dismissal from the Foo Fighters, veteran drummer Josh Freese is shedding a little light on the situation—though he remains cautious about revealing too much. During an appearance on the December 10 episode of SiriusXM‘s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk,” Freese admitted that while he has his suspicions regarding why he was let go, he isn’t ready to make them public just yet.
Freese was fired from the band in May 2025, ending a two-year tenure that began when he was recruited to fill the massive void left by the late Taylor Hawkins. When asked by host Eddie Trunk if he ever received clarity on the decision, Freese was candid about the lack of communication but careful with his words.
“Not really. I mean, I’ve got a couple of theories,” Freese said (via Blabbermouth). “But I feel like people are so interested in that because they’re such a massive band that I’m kind of hesitant to comment at all about it yet because anything I say is gonna be used and thrown around and republished and reposted.”
Despite the unceremonious end to his time with the group, Freese maintained a positive outlook on the experience.
“But, yeah, I loved my time I spent down there. I had a great couple of years with those guys.”
The drummer’s departure triggered one of the most bizarre personnel shuffles in modern rock history. Just as Freese left the Foo Fighters, the band hired Ilan Rubin—who had been drumming for Nine Inch Nails—to replace him. In a twist of fate, Freese was then hired by Trent Reznor to return to Nine Inch Nails, effectively swapping seats with Rubin.
Freese insisted to Trunk that there was no grand conspiracy behind the trade.
“As far as the drummer swap thing, it’s funny because it’s just coincidence the way it worked out. It’s not like there was a purposeful drum swap,” Freese explained. “If Ilan… left Nine Inch Nails to go join — pick a band — Muse, I don’t know, Trent would’ve called me.”
Freese, who previously played with Nine Inch Nails from 2005 to 2009, said the timing was simply serendipitous.
“It wasn’t premeditated, it wasn’t worked out by anybody. It was just kind of, like, ‘Well, I need a drummer. Sure, I’ll call Josh. Oh, how funny. I’m calling Josh because I need a drummer, because my drummer just left to work with the band that Josh just left.'”
When the news broke last May, Freese posted on Instagram that the Foo Fighters wished “to go in a different direction,” noting that “no reason was given.” At the time, he handled the news with humor, posting a list of potential reasons for his firing, such as whistling “My Hero” constantly or failing to grow a beard.
Dave Grohl later acknowledged Freese‘s contributions in a letter celebrating the band’s 30th anniversary in July 2025, thanking him for his “thunderous wizardry.”
