In 1991, Nirvana released the album that would propel them from burgeoning club-level favourites to The Biggest Band in The World. Nevermind, Nirvana’s major label debut, would apply a sleeper hold to glam/hair metal, knock Michael Jackson’s Bad off the Billboard top spot and kickstart the ‘grunge’ movement that shaped youth culture in every form. The catalyst for the album’s success? Smells Like Teen Spirit.

Released on 10 Sept, it was a slow burn, failing to chart — no surprises there, given that Nirvana were still relative unknowns struggling to pay their rent. But to discover the origins of Dave Grohl’s iconic drum parts, we need to rewind 18 months, before Grohl was even a member of the band.

During early April 1990, Nirvana — Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic and Chad Channing — drove from Olympia, Washington to Madison, Wisconsin to complete a five-day recording session with Butch Vig, then known for his work with Killdozer.

The sessions were scheduled to begin work on Nirvana’s Sub Pop follow-up to Bleach, with nine songs recorded (Breed, Dive, In Bloom, Stay Away, Sappy, Lithium, Here She Comes Now and Polly), before the band headed home with the intention of returning to finish the album’s session.

In the months that followed, however, came big changes. Drummer Chad Channing was out, and Dave Grohl, whose band Scream had broken up, found himself stranded in LA and gig-less when he got word from Melvins frontman, Buzz Osborne that Nirvana were looking for a drummer.

Osborne had previously taken Cobain and Novoselic to watch Scream featuring a young Dave Grohl on drums, hair flailing, battering his kit as if his life depended on it, impressing Cobain and Novoselic.

Buzz connected Grohl with the band — who were about to poach Mudhoney’s Dan Peters — and Grohl flew to Seattle to meet his potential new bandmates. “I remember getting off the plane, and Krist and Kurt meeting me at baggage claim. It was like having the Children of the Corn meeting you at the airport.” Grohl said in a 2018 interview with VisitSeattle.

Meanwhile, Nirvana’s popularity continued to grow, and the prospect of releasing another album with Sub Pop grew less appealing. Instead, Cobain and the band began shopping the ‘Smart Sessions’ tape to major labels, eventually landing with Geffen.

With Vig back on board, planning for recording the album reconvened, with Nirvana continuing to write and rehearse songs in a rented barn/outbuilding in Tacoma, Washington, recording their ideas and progress on a boom box.

Vig recalls receiving a tape from the band with an audio message from Cobain, “Hey Butch, it’s Kurt!” it began, “We’ve got a new drummer, his name is Dave, he’s the best drummer in the world!.”

At that, the recording launches into Smells Like Teen Spirit. “I could hear the riff, but as soon as the drums came in, it just distorted like crazy.” Despite the poor recording — overloading the rudimentary cassette recorder’s built-in mics — Vig knew they were onto something.

This was confirmed when Vig visited Nirvana at their rehearsal room, becoming one of the first people to ever hear the song played live, in the flesh. “They played …Teen Spirit, and it just crushed me how good [Grohl] was, and how good they sounded.” Vig told Howard Stern in 2022.

“I started pacing around the room - usually I take notes but I was just taking it all in. They finished the song and Kurt was like, ‘What do you think, Butch?’. I went ‘Play it again.’”

By the time the band arrived at LA’s Sound City Studios, Nirvana was a tight, well-oiled, and well-rehearsed machine. Sound City had been chosen in part for its low rates.

During an era where studios were rapidly swapping analogue tape machines for the glitzy new digital platform of Pro Tools, Sound City held firm. As well as this, the studio had two more jewels in its crown that appealed to Vig.

First was the live room, previously used to capture the likes of Tom Petty, Fleetwood Mac and Cobain favourite, Neil Young. The former Vox warehouse had a sprinkling of studio magic which lent itself to capturing a great drum room sound - magic which is now available to us as a plugin courtesy of Universal Audio's Sound City software.

Second, was the Neve 8028 console housed within the studio. The desk was one of only four made, loaded with classic Neve mic preamps and 1084 EQ modules. It would later go on to be purchased by Grohl and immortalised, along with Sound City Studios in Grohl’s 2015 documentary of the same name.

“That room at Sound City, it’s like a small gymnasium and it’s almost bulletproof." Vig told us in 2020. "But when you put up those room mics and hear the sound of that room, that’s part of what made that studio sound so good.

“It just had a really awesome tone to it. It was live, but not too splashy, the decay time on the high end of the midrange is very even. It’s the perfect room for drums, really. It also helped that Dave Grohl, one of the most kick-ass drummers in rock and roll was behind the kit!”

For the sessions, Grohl used a Tama Granstar (not Artstar II, as commonly reported), along with some additional gear, which was rented from Ross Garfield’s Drum Doctors company. Included in the hire list was a Ludwig Black Beauty snare, as well as a now-revered Tama Mastercraft Bell Brass snare.

Reissued in 2024, the Tama snare has gone on to become a ‘modern classic’, thanks to its supremely loud, aggressive attack and punchy, full-bodied response employed by the likes of Nirvana, Metallica, Rage Against The Machine and many more.

“It was a pretty simple setup.” Butch Vig told MusicRadar in 2020 of the mics he used to record Grohl’s kit. “I told the engineer that I wanted to default to mics I knew and was used to, so I used an AKG D12 on the kick, I think I used an SM57 on the snare and possibly an AKG 451 underneath.

“We used Sennheiser 421s on the toms, again because I was used to those Sennheiser mics. AKG 414s as the overheads, I had them at Smart and they’re great all-round condensers. I think the secret to that sound, is we had a couple of Neumann U87s [used as room mics] that were probably 15-18 feet back from the kit.”

When it came to mixing Nevermind, veteran mix engineer, Andy Wallace got the call. It’s here where some confusion over the resulting drum sound emerges. The album was recorded and mixed on analogue gear, but that didn’t remove the possibility of bolstering the drum sound with samples.

This now commonplace technique involves blending in additional sounds and elements that are deemed to be lacking from a recording in order to add cut and weight. It’s often misunderstood for editing and straightening out timing fluctuations (there’s no suggestion that Grohl’s drums required ‘fixing’ from a performance standpoint).

The use of samples is something of a staple of Andy Wallace’s mixes, as demonstrated by Rick Beato’s analysis in the video below. While Wallace has never explicitly confirmed whether or not he did or did not use samples to reinforce the sound of Grohl’s kit, he has conceded that there’s a possibility that samples were used to enhance the drum track’s ambient mics, ironic given that Sound City was chosen in-part for its fantastic drum room sound.

Whether he did or didn’t, the benefit of time has gifted us the opportunity to hear Butch Vig’s original mixes as initially submitted to the Geffen. These were included with the 20th Anniversary edition of Nevermind, and are labelled ‘Devonshire Mix’ and allow for interesting comparison.

Sonics aside, though, a huge part of Smells Like Teen Spirit’s hook comes from Grohl’s drum parts. Interestingly, it’s the first — and only song on Nevermind — where the songwriting credits are assigned to all three members of the band rather than Cobain.

Nirvana’s love for The Pixies, complete with the loud-quiet dynamic template informs a huge part of the band’s songwriting approach, something that Cobain wasn’t shy to admit, telling Rolling Stone in 1994, “I connected with that band so heavily that I should have been in that band — or at least a Pixies cover band. We used their sense of dynamics, being soft and quiet and then loud and hard.”

Grohl also maintains that at the core of Nirvana’s songwriting, sat a backbone of simplicity, on more than one occasion likening them to nursery rhymes . “I didn’t throw a bunch of drum fills in there. I tried to keep it as simple as possible.” Grohl says on the Classic Albums: Nevermind documentary. “That was kind of an unspoken rule. We almost wanted them to be like children’s songs.”

This approach is outlined from the get-go, with Grohl’s distinctive flams on the snare seemingly ushering in a simple four-count to casual listeners. But dig a little deeper and you’ll realise that he’s actually playing groups of even 16th-notes between the flams on the snare, bass drum and hi-hats.

Complex? Not really, but play it the layman’s way and it’s clear that the often-overlooked nuances of Grohl’s heavy-hitting, ‘neanderthal’ style require a little attention to discover.

But, as well as the influence of '90s indie-apathy, Grohl sought inspiration from some very different drummers when it comes to some of Smells Like Teen Spirit’s standout drum moments.

“If you listen to Nevermind, I pulled so much stuff from The Gap Band and Cameo, and Tony Thompson, on every one of those songs” Grohl tells Pharrell Williams in his Cradle to Stage series. “The big disco flam… I told Tony Thompson that. He came to my house for a barbecue. I was like, 'Man, I just want to thank you because I owe you so much, I've been ripping you off my whole life.' And he goes, 'I know.'"

There’s a James Brown-level of reliance on a foot-heavy first beat of every bar — accented with dual cymbal crashes — during the syncopated intro and chorus beat, with Grohl laying back beforehand, adding weight, anticipation and above all, groove to each cycle.

It’s a trick also used extensively by Liam Howlett of UK dance-rock titans, The Prodigy when programming and sampling drum parts, and could serve as just part of the reason why Grohl and The Prodigy have shown mutual respect for each others’ work in the past. Check out the drums on the band’s 1996 hit, Firestarter, and you’ll notice some similar traits, not least the Grohl-style quarter-note snare hits that are also present on the outro of Smells Like Teen Spirit.

The verses of Smells Like Teen Spirit demonstrate the Pixies influences, with Grohl removing the busyness of the beat, reverting to ‘2 & 4’ on the snare while the bass drum offers a simple ‘We Will Rock You’ 8th-note pattern, outlining Novoselic’s bassline to create a solid, straighter groove. Crucially, the hi-hats are closed spare a lift on ‘4&’ every fourth time round, adding to the loud/soft contrast.

Moving to the pre-chorus, and the pattern remains the same as the verse for the first half, with the hi-hats lifted open. For the second part, Grohl adds an additional 8th-note on the bass drum, pushing the song towards the chorus before he launches into the iconic machine-gun 16th notes on the snare, punctuated by another big flam.

But underneath one of Grohl’s career standout fills sits another reminder of his sometimes-subtle nuances. Grohl, a huge Beatles fan, employs Ringo-style continuity of the bass drum underneath his hands, keeping an 8th-note pulse underneath the roll.

This serves to keep the momentum of the song driving forward, and while Nirvana were never really a band whose music was intended for dancing, it highlights Grohl’s aptitude for arrangement in order to keep the pace and feel heading towards a crescendo.

So, would Smells Like Teen Spirit have been a success if, say, Chad Channing or Dan Peters had tracked the drums? It’s impossible to know, but obviously Cobain’s riff, melodies and the accompanying video all had their part to play too.

There’s no doubt that Grohl’s part (one of the few on the album that wasn’t cribbed from Chad Channing’s original demo tracks) contains more than a couple of important hooks.

Frankly, with a song where every element combines to create a near-perfect rock song, we’re not sure there’s any use in speculating.

He may be one of the most renowned drummers in the world and led one of the planet’s biggest rock bands of the last three decades, but Dave Grohl has admitted he can’t count time signatures.

The lead Foo Fighter was appearing on the Tape Notes podcast when he let slip this somewhat startling revelation. “I know it sounds horrible. I’m a drummer. It’s funny because people count things… differently,” he told host John Kennedy, before illustrating it with a story.

It seems that he only found this out when he guested on a Nine Inch Nails session. “The riff was like [mimes complicated time signature] and I’d go in and do a take and Trent (Reznor) and Atticus (Ross) were there and they’d say ‘ok let’s do one more take but make sure you hit a crash on the one’.

Grohl said ok and performed the drum pattern again. “Then I’d do another take and they’d be like ‘ok great, just one more but get the crash on the one’”.

It was only on the third take that both parties realised they were communicating at cross purposes.

“They’re like ‘come in here’. (I) walk in the control room and they’re like ‘tell me where you think the one is?’” Grohl tells them and Reznor and Ross start laughing. “(They said) ‘That’s not the one. The one’s here’. And it was on some weird side note thing that f***ed me up. Like I was so confused.”

“And so I was like, that’s not my one. As long as I recognise the pattern, just tell me where to put the cymbal, I’ll put it there. But I’ve got my own one.”

Grohl no doubt survived Nine Inch Nails’ derision; his own approach to time signatures hasn’t exactly proved an impediment during a long and illustrious career. “You know it’s hard to un-see something; it’s also hard to un-hear something,” he reflected to Kennedy. “So it’s hard to un-hear the one. It’s hard to put it somewhere else.”

Dave Grohl has been on the promotional rounds for the new Foo Fighters album and has been talking about the wheeze he came up with to hide advanced CDRs of Your Favourite Toy all over Southern California.

“I’m still old skool,” he told Stephen Colbert last night. “I love doing things myself and I had day off and thought, ‘you know what I’ll do? I’ll burn twenty CDs of our album before it’s come out and me and my daughter Harper will get construction paper and we’ll make album covers and then I’ll go run around and hide them in places all over the San Fernando Valley.'”

So Grohl secreted them in various stores, though as he says, he was often suspected of being a shoplifter. “I’d walk in and I’d have them hidden so I’m already sketchy enough. Then I see the security guard person is eyeing me and it looks like I’m shoplifting when I’m doing the opposite.

"I almost got busted in a Ralphs – I went back to the charcoal aisle, stuck it under a bag of Kingsford and as I walking out the security guard was looking at it like ‘what?’

“Then we posted little clues. It turned into like a scavenger hunt,” he explained. “And who doesn’t like one of those?”

Meanwhile, Grohl plus his bandmates Nate Mendel (bassist) and Chris Shiflett (guitar), made an appearance on the Track Star YouTube channel, testing their music knowledge.

The three Fighters were tossed some fairly easy ones for men of their age and background: The Clash, Van Halen, The Melvins, and Minor Threat - "I based my entire early years of trying to get a bass tone off that guy," Mendel said of the band’s bassist Steve Hansgen.

We also found that Mendel’s mom once made pancakes for another group of punk rock legends: NOFX. “I put on a show for them and they needed to get fed,” he quipped.

The only track that seemed to floor the trio was Freight Train by Elizabeth Cotten. “It’s that famous amazing woman who played blues...I can’t remember her name,” said Grohl of the 20^th Century blues guitarist.

Dave Grohl has recalled the moment he put his foot in it and managed to inadvertently insult David Bowie.

The lead Foo Fighter was appearing on the podcast Dish From Waitrose (yes, a food podcast. Evidently, that’s where global rock stars promote their new albums these days) alongside Nick Grimshaw and chef Angela Hartnett, when conversation turned great gigs. Grohl mentioned that one of the best he’d ever seen was Bowie at a festival back in the 1990s.

“I had just seen him perform at a, like a V Festival – or something like that,” Grohl explained. “It was like Prodigy, David Bowie and we happened to be on the bill. I was standing in the photo pit and he was right there, he was right above me singing. It was otherworldly. I mean, it was like a religious experience. I was just like, ‘He's an angel, this is amazing’.”

A short while afterwards Grohl met Bowie in person. This must have been around 2001 when he was invited to play guitar on a cover of the Neil Young song I’ve Been Waiting For You that ended up on Bowie’s Heathen album. “I told him when I met him in the studio, I said, ‘I just saw you, like, it was such a trip to see you in human form right there, right in front of me.’ And he says, ‘What did you think? What did you feel?’ And I'm like, ‘Oh f***.’”

He recalled: “So, the first thing to come out of my mouth, like an idiot, I said, ‘Well, the first thing I noticed was all of your imperfections’. I backpedalled so fast. I don't know how I got out of that one. But I was like, what did I just ... I would never say that to anybody. Isn't that horrible?”

Grohl didn’t say how Bowie reacted to his faux pas, but evidently, he didn’t send the Foo Fighter on his way. Instead, Grohl got to see how the great man worked in the studio and was suitably impressed: “I swear to God, he’s one take — his voice, it’s the voice, there’s no effect. It’s just exactly like this. You get chills. You’re like, ‘Oh my God, that’s the most reassuring, beautiful thing, this is real’.”

And that new Foo Fighters album? In case you’d forgotten, Your Favorite Toy drops this coming Friday (April 24).

Since David Bowie’s death a decade ago, his long time producer, Tony Visconti, has talked at length about his friend, their working relationship and the work they did together. You may have assumed that these days, there’s not much more to know.

Not so. In a new interview with Spin, in which he talks about his role in Bowie’s 21^st Century work, Visconti lets slip a couple of titbits about the guests on 2002’s Heathen. First, there’s Dave Grohl – who played on the Neil Young cover I’ve Been Waiting For You - and his eye-popping invoice.

“The Grohl story is interesting,” says Visconti. “He played acoustic guitar, remotely from California, and sent us a file. His drumming would’ve been better, but that didn’t happen.

"Afterwards, he sent David an invoice for $10,000. Sure, he was on top of his game, but that was ludicrous. I don’t know if David actually paid him that much.”

Meanwhile, Pete Townshend had been in turns an influence, rival and - eventually – friend to Bowie. After they had met again at a 9/11 memorial service in 2001, the singer invited him to play on the track, Slow Burn.

“Townshend dropped in for a visit when we were recording in Philip Glass’s studio, Looking Glass,” Visconti remembers. “They had a long chat, and I could see camaraderie between old friends. David asked him to play. He did, but we asked him to play a bit more aggressively, and he said, ‘Oh, do you mean Townshend Windmill Chords?” He nailed it in one take. Two of his right-hand fingers were bleeding afterwards.”

The producer is also asked about Bowie’s taste in guitarists. For an artist who once said he was merely “using” rock, Bowie employed a lot of out-and-out rockers: Stevie Ray Vaughan, Adrian Belew, Peter Frampton, Earl Slick and, of course, Mick Ronson.

“He probably viewed them as ‘flavours.’ He knew specifically what each of their special talents were. I know he loved David Torn because he was just out there.

"He loved Slicky because he could shred as soon as the guitar came out of his case. I loved his tone, too. When David worked with Mick Ronson, he found the perfect foil for his live shows. But when Mick went solo and made his own records, David didn’t like that.”

The last of the boxsets covering Bowie’s various eras (I Can't Give Everything Away, covering 2002 - 2016) came out last year. But with another significant Bowie anniversary looming next January, Visconti hints that there may be more to come: “It will be David’s 80th birthday. I’m sure the estate might have surprises even I don’t know about.”

Dave Grohl has stated emphatically that he didn’t pull any favours to secure his daughter a record deal.

The Foo Fighters’ leader was speaking to Chris Moyles on Radio X. The DJ brought up the subject to which Grohl replied: "Violet, my daughter, she's 19. She's about to turn 20. She made this album with a producer named Justin Raisin, and she did it on her own.

"Like, she met the producer, and they would go to the studio every day and make songs, and she would send me songs when she was finished. But I had absolutely nothing to do with this record at all."

He insisted that he had had no part in securing Violet’s recording contract and, in fact, only found out about it when she came over to dinner one time.

"And I had no idea," he said of his daughter's achievement. "I knew that she was looking to sign a record deal and then she's like, 'Hey, dad, can I come over for dinner tonight?' And I'm like, 'Yeah, sure. What do you want me to make?'

"And she'd come over and tell me, like, 'I signed my record deal today.' I was like, 'Oh, my God.'"

"So, I'm totally, like, uninvolved. And I'm like the dad that wants to be there and know everything and she's just totally doing her own thing. It's amazing."

So what’s Violet’s album like? Well, according to dad: “it's a wide range of everything... There's songs that remind me of, like, The Sundays or Cocteau Twins, things like that. Then there's like, super, like, hard, really heavy sort of rock stuff. Ethereal. It's beautiful."

He added: "It's an amazing record and to be honest, when she was making that record, they did it really quickly, too. It really inspired me to make this record. It really did. The way that they made the record and the energy of it, I was like, Oh, man. I've just been inspired by my daughter's debut album. It's cool."

By ‘this record’, Grohl was of course referring to My Favorite Toy, the Foos’ twelfth album which comes out on April 24.

The band are currently in the UK playing a couple of low-key shows in small venues. They play London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire tonight (February 25) and Manchester’s Ritz on Friday (February 27). Interestingly, tickets for both were sold the touts-thwarting old-fashioned way: fans had to turn up at the venue in person and queue. Maybe it will catch on?

Dave Grohl has broken his silence on Josh Freese and the reasons for his departure from the Foo Fighters last year.

It comes after an interview with Modern Drummer in which Freese expressed bafflement over his firing in May 2025. Even nine months down the line, he said “the whole thing” was “even more of a mystery... I think I'm a pretty good read on people, and I did not see that coming.

"One day it was nothing but laughs, we're on stage and Dave's looking at me every night like, 'You're killing it, dude!!!' And then it was just – over."

Now in an interview with Zane Lowe on Apple 1, Grohl said: “The thing about Foo Fighters is that we’ve had four drummers in 30 years, but with the Foos, we had Taylor Hawkins as our drummer for 25 years, and beyond being an amazing drummer, he was this incredible spirit, this incredible human being, he was our brother, he was our best friend.”

Grohl admitted that replacing Hawkins would have been “complicated” for any drummer. “With Josh Freese, Josh is a consummate professional. He has a storied career of playing with everyone from Michael Buble to The Offspring; he’s had thousands of studio recordings.”

“So he came in, we went out on tour, and we had such a blast. We had a great time. It was like a year-and-a-half of touring, the shows were great and we had a lot of fun. And, the last show that we did, I think it was in September 2024, we did our last show, and all stepped away from the band.”

After that, Grohl explained that the decision about Freese’s future didn’t happen immediately but over a six-month period. “In those six or seven months, as a band, we talked about what to do next, a new direction, and thought, ‘Okay, let’s call Josh and let him know that we are going to move on with a different drummer.’”

He also clarified that: “We called, as a band, all of us called, it wasn’t just me.”

The frontman 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.”

In other words, it was nothing personal. Freese’s face just didn’t fit.

Anyway, the Foos move forward. Grohl told Lowe that with Ilan Rubin now behind the kit, “we feel like a band again.” Last week they announced that a new album, My Favorite Toy, will be dropping on April 24. The first single - the title track - is already up on streaming platforms now.

Dave Grohl has confirmed that a new Foo Fighters album will come out this year.

The band were playing in Tasmania, Australia on Sunday (January 25) and announced on stage that they would return down under sooner than expected. “This won’t be the last time you see us,” Grohl said. “We’ll be back here sooner than you think. And it’s before my next birthday.”

He added, “And we might have a whole new record of fucking songs that we just finished the other day.”

Let’s work this out. Grohl’s birthday is January 14 – he turned 57 just two weeks ago, so he’s presumably suggesting touring Australia again before the end of this calendar year. The band already have an extensive North American tour pencilled in for August and September this year. So... expect a new album to arrive any time from early summer.

When that record arrives it will be the Foos’ first since 2023’s But Here We Are and their first with new drummer Ilan Rubin.

The Tasmania show was the band’s first on the island for more than a decade. “We have a very special relationship with Tasmania — as we do with all of Australia,” Grohl said. “To come down and have a special night is amazing… even though we’re literally flying down for 48 hours.”

As he mentioned, the band have a connection with Tasmania. One track on the band’s 2007 album Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace is the Ballad Of The Beaconsfield, an instrumental that was inspired by Grohl meeting one of the survivors from that 2006 accident, a miner who had requested an iPod with one of the Foos’ albums on it whilst he was stuck underground.

That was twenty years ago but Dave Grohl doesn’t forget these things, and at the show last night, he retold the story of the Beaconsfield mine collapse and brought out the miner in question, Brant Webb, on stage. It was, as you can imagine, emotional.

The Epiphone Dave Grohl signature model went out of stock very quickly when it was first released – and that was when it was nearly a grand. It still is from some retailers, but Thomann isn't having any of it because it has slashed the price of the DG-335 to £777 for its Cyber Monday guitar deals.

This semi-hollow guitar's desirability is about much more than the famous name – though Grohl has proved loyal to this Trini Lopez-inspired 335 for a long time – it's an example of just how far Epiphone has blurred the lines with Gibson. Which is just as well, because the Big G just announced and sold its limited run of £10,499 DG-335 models in Alpine White.

Why pay more? The Epiphone version really impresses with Gibson USA Burstbuckers that are an immediate upgrade from what we'd expect. Grover mini tuners continue the high spec standard, while a stunning Pelham Blue finish on a maple body with the distinctive diamond holes really does set this guitar apart.

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Courteney Cox – the actress best known for her role as Monica in Friends – has been impressing folk online with something she’s hitherto not been renowned for: her drumming skills.

The 59-year-old uploaded a video of her playing along to Smells Like Teen Spirit, on a fairly basic drum kit, and it has gone viral.

“I like seeing actors having hobbies and enjoying themselves,” said one commenter on Reddit, whilst another wrote: “I love how women just get cooler and cooler with age.”

Others were in agreement: “Love Nirvana… Courteney sounds pretty good on the drums.” “That’s great! She looked like she was having a lot of fun. I love the drums on Teen Spirit,” another said.

Smells Like Teen Spirit is a pretty good song to focus on if you want to improve your drumming skills. Its beauty is that you can play it no matter your skill level. If you’re a beginning you can play the intro with just a snare and a kick drum. Intermediate drummers can add hi hats and quarter notes, and so on up through skill levels until the differences will be in feel and a slight drag on the cymbal crashes.

We’re not sure where Courteney is currently on the skill chart, but she’s surely getting there.

No word yet on what Dave Grohl thinks of her efforts...

One chord, four stabs and you’re in. This simple yet instantly recognisable intro kicks off No One Knows, a 21st century rock behemoth that made stars of its performers, Queens Of The Stone Age, and introduced a festival-ready singalong riff that’s as beloved today as it’s ever been.

No One Knows was the lead single from the band’s third album, 2002’s Songs For The Deaf. The album found the Californian band teaming up with alt-rock icon Dave Grohl on drums with spectacular results, and cemented QOTSA band leader Josh Homme as one of the purest rock star frontmen of the new millennium. Aided by a suitably surreal music video, No One Knows became an alternative radio mainstay, and was quickly established as the definitive QOTSA song.

A version of the No One Knows riff first appeared in Cold Sore Superstars, a song from Homme’s highly collaborative Desert Sessions project of 2001.

Speaking to biographer Joel McIver, Homme revealed that the band had been working on No One Knows for some time prior to recording.

“We have patience with music,” Homme said, “a year or five years down the road it may kind of rewrite itself and become what it's supposed to be.”

Most of the track’s staying power comes from its iconic, unusual riff, which Homme plays staccato in C standard tuning (C F Bb Eb G C).

The riff consists of the C minor octave powerchord shape, with the addition of your pinky finger moving from the 10th-fret F note to the 8th-fret D# note on the second (G) string, and then down to the 9th-fret C note on the third (Eb) string.

Each of these descending patterns, played within the powerchord shape, repeats twice, and each bar ends with a short slide down the fretboard before releasing the bottom open C string.

As the song moves into the first verse, Homme’s haunting, seductive falsetto reels off bizarre, trippy lyrics: “We get these pills to swallow/How they stick in your throat/Tastes like gold.”

The song then explodes into its chorus, with Grohl putting in one of his all-time best performances behind the kit, and an additional guitar track (played live by Troy Van Leeuwen) thickens out the distortion for maximum impact.

Dissecting the song on his YouTube channel, The Darkness’ Justin Hawkins commented: “In a modern rock song, when the guitars come in, they’re [often] hard-panned, and it creates this huge, spacious, mega-saturated thing. [QOTSA] have done that on here, but it’s such a nasty sound – it doesn’t feel like a Weezer song, it doesn’t have that hi-fi quality. It’s just huge and human-sounding.”

After another verse and chorus, No One Knows veers off into a crunchy middle-8 section, with more outrageous drumming by Grohl, before cutting out completely for a surprise isolated bass solo by Nick Oliveri. The rest of the band then rejoin for Homme’s woozy guitar solo, backed by Beastlesque orchestral strings.

Speaking to Matt Sweeney for his Guitar Moves YouTube series in 2013, Homme claimed: “Guitar solos to me should be a really articulate way to make fun of guitar solos. My guitar solo… it’s gotten to nonsense. And sometimes they sound like nonsense, but they’re played on purpose.”

After a final, stripped-back verse, the song ends just as it begins, with one extra chord stab to see it off.

No One Knows has a timeless quality to it, largely due to its difficulty to categorise.

Though particularly hard-hitting, it bucked the trend of many heavier rock songs of the day – the production is warm and live-sounding, and the guitars are thick without relying on 7-string gut-punch.

Homme’s falsetto, meanwhile, is a world away from Limp Bizkit or Linkin Park.

Working alongside co-producer Eric Valentine, the band achieved the distinctive sound in No One Knows with some interesting studio tricks.

Speaking to Rick Beato about the album’s mix, Valentine said: “There’s a very extreme compartmentalisation of frequencies going on on this record. The guitars are all mid-range. Josh was obsessed with this 600-to-700 Hz range. It forced the drums to be a little more scooped-out sounding.”

The notably dead drum sound was captured by having Grohl record his cymbals separately. Grohl hit electronic cymbal pads whilst recording acoustic drums, and vice versa, so that his playing could match up as accurately as possible.

Speaking to Rhythm magazine, Valentine discussed this unusual approach: "Having cymbal pads to hit made it easier for Dave to play the way he normally would. It did sound pretty ridiculous before we replaced the cymbal samples with the real ones.

“After the drums were recorded, we set up to record just the cymbals. We set up a dummy snare and toms that were padded to be as quiet as possible. This way he could simply replay the same drum parts and only have the cymbals be captured by the mics.”

Valentine also shared his admiration for Grohl’s finesse behind the kit

“The thing that is most striking about Dave's playing is how consistently he hits the drums. He plays very hard, which in a lot of cases does not necessarily result in the best drum sound. [But] because Grohl hits so consistently it is much easier to accommodate the really hard playing.

“I have heard people speculate that there are samples layered in with the drum recording. There are definitely no samples. Grohl just plays with inhuman consistency.”

Historically, QOTSA have been fairly coy about their gear. Homme’s preferred guitars around this time included obscure models such as the Ovation Ultra GP and the Gibson Marauder, as well as a Maton MS500, which can be seen in the song’s video.

For pedals, Homme has been known to use the Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive and a Fulltone FatBoost FB-3, amongst others.

Speaking to Sound On Sound, Valentine said: “We went to this second-hand music store called Black Market Music – it was like a graveyard for broken, old, crappy equipment – and just bought all of the shittiest stuff they had. I was just putting mics in different places to try and pull sounds out of these amps that weren’t particularly hi-fi or explosive sounding by themselves, but with enough manipulation you could get something to happen.”

This use of vintage, undesirable gear in a creative manner is responsible for both the album’s signature tones and the difficulty others find trying to recreate them. Or as Hawkins puts it: “There’s something about a shit guitar played through a shitty old amp that you just can’t beat.”

In an interview with Tenacious D’s Kyle Gass for Guitarings, Homme stated that he’s used an Ampeg VT-40 since he was 13 years old.

“I’ve always liked to use the wrong shit incorrectly,” he continued. “I don’t have a Marshall and I don’t have a Les Paul. There’s nothing wrong with those things, but I just figured, ‘Ok, they’re covered.’”

For those trying to recreate Homme’s blown-out distorted sounds, a major boost in accuracy has arrived in the recently released Peavey Too 10w practice amp, modelled after the amplifier that Homme considered his “secret weapon” for years.

A memorable video for No One Knows was created by Dean Karr and future Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind director Michel Gondry, and depicts Homme, Oliveri and frequent QOTSA vocalist Mark Lanegan driving through the desert and hitting a deer, only for it to rise up, knock the band unconscious and commit grand theft auto, taking them hostage for more late-night hijinks.

The narrative is cut with the band performing in all their might against a sinister black backdrop, with Homme’s licks, Oliveri’s solo and Grohl’s thunderous fills on full display.

The video got everything right about QOTSA’s presentation; its macabre yet darkly funny narrative and tough, no-frills performance were a perfect representation of the band’s outsider charm and pre-social media mystique, and it would find heavy rotation on music channels such as Kerrang! and MTV2.

No One Knows was released as a single in November 2002, three months after Songs For The Deaf, and reached No.1 on both the UK Rock and Metal charts and US Alternative Airplay.

By this time, the album had already gone Platinum in the UK, by January 2003 would be certified Gold in the US.

No One Knows was nominated for a Grammy award in 2003 (their first of nine to date), but would ironically lose out to All My Life by Grohl’s Foo Fighters.

Since its live debut, No One Knows has become a staple of the QOTSA repertoire. Setlist.fm shows that No One Knows is the band’s second-most played song after Songs For The Deaf’s second single, Go With The Flow. No One Knows has been used as a set opener, played in the encore, and just about everywhere in between.

Appearing on the Tuna on Toast With Stryker podcast, Homme said: “I understand that I’m always going to play No One Knows because I still like playing that song and that’s something that it’s an agreement with the audience. Acting like a song that a lot of people like is a burden is just a strange reaction to the gift that your fans have given you.”

Summing up his thoughts on the song, Hawkins offered a glowing appraisal: “This song is one of the few tracks from that period of the Noughties that really is original. It’s got great drums parts on it and a brilliant video, a good-looking singer with a lovely, soft falsetto voice and a super distinctive sonic signature. Of course it was gonna be a hit, it’s fucking obvious!”

It’s almost 30 years to the day since the Foo Fighters released their first album, and to mark the occasion, the band have dropped a brand new song - their first new material since their 2023 album, But Here We Are.

Today's Song is one of the Foos’ more reflective pieces, touching on some deep themes. “I woke today screaming for change / I knew that I must,” Grohl sings, “So here lies the shadow / Ashes to ashes, dust into dust.” Listening to it, it’s hard not to think not just of the band’s long-time drummer, the late Taylor Hawkins, but also the tragedy that the band were originally born out of: Kurt Cobain’s 1994 suicide.

And Dave Grohl has issued a kind of anniversary statement to accompany the new song: “Over the years, we’ve had moments of unbridled joy, and moments of devastating heartbreak. Moments of beautiful victory, and moments of painful defeat. We have mended broken bones and broken hearts. But we have followed this road together, with each other, for each other, no matter what. Because in life, you just can’t go it alone.”

Referring to former members of the band, he added: “It should go without saying that without the boundless energy of William Goldsmith, the seasoned wisdom of Franz Stahl, and the thunderous wizardry of Josh Freese, this story would be incomplete, so we extend our heartfelt gratitude for the time, music, and memories that we shared with each of them over the years. Thank you, gentlemen.” (Freese took over behind the kit after Hawkins’ death but departed in May this year)

“And... Taylor,” Grohl continued. “Your name is spoken every day, sometimes with tears, sometimes with a smile, but you are still in everything we do, everywhere we go, forever. The enormity of your beautiful soul is only rivaled by the infinite longing we feel in your absence. We all miss you beyond words. Foo Fighters will forever include Taylor Hawkins in every note that we play, until we do finally reach our destination.”

There’s no indication whether Today's Song will precede a new album of any kind. Maybe. Possibly not. In the meantime, it takes the band into what will be its fourth decade, a scenario few could have predicted back in July 1995.

After waiting everlong for an affordable version of Dave Grohl’s iconic Trini Lopez-inspired signature guitar, Epiphone finally delivered last year. Arguably one of the most anticipated guitar launches in recent memory, the Pelham Blue semi-hollow took the guitar world by storm, and as such, they became pretty tricky to get hold of. 

That said, these guitars are now more readily available, and thanks to Andertons, the model has also just received its biggest ever discount. As part of its May Clearance Event, which features insanely discounted products that, you guessed it, are only available until the end of the month, the UK-based retailer has slashed a whopping £380 off the Epiphone Dave Grohl DG-335, bringing the cost down from £1,249 to only £869. 

So, this is a call to Foo fanatics; you don't want to miss this epic deal! This is literally the lowest I've ever seen this guitar, and I can't imagine it's going to get cheaper. 

In our glowing review, we praised this guitar's attention to detail and impeccable finish, saying, "The Pelham Blue finish looks great, and at a glance, it’s quite surreal. Everything is finished neatly, from the binding on the F-holes, body and neck to the flawless, uniform paint job. There’s no visible defects, and as with the many Epiphones we’ve had pass through our door in the last couple of years, it’s yet further proof that the head honchos at Gibson have put the effort in when it comes to turning the tide on previous QC-related reputations."

We concluded the review by saying, "The Epiphone logo on the headstock may well carry certain connotations for some people, but as we’re continuing to witness from the Epiphone stable, these aren’t reflective of the guitars the brand is currently putting out. Let’s face it, if you want a replica of Dave Grohl’s guitar that also doubles as a very effective workhorse for any style, this is it."

It's fair to say we were mighty impressed with this model when we got hands-on with it, and to be honest, we can't really believe that it's not only on sale, but with such a massive discount. So, if you were on the fence about picking one of these up, we think your decision is now made!

After waiting Everlong for an affordable version of Dave Grohl’s iconic Trini Lopez-inspired signature guitar, Epiphone finally delivered earlier this year. Arguably one of the most anticipated guitar launches in recent memory, the Pelham Blue semi-hollow took the guitar world by storm, and as such, they became pretty tricky to get a hold of. 

That said, these guitars are now more readily available, and thanks to Thomann, it's also just received its first-ever discount. As part of its Cyber Week Sale, Thomann is also running daily deals, which are typically insanely discounted products that, you guessed it, are only available for 24 hours. And today's deal is the best we've seen. In a wild move, Thomann has just slashed a whopping £230 off the Epiphone Dave Grohl DG-335, bringing the cost down from £1,159 to only £929. 

So, this is a call to Foo fanatics; you don't want to miss this epic Black Friday guitar deal!

In our glowing review, we praise this guitar's attention to detail and impeccable finish, saying, "The Pelham Blue finish looks great, and at a glance, it’s quite surreal. Everything is finished neatly, from the binding on the F-holes, body and neck to the flawless, uniform paint job. There’s no visible defects, and as with the many Epiphones we’ve had pass through our door in the last couple of years, it’s yet further proof that the head honchos at Gibson have put the effort in when it comes to turning the tide on previous QC-related reputations."

We conclude the review by saying, "The Epiphone logo on the headstock may well carry certain connotations for some people, but as we’re continuing to witness from the Epiphone stable, these aren’t reflective of the guitars the brand is currently putting out. Let’s face it, if you want a replica of Dave Grohl’s guitar that also doubles as a very effective workhorse for any style, this is it."

It's fair to say we were mighty impressed with this model when we got hands-on with it, and to be honest, we can't really believe that it's not only on sale, but with such a massive discount. So, if you were on the fence about picking one of these up, we think your decision is now made! 

The Irish hitch-hiker who inspired Dave Grohl to ‘get back to work’ and start the Foo Fighters has come forward and shared his incredible story on Twitter/X - and it’s already going viral amongst Nirvana and Foos fans.

The hitch-hiker is named Lorcan and together with his cousin Eoin Tighe they’ve created a video that explains their side of the story, interpolating it with Grohl telling it from his side, as a (still young) rock musician reeling from his friend’s suicide in 1994. It’s quite something:

In an interview on the Graham Norton Show in 2021, Grohl remembers how in mid-’94, in the midst of his grief he just wanted to escape: “I wasn’t sure what to do with my life. I couldn’t even listen to music. I didn’t want to turn on the radio. I put my instruments away. It hurt too much to listen to music, so I thought, ‘I’m going to go to one of my favourite places in the world,’ one of the most remote areas I could find. Just to go out and, like, soul search and find myself. So I went to the Ring of Kerry.”

It was whilst out driving in his rental car that Grohl encountered young Lorcan: “So I’m driving down this country road, am I’m, like, trying to figure out my life and trying to move on, and I see a hitchhiker, and he’s in a parka, and it’s kind of maybe raining a little and as I’m pulling up to him I think, ‘I’m gonna pick this kid up. He’s got a far way to go.’

“And I got closer and closer, and I saw he had a Kurt Cobain T-shirt on, and I thought, ‘Even in the most remote area I could possibly find, I can’t outrun this thing.’ And I thought, ‘OK. I’m gonna go home, and I’m gonna start over.’ And I started the Foo Fighters.”

As for Lorcan, he couldn’t believe his eyes – what would Dave Grohl be doing driving in West Ireland? It was only recently that his outlandish story was corroborated by the man himself.

Lorcan didn’t get the lift, but we all got the Foo Fighters: the happy ending to this heartwarming tale.

Thought Tenacious D had been cancelled in the wake of Kyle Gass’s comments about the attempted assassination of Donald Trump? Certainly not in Dave Grohl's mind.

The Foo Fighters covered Tenacious D’s Tribute at a show in Denver, Colorado on Saturday night. As you can see from the fan footage below it was during the acoustic section of the gig. Grohl only gets so far through the song, admitting that he doesn’t know all the lyrics. After all, he says, “I only played the drums on that song.”

It comes just weeks when after Tenacious D got into hot water during their Australian tour. At a gig in Sydney the week after the Trump incident, Jack Black sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to his bandmate Gass, before asking him to make a wish. Gass then quipped: “Don’t miss Trump next time”.

All hell broke loose. An Australian senator called for their deportation. The band’s tour was cut short and all future creative plans were “put on hold”. Gass was even dropped by his agent.

However, there are evidently degrees of cancellation and Dave Grohl has always been a loyal type, anyway.

The comedy rock duo and Grohl go back a long way – Black and Gass had cameos in the Foos’ Learn To Fly video from 1999 and during their early days would regularly open up for the band. And, of course, Grohl played drums on their 2001 self-titled debut album, which included Tribute.

The Foo Fighters are on the last few dates of their US tour, with shows on the West Coast in San Diego, LA, Portland and Seattle. They recently had to cut short a show in Queens, New York due to a thunderstorm and the ensuing torrential downpour.

Afterwards the band issued a statement: “We are so disappointed that we were unable to play our full set for tonight’s fantastic crowd at Citi Field,” they wrote. “But the safety of our fans, the crew and everyone working in the stadium comes first, so when it was determined that there was no safe way to continue the show in this dangerous weather, we had no choice but to call it a night.”

They continued: “We’re grateful for every second we were able to play for you and looking forward to seeing you again - maybe as soon as Friday!”

The band eventually returned to Citi Field on that Friday (19 July) to play their show in full.

Intentionally or not, Dave Grohl has just stirred a hornet’s nest.

There he was headlining the London Stadium on Saturday night on the Foo Fighters latest UK tour and he makes one little joke about Taylor Swift, who that same evening is playing Wembley Stadium just up the road.

Halfway through his set, he said: ”We were joking about the Taylor Swift tour earlier. I know that she’s on her 'Eras Tour'. I’m telling you man; you don’t want to suffer the wrath of Taylor Swift.

"So we like to call our tour the ‘Errors Tour' because I feel like, we’ve had more than a few eras, and more than a few fucking errors as well. Just a couple. That’s because we actually play live. What?"

He then went on to add: “I’m just saying, you guys like raw, live rock ‘n’ roll music, right? You came to the right fucking place."

Swift couldn’t help but respond to this little dig and after receiving an early standing ovation at her Sunday night show at Wembley said, pointedly: “Every one of my band members, every single one of our crew, my band who’s gonna be playing live for you for 3 and a half hours tonight, they deserve this so much. 

"And so does every one of my fellow performers. And you just gave that to us so generously, we will never forget it.”

All things considered, a classy response. But then her army of fans, the so-called Swifties, administered a thorough kicking to the Foo Fighters leader on social media.

Grohl and Swift are hardly competing in the same market and there’s no history of bad blood between the two, so what’s caused this sudden outbreak of hostilities? 

Well, according to social media it could date back to earlier this year when a comment by Dave Grohl’s 17-year-old daughter - who’s been performing on stage with dad on this current tour - went viral. Violet Grohl postedabout Swift flying her private jet, “why can’t Taylor Swift just drive like everyone else’. The Swifties went ballistic. Death threats were allegedly sent and the singer herself remained silent on the issue.

Meanwhile, the Foo Fighters wrap up their UK tour with dates in Cardiff tomorrow night and Birmingham on Thursday. Taylor Swift’s record-breaking Eras tour moves onto Europe this week and returns for another four nights at Wembley in August.

It’s been nearly two years since Taylor Hawkins’ son Shane took to the stage at Wembley to honour his father, joining Foo Fighters for a performance of My Hero at the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert. This weekend, the 17-year-old — who has been playing regular gigs with his father’s covers band, Chevy Metal — joined Foo Fighters at the band’s back-to-back London Stadium dates to play drums.

First up, Thursday's show saw Shane take to Josh Freese’s monstrous double-bass drum DW kit for an energetic run-through of I’ll Stick Around, which features on Foo Fighters’ debut album, where Dave Grohl played every instrument on all but one song. 

“Hi Shane, thank you for waiting three hours to come play drums with us” Dave Grohl announced as he introduced him, adding “We particularly like it when he plays this song. It’s called…I’ll Stick Around”, as Shane launches into the machine-gun 16th-note snare intro.  

Hammering at the kit with all the ferocity you’d expect, Shane’s playing style, body language and mannerisms are at times uncannily similar to his dad, while also including a healthy influence from the former Nirvana drummer’s playbook as he beats his way through the song’s ankle-cramping groove and fills around the kit.

It’s not without a couple of minor slips, as pointed out in the comment section of the video, perhaps caused by Grohl’s accidental rearranging of the second verse giving Shane a different cue. But overall, the first performance prompted many fans to declare that Hawkins Jr is capable of to taking on his father’s gig full-time.

Shane returned for Saturday’s gig, reprising the song that has in many ways become recognised his own tribute to his late father. Foo Fighters have been playing a much more subdued version of the tune since touring for 2023’s But Here We Are, forgoing the iconic drum intro in favour of a guitar/piano/vocal introduction.

However, on Saturday Hawkins Jr brought it back, as Grohl told the crowd, “Watch this motherf**kers, he’s not fu**ing around!”. The band opted to go ‘classic’ adding the extended live ‘jam’ section to the song, which sees it modulate through the song’s original tempo, to a swung feel, into a double-time groove. 

To close, Shane — all the while being encouraged by a visibly proud Grohl — delivers an impressive solo, before Grohl brings him to the front of the stage for a hug before addressing the crowd while laughing saying, “Who invited this punk!”.

Foo Fighters are currently on their Everything Or Nothing At All tour in the UK and Europe. For a list of dates click here. 

Before the Trini Lopez and the signature 335, there was the 90s black Gibson Explorer – this was Dave Grohl's Foo Fighters guitar and the foundation for the first era of the band. Then it was fazed out, until now.

At the band's recent triumphant Wembley Stadium show on 22 June Grohl was playing a black Explorer again, but this one was different. 

In the footage above, uploaded to YouTube by Fastphotos, Grohl strapped on the mysterious new model for a thunderous rendition of Stacked Actors, from 1999 third Foos album There Is Nothing Left To Lose – a record the band recorded as a trio with Grohl, bassist Nate Mendel and late drummer Taylor Hawkins. 

Introducing the song as one for "old school fans" as a sign of the "deep cuts" from their catalogue that would be aired that night, our eyes were immediately drawn to the streamlined controls. Who needs tone controls anyway? 

Whether this is a custom model ordered by Grohl for some older songs, or if it could be an early peak at something that could be a production model, we have no idea right now. But seeing as the recent Epiphone Dave Grohl ES-335 has proved to be a huge success for the company, more Grohl signature guitars would surely be a canny decision.

Either way, we're glad to see the Explorer and Stacked Actors back in the Foo's sets. 

If there is one band who aren’t short of a few killer songs in their career, it’s the Foo Fighters. Fronted by multi-instrumentalist and all-around music lover, Dave Grohl, the Foos continue to release album after album of hard-hitting, hook-filled pop rock.

Inside some of these catchy tunes lie really interesting voicings. In recent years they have expanded to a three-guitar lineup which opens up some additional sonic spectrum when it comes to using unique chord voicings to fill out the sound of the songs.

In this lesson we’re going to check out four really cool Foo Fighters chords.

C#min7 (no 5th)

The track Best of You has become one of the band's most iconic tracks. The first chord in this song you hear is a really interesting chord. It’s harmonically rich and has a very jangly sound.

The chord is actually a variation on a C#min7, but without the 5th interval (The G#) present. The open strings paired with the three fretted notes give this chord a sound that does not actually sound like what we’d expect a minor7 chord to sound like.

D13 (no 3)

This chord is one of the band's more unusual choices. This chord could have many names depending on how you interpret the notes – which unusually are A B C and D. Based on the key of the song the most logical naming for this would be D13(no3), in essence, a D13 chord without the major 3rd.

This chord is one of two chords that make up the intro to the track Times Like These. The other chord, is exactly the same chord, but you release the 5th fret on the A to an open string making it an Amadd9add11. 

This chord has a jangly sound reminiscent of many '60s psychedelic pop tracks. The b9 interval gives it a slightly unresolved feel, similar to a sus2 chord.

Db/G

This is a very unusual chord for the chorus of a big rock song. In the chorus of the track All My Life, you hear this Db/G chord. This chord is based around the C shape of the CAGED system but with the barred finger extending down to cover the G note on the Low E string also.

This is a very rich sounding chord that really fills a lot of sonic space. 

E5

In the track Learn To Fly you hear this extended E5 chord. Think of this as an Em with the 4th fret of the G added. This note is a B note which replaces the minor 3rd of the chord. This means what you’re now playing is a six-string chord made up of only root notes and 5th, giving you an extended power chord.

This is a great chord to use to bulk out a recorded guitar part without clashing with any major or minor notes.

• Triad chords could be your new secret guitar weapon: here are 3 reasons why

Josh Freese is one of the most talked-about drummers of the last few years. In 2022, he – alongside an all-star cast of musicians – sat in with Foo Fighters at the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concerts, paying their respects to the late drummer through two emotional, marathon sets.

By May 2023, Foo Fighters revealed that the band not only intended to continue, but had tracked a full album as well as announcing tour dates that summer. Rumours circulated naming potential candidates to fill the drum stool, with Josh Freese’s name a constant frontrunner, and the band finally unveiled Freese as their new sticksman during a streamed performance, Preparing Music for Concerts. 

Now, Freese has sat down with Rick Beato for an in-depth, 90-minute conversation which you can watch below, with topics spanning Freese’s early days as drummer, meeting world-class session players at a young age, his incredibly prolific session career, and landing one of the biggest gigs on the planet.

Josh Freese: Getting the call from Dave Grohl to join Foo Fighters

Straight out of the gate, Beato addresses the fact that Freese has stepped into the position left vacant by his friend, Taylor Hawkins, with Freese admitting that part of him “Wishes there wasn’t a reason for me to be the drummer in the Foo Fighters” describing getting the call from Grohl asking him to be his new drummer as “like being socked in the stomach.”

"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.

“That summer when they were putting those tribute shows together, I was really happy to be a part of it. To be there with a bunch of fellow drummers, fellow musicians who were all really close buddies of Taylor’s…it felt therapeutic to be able to be around other people who knew him very well. That part was healing in a lot of ways, at least for me…it was special.

“On my childrens’ lives - I had zero plans of being called to be the drummer. Everyone and their mother, my neighbour walking the dog, ‘Hey Josh! Foo Fighters call you yet?’, other drummers, Reddit forums, and I’m going ‘I don’t even know if they’re going to continue on.’

"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.’ I was busy enough and making a good enough living already that I wasn’t freaked out about it. I wasn’t going ‘God, I hope they call.’ More like, whatever happens is going to happen, and that’s how I like to roll, right?

"Months went on after that LA performance…right before Christmas 2022 I got a missed call from him. I was on a walk with my wife and some of our dogs. I go ‘Oh, Dave just tried calling me 20 minutes ago.’ My wife’s like ‘I know why he’s calling you!’

"I swear to god, that’s not why I thought he was calling. 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’?

“It couldn’t have gone down any other way after being asked. Being asked by someone who I’ve respected forever, not just as a songwriter and a singer-guitarist, but as a drummer first and foremost for me. Dave is such a bad motherfucker, man.”

But, as well as talking about his new gig, Josh Freese has a wealth of experience with bands ranging from punk and hardcore heroes to pop megastars and rock royalty from which to draw anecdotes. Here are five other highlights of Beato’s interview.

Replacing other drummers' takes can and does get awkward

There was an urban legend in drummer circles during the early '00s that if you risked taking a bathroom break during a recording session, you could find that your drum tracks had been replaced by Freese by the time you got back. Freese (admitting that he himself has been replaced on songs), addressed the subject of being hired to correct and replace other drummers' parts on record, revealing that it could sometimes get awkward. 

“I’m not going to mention the name of the band, but it was a famous band. They’d made a record, and there was one song that they were just not happy with. I knew the guys in the band, I knew the drummer. Not well, but I knew him. My buddy, the singer - I’m laughing, not that it’s funny, but it’s just one of these… – he goes ‘Hey, can you show up at the studio on Saturday?’

“I’m about 10 minutes away and I get a text, ‘Where are you?’, and I’m like ‘Five minutes away!’. He goes ‘Go to Starbucks and hang tight. We’ve been mixing for two weeks and the drummer hasn’t been by the studio once and he just randomly stopped by on his way out of town.’ 

“Drum Doctors, my cartage company were pushing these road cases in the back of the studio that say my name all over them. The drummer saw and goes ‘What’s going on in here?” and they told him ‘Oh, Josh Freese is playing drums’, ‘I’m like, Oh, man!’. So I’m sitting in the coffee shop going ‘Oh, god. What’s going to happen?’

“There’s been situations before where the drummer will be like ‘Fucking Josh, man’. I’m like, ‘Don’t get mad at me, get mad at your producer or your singer. I didn’t decide that they want me to play on this, they decided. If it’s not me, it’s going to be somebody else because they decided they have to do something to get this track to where they want it.

There was another time at Henson about 25 years ago, I’m recording with the band and as I’m playing I see through the glass into the control room. I didn’t know anyone in the band, I knew the producer, but I see a guy I didn’t recognise come into the control room, all tattoos and looked like he was in a rock band. Then I see the body language and I’m thinking ‘Oh, god. What’s happening in there.’ I finish playing and [mimes the talkback] ‘Yeah man, give us a minute.’ The drummer showed up.

I’ve been replaced in the studio, and it hurt. It doesn’t feel good, you go home and go ‘I’m doing it all wrong, my career is over, I suck and everyone hates me.’ No. I’ve worked with great musicians who have gone into play on something and even to my own ear I’ll go ‘That just didn’t feel right’. Doesn’t mean this guy’s not a fantastic guitar player, it’s just not working for that particular track.”

He once tracked a song using his fingers on an upside down snare drum

From his work with a Perfect Circle, to Evanesence, The Vandals, Nine Inch Nails and more, Josh Freese is known for being a hard-hitting rock machine. But that doesn't mean that he can't be subtle. Here, he recounts how important dynamics and lighter playing are to him. 

"It’s funny because I get hired so often – more so a couple of years back – ‘If you want the heavy-hitting alternative rock drummer, you’ve gotta hire Josh Freese’, right? And it would bum me out because I like playing soft, quiet, sensitive things. 

"I think I like the extremes, I like stuff that’s hardcore and intense, I like stuff that’s really light and beautiful. Then the lukewarm part is just lukewarm…

"Slow and quiet is way more difficult than hard and fast, any day of the week. So for me that’s always a little more interesting. Being a songwriter myself and a fan of songwriters, I love getting a chance to do that stuff. 

"I love the stuff I recorded with Ron Sexsmith, the album is called Long Player Late Bloomer and it’s beautiful. One of the songs, I remember we flipped the snare over and it’s almost like a train beat. I was playing on the bottom of the snare, but because the head’s so thin and just the way the mics were and the amount of compression in the room, I played it with my fingers, I’m not even using sticks.

"The track sounds so good to me, I’m just as proud, if not more proud of a track like that, as I am some hardcore track that really sounds like it took a lot to do. That [dynamic] stuff takes more. It’s like walking a tightrope, it’s just so delicate. The delicate, naked stuff for me, is really challenging in a good way."  

Josh Freese appealed to Sting not to mess with Stewart Copeland’s drum parts on Message in a Bottle

As one of the most widely hired session drummers of the last three decades, Freese knows a bit about drum parts: what's important, what isn't, and what you absolutely must include when you're playing the canon of the biggest-selling artists on the planet. 

During his first rehearsals with Sting, Freese went out to bat for Copeland's drum part on Message in a Bottle, even if it meant disagreeing with Sting 24 hours into his new gig. 

“There’s certain things that you’ve gotta hit, certain marks or figures. And then there’s certain things where I’ll inject my own style into something, I’m not playing every fill like it is on the record.

"I’ll never forget, this one thing in particular. We were playing Message in a Bottle, during the ‘I hope that someone gets my…’  and I’m playing the tom thing. We finish it and Sting goes, ‘Can you not do that tom thing?’. I’m like, ‘Dude. I know that I’m the new guy and I’ve only known you for 24 hours, but I have to play that tom thing.’

"I’ve air-drummed that on my steering wheel since I was 16, as has every other drummer or maybe even non-drummer. It’s just so cool. He’s like, ‘Well, I don’t know…’ Then I go up to him later that day and I go ‘I really want to play that tom thing on Message in a Bottle.’

"I think he appreciated sometimes that I was still thinking about it, that I would care at all rather than like, ‘Ok, I don’t have to play the tom thing. Who cares!’. I felt strongly about it, it’s an important part of the song and it’s going to be sacrilegious to not hit it. It felt like I wouldn’t be doing it justice, it would be a crime to not play it."

That said, judging on live performances, it seems that Sting ultimately made the decision.

Dave Grohl and Josh Freese asked Pat Smear’s permission to use two bass drums, and one of them is 23-inches

During the London Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concerts, Josh Freese wowed millions of viewers with his rock solid playing, and effortless navigation of Van Halen's Hot For Teacher (alongside Wolfgang Van Halen, Justin Hawkins and Dave Grohl), complete with the famous double kick intro and groove.

Fast-forward to his debut with Foo Fighters and one of the first things drummers noticed was the dual-bass drum kit. It's an irrelevant detail to many fans, but one that ushers Freese in with his own identity. However the drummer was initially hesitant to suggest using two bass drums, until his new boss read his mind, but Foo Fighters guitarist Pat Smear got the final say.

“When we were in rehearsals, I was busting out some double pedal stuff, and Dave was like ‘That’s awesome, I love that double bass thing you’re doing!’. I said ‘Really? I was just kind of messing around.’ and he’s like ‘Do it, do it!’.

It’s so crazy, I showed up one day to rehearsal and we were on the exact same page. I’d thought a day or two before ‘Am I going to have the same setup I always have? Do I dare have two kick drums, is that totally ridiculous?’

I show up to rehearsal and Dave’s like ‘I was thinking about it man, you should just go for it and have two kick drums.’ I’m like ‘No way! I was thinking the exact same thing, I thought you’d never go for it! We ran it past Pat. Pat Smear is like the punk rock elder statesman, if it’s cool with Pat then it’s cool. Pat was like ‘Oh yeah, double kick all the way!’.

My main kick drum is a 23”. DW started making 23-inch kicks a couple of years ago, and I’ve got two or three of them, I really like them. A joke I have with a friend of mine, my old drum tech is ‘I like it because, it’s a little bit bigger than a 22”, but it’s not quite a 24” - it’s a 23”!”

He still gets surprised hearing himself sometimes

It's a well-known story that Josh Freese once forgot that he played on an Avril Lavigne record, but when you've clocked-up circa 500 recording credits, you're bound to let a few slip your mind.

“There’s lots of stories like that, one of my favourite ones I’ll never forget. I was having lunch with my mum about 7 or 8 years ago. I’m in this restaurant, and there’s music playing. Some song…I call a certain style of music NASCAR Rock, you know? Real middle of the road, vanilla, not that interesting…

I’m listening to it and rolling my eyes thinking ‘God, I’ve played on so much crap like this.’ I didn’t recognise the song, then it gets to the chorus and I’m like, ‘Oh! This is me, I know this song!’. So that’s definitely happened more than once.”

In 2011 Total Guitar marked the 20th anniversary of Nevermind with a cover feature on the album, including the story of Kurt Cobain's Jaguar and this interview with drummer Chad Channing, who played on the 1990 demos of Nevermind songs at Butch Vig' and Steve Marker's Smart Studios in Wisconsin before being replaced by Dave Grohl. 

Certain dates will be forever linked to Nevermind. Dates such as its release on 24 September 1991, or 11 January 1992, when it knocked Michael Jackson’s Dangerous off the top of the US Billboard charts. Yet there’s an important time period that’s often overlooked: 2-6 April 1990. 

During this five-day span, singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain, bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Chad Channing – all of who had played on the band’s 1989 debut Bleach – visited Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin.

There, under the watchful eye of producer Butch Vig, they recorded early versions of several songs that would later appear on Nevermind, albeit mostly in re-recorded forms and with Dave Grohl behind the kit. One of Chad’s recordings did make the final version of the album we hear today, though, and on the 20th anniversary of the release of Nevermind, he looked back on this crucial session with us.

When Kurt presented several of the songs that would be on Nevermind, could you tell they were moving in a different direction to Bleach?

“Sometimes, it’s kind of hard to tell. When you’re actually a part of the band, any songs that come up new seem like a natural evolution of things, so to speak. They didn’t seem too far off or different in some ways. Like the song About A Girl – the answer to that in a pop vein, but being a bit mellower, would be Polly or Sappy" [a song recorded for both Nevermind and In Utero, but featured on neither].

How was the working relationship between Butch Vig and Kurt?

“Everybody appeared to be pretty comfortable working with [Vig]. Every time we’d go into the studio, Kurt and Krist always had a certain agenda or something in mind. I was never really one to be up front with putting out ideas and stuff like that. I was always a little bit more in the background… I think they were happy with the end-result recordings. I think we all were. 

As I recall, when they were working on Nevermind, Kurt originally wanted to keep the songs they had already recorded in Madison to put on the record. But Geffen [Records] apparently wanted to redo the whole thing. I guess what they were looking for, being a major label, was something as polished as they could get from the band. 

"So in order to do that, consistency in sound and recording is probably everything. They probably felt it would sound too inconsistent sound-wise, like: ‘Oh, you can definitely tell that’s from a different recording.’”

Several songs that would eventually be re-recorded for Nevermind were first laid down during those Vig sessions, such as In Bloom…

“I liked that song [from] the first time I heard it. Before we left on that tour, we had a rehearsal space in Seattle and Kurt had started playing that song. Obviously, he had worked it out with Krist a little bit and I just jumped right in with what seemed totally natural. What I actually ended up playing on the recording was exactly what I did the first time I ever heard the song. So it’s one of those songs where, for me, it just gelled instantly."

Did you know if In Bloom was about a segment of the audience Nirvana was starting to attract?

“Kurt never really talked about his lyrics much, or what they were even about. I remember once – the only thing about him ever talking about lyrics – we were in this hotel room, and he’s like, ‘I’m trying to come up with some lyrics. Anything that rhymes with this and rhymes with that, whatever words, just throw them out!’ It was sort of a grab bag of ideas, just spewing out words. Apart from that, he was always quiet about it, so I’m not really sure.”

You also worked on Polly…

“I remember back in 2000, or something, when someone alerted me that I actually had a song on Nevermind, and I was thinking, ‘I do? What the heck song is that?’ Then I found out it was Polly. I gave it a listen, and I’m, ‘Right! I remember now.’ There was a small little room in the studio, and it was big enough for just two people and an amp – it was pretty small. They put me in that room with my ride cymbal.

"So it was just me and my ride cymbal, and I listened to this song. Every time that one little cue part or break came up, I hit the ride cymbal. So I hit it like four times – which is all it required, the entire song – and then that was that.”

So that was the recording that appeared on Nevermind?

“It was the actual recording. It was the one song that I guess Kurt said, ‘No, I definitely do not want to redo this.’ And I guess they figured, ‘It doesn’t have a whole lot to it. There’s only a little bit of drums.’”

And an early version of Lithium was recorded during that session…

“I like Lithium too. In all, I was really grooving on all the new stuff. In fact, much of this stuff was so new that I was learning and adapting to the song, the parts and the things I wanted to play as the tour went on. [Many] of the songs we’d recorded were songs that we didn’t have a whole lot of opportunity to play together as a band and rehearse before we went out on tour. 

"I’m sure Kurt and Krist played out the songs, but before we left for tour, for the majority of the songs, we maybe had one or two rehearsals. But by the end, when we got into the studio, I was pretty comfortable with what I was doing. And really, pretty much like In Bloom, a lot of those songs, they just sat right in… A lot of it fell into place really easily.”

Do you take it as a compliment that when the songs were re-recorded, Dave Grohl duplicated many of your drum parts?

“I definitely took it as a compliment. I was pretty honoured; I thought that was really great. There’s a couple of different little subtle things he did … which I thought was cool. 

"But most of them are so miniscule that people comparing the records, unless they were hardcore music [buffs] – I think the average listener wouldn’t even notice that much. 

"The most notable change of any of them was In Bloom: on the main verses of the song, I would just use a single kick thing, and Dave threw in an extra kick. And everything else on that is pretty much identical."

"And then with Breed too, there’s just one part where he began a drum roll fill just a half-measure sooner than I did mine. Everything else aside from that is the same. Like I said, very minor changes that most people might not notice. I thought it was totally cool. I was very honoured that he did that.”

Do you remember what Kurt’s equipment setup was?

“It kind of changed off and on, but I think he still had his Randall [Commander] head. We had a couple of SoundTech cabs for him – they were just two cabs that had 2 x 12s in them each. I remember he would set one up and then he’d set another one up in front of him during shows, or just off to the side, as an extra added monitor for his guitars. I’m pretty sure that’s the same setup that he had.

“He never really ran a lot of stuff. The only thing he had as far as pedals and effects [go] was a Boss DS-1 distortion pedal. But aside from that, it was pretty simplistic. I don’t think he ever had any guitar that he took really good care of… I think it was on tour that we brought a number of guitars for him. 

"One was painted a blueish colour and one was sort of a weird mauve. If one of them got thrashed, he would just pick up the other one, and if it needed any extra parts or guts to it, they’d pull them out of that guitar and stick them in a new body. I’m trying to think which one he had during that session… 

"It wasn’t like Krist: he always had the Black Eagle Ibanez. That was his staple thing all the time. But Kurt went through so many pawnshop-type guitars. It could have been any one of those.”

What do you think of Nevermind?

“The first time I heard that record, Ben Shepherd [Soundgarden’s bassist] came over… Actually, I went over to his place. He had a recording on cassette. He said, ‘This is Nirvana’s new record, you should check it out. It comes out next month,’ or something. He had somehow gotten a copy of it before its release.

"When I heard it, I was like, ‘Oh man, this is friggin’ killer!’ I loved it right off the bat. It’s one of those things where I actually became a Nirvana fan when I was no longer in the band…

"When you’re inside of it, it’s a little different. It’s work and all this kind of stuff. It was kind of refreshing to be able to kick back and go, ‘OK, I can totally listen to it.’ Because any time I hear my own music, I always get in this critic mode. I can’t really relax and hear it for what it is. When I heard that record, I was like, ‘Wow!’

"One, I really liked the record and thought the songs were great. And two, I was like, ‘OK, I can really get into it,’ and it was nice to know that it wasn’t me I was having to listen to!”

• Meet Aaron Rash: the YouTuber who's got so close to Kurt Cobain's Nirvana tones he's releasing a guitar and In Utero IR pack to share his discoveries

At this year’s NAMM Show, Epiphone lifted the lid on one of its most anticipated (and worst-kept secret) releases in years: the Epiphone Dave Grohl DG-335. Finally, an affordable signature version of the Foo Fighters frontman’s on-stage guitar, complete with all the Grohlmarks - Diamond F-holes, 6-in-line headstock, Pelham Blue finish and more. 

Grohl himself let the cat out of the bag early, using the guitar at Austin City Limits in October 2023 on All My Life, The Pretender, No Son of Mine, Learn to Fly, Rescued and Walk.

Even better news is that unlike some NAMM releases, we didn’t have to wait long for it to arrive. We have one, and here are our first impressions. But first, a little history…

The history

Foo Fighters have been through multiple evolutions with their sound, from the rawer, post-grunge of the all-Grohl debut album, all the way to the stadium-filling anthems we hear today. But while the guitars in the videos and played on stage might have changed, there’s one constant at the heart of the Foo Fighters’ guitar sound: Grohl’s 1967 Gibson ES-335 Trini Lopez, which he’s used to track guitar parts on every album Foo Fighters have recorded.

“This guitar, I’ve made every single Foo Fighters record with.” Grohl told NME in 2011, “This is a fucking beautiful guitar. I saw this in a guitar shop in Bethesda, Maryland, I think it was 1992 or ’93 or something like that. I think I was still in Nirvana when I bought it. I thought it was unusual, it looks like a Gibson ES-335, except it has diamond-shaped f-holes and it has this different headstock on it.

“I didn’t really know anything about Trini Lopez, the artist, when I bought it, but this fucking thing… this is the sound of the Foo Fighters, this guitar. On every record I might use other guitars every now and then, but for the most part it’s just this.”

Gibson produced two signature models for the If I Had A Hammer singer - the Standard and Deluxe. Grohl’s guitar is a Trini Lopez Standard based on the ES-335, while the Deluxe model was fully hollow, with a bigger body, wider cutaways and pointed horns, and both featured the diamond F-holes, split-diamond inlays and 6-in-line headstock.

But, to paraphrase a song Grohl provided the drums for (and appeared in the video for as Satan), the Epiphone DG-335 isn’t actually based on this guitar. Not entirely, anyway. You’re probably more than used to seeing Grohl and his Gibson signature model on stage, given that he’s played it almost exclusively since its introduction in 2007, and it’s this guitar that the Epiphone DG-335 is paying tribute to.

Grohl’s Pelham Blue version is the most recognisable, and was released as a limited run of 200 in 2007 alongside a black version. Gibson released a further 200 in 2014 alongside 400 in Gold Metallic. But regardless of which colour you prefer, the biggest obstacle is price, followed quickly by getting your hands on one. Which brings us neatly up to date.

Our first impressions

We love: The overall approach

Grohl’s Gibson has become very familiar, and this Epiphone version presents us with an uncanny sight as we open the case. A glance at the Epiphone’s spec sheet shows that it’s pretty close to the Gibson in design. It shares the one-piece mahogany neck, laminated maple body and the correct diamond-shaped F-holes, six-in-line headstock and split-diamond inlays. Epiphone has even loaded the affordable DG-335 with Gibson USA pickups, with a Burstbucker 2 in the neck position and Burstbucker 3 in the bridge.

The Pelham Blue finish looks great, and at a glance it’s quite surreal. But this guitar will set you back around £/€/$1,200, so we don’t have any concessions to make when it comes to the presentation. 

Thankfully, neither does Epiphone. Everything is finished neatly, from the binding on the F-holes, body and neck to the flawless, uniform paint job. There’s no visible defects, and as with the many Epiphones we’ve had pass through our door in the last couple of years, it’s yet further proof that the head honchos at Gibson have put the effort in when it comes to turning the tide on previous QC-related reputations.

We love: The neck profile

The first and most distinctive thing you’ll notice playing-wise about the DG is the feel of the neck. Epiphone describes it an Elliptical C, which is a pretty fair description. This isn’t yet another Slim Taper slapped onto a body with a custom finish, it feels ‘designed’ and the result is a fairly clubby, but not overly-fat palm-filler. 

Grohl is known for his rhythm work, along with occasionally taking flight for some lead playing, and this definitely feels comfortable for both. Grohl’s no stranger to some awkward shapes, but there’s no fatigue here, with plenty of surface area adding some relief. Talking of relief, our review models comes nicely set up, too. The action is on the lower side of medium which makes for easier fretting without any choke.

Neck shapes are, of course, entirely subjective, but if your playing style leans more towards the rhythm side of things we think you’ll get on well. It’s worth noting that due to the lighter semi-hollow body, there is a bit of a lean when playing it standing with a strap.

We don’t love: Where’s the case candy?

The DG-335 ships in an Epiphone-branded hardshell case, which is also adorned with Grohl’s signature. This is a good thing for completists, not so good if you intend to carry the guitar around without advertising what’s inside, as that sprayed-on signature isn’t exactly subtle.

Our next stop is the accessory compartment inside the case as we’re eager to check out what candy is included. Foo Fighters picks? Prints of the guitar? A signature black t-shirt and some chewing gum?! Nope, just some keys, warranty information and a pack of silica gel (dry). In its defense, Epiphone doesn’t mention any extras either, but we like treats. Still, we aren’t left disappointed for long…

We love: The visuals

When you think of ‘alternative’ guitars, the ES-335 isn’t likely to be high on the list. In fact, the big-body semi-hollow model screams ‘tradition’ thanks to the era it was introduced and the music that it’s associated with. But, thanks to Grohl’s adoption of Trini Lopez design points, paired with a less fussy tailpiece arrangement, the DG-335 puts a slightly leftfield slant on the format.

The diamond-shaped f-holes lend a more modern feel to the visuals, but in our opinion the tamed non-reverse Firebird-style headstock really helps remove some of that traditional look. The fingerboard inlays are the icing on the cake, offering another touch of higher-end class to the guitar. 

We don’t love: The Laurel fingerboard

Ok, we accept that this is the ‘affordable’ version, and savings have to come from somewhere. Clearly, a big part of those savings come from the fact that this guitar is made in China, but aside from losing its nitrocellulose finish (you weren’t expecting nitro, were you?), one of the other elephants in the spec sheet room is the fingerboard. Here, we get laurel rather than Gibson’s rosewood. Yes, it’s an Epiphone, and many of the brand’s staple models feature laurel, but there’s also plenty of ebony examples across the range too. The split-diamond inlays do remove a fairly large amount of real estate from the ’board, but no more than say, trapezoids or Custom-style blocks. It’s a small gripe - the laurel fingerboard plays very nicely and with some oil, it’ll darken down a shade or two.

We love: The sounds

While you might think of a semi-acoustic (particularly a 335) as the vehicle of clean and slightly-driven blues, it’s important to remember that this is the guitar that helped invent rock and roll. But, this is a signature model, so our first port of call is to play some Foo Fighters riffs and see if we can dial in some sounds. 

Classic Foos tones studio tones feature multiple combinations of amps, whether it’s Fender and Marshall, or Vox AC30 and the Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier. We set up a few different patches on our HX Stomp and the results are quite immediate. The Burstbuckers are a huge addition to this guitar, striking a great balance between aggression and P.A.F.-style smoothness. There’s a bite to the attack which is apparent when played clean, and remains under heavier distortion, but these are very much classic in their tonality. Full-sounding without becoming too flabby, the neck position is a joy for clean and crunchy sounds, and remind us that we’re playing a semi-hollow body. There’s chime and woodiness, and flipping to the bridge position this becomes more focussed with a punchier midrange and additional edge coming from the higher frequencies. It’s surprisingly easy to dial-in sounds that are close to Foos recordings, which either means that the biggest rock band in the world doesn’t think too hard about it, or Epiphone has done its job very well.  

Conclusion

Since the Epiphone DG-335’s release, we’ve seen quite a few comments along the lines of “Looks great, but that’s expensive for an Epiphone”. But the DG isn’t alone. In the last 12-18 months we’ve seen signature models such as the Kirk Hammett Greeny, Adam Jones Les Paul Custom, Alex Lifeson Axcess and Jerry Cantrell Prophecy all reaching similar price points.

There’s global inflation to consider - things cost more now than they did two years ago, but as well as this, we can’t ignore a general uplift in quality along with price. The DG-335 is fitted with pickups that carry a retail value of around 25 percent of its price tag ($/£300). Remove these from the equation and the guitar is more in line with the Epiphone Emily Wolfe Sheraton, which also happens to be the only other Epiphone to feature the Trini-style f-holes. But to lose those would also feel like a compromise.   

It would be silly to claim that the Epiphone DG-335 is every bit as good as a Memphis-made Gibson. But what Epiphone has done with this model is pretty much all we can ask for - the essence of a sought-after instrument, distilled into a more affordable guitar which means you don’t have to resort to buying a poor knock-off. It looks right - even with the laurel fingerboard - it plays very well and most importantly, it’s punching above its weight in the tone department. 

The Epiphone logo on the headstock may well carry certain connotations for some people, but as we’re continuing to witness from the Epiphone stable, these aren’t reflective of the guitars the brand are currently putting out.

Let’s face it, if you want a replica of Dave Grohl’s guitar that also doubles as a very effective workhorse for any style, this is it.

Long teased, much anticipated, Dave Grohl’s Epiphone DG-335 signature guitar has officially been released, with the Foo Fighters frontman’s new six-string resplendent in his tradmark Pelham Blue, with diamond-shaped soundholes and that Trini Lopez-style headstock making it such a distinctive looking semi-hollow. 

Epiphone says it is one of the most requested electric guitars in the company’s history and we believe them. Was it worth the wait? Well, the DG-335 looks bang on the money, and the spec list is stacked high.

A pair of Gibson USA Burstbucker humbuckers (a Burstbucker 2 at the neck position, a 3 at the bridge) take a starring role on a build that calls to mind recent Epiphone x Gibson Custom Shop collaborations for Adam Jones’s 1979 Les Paul Custom and Kirk Hammett’s ‘Greeny’ 1959 Les Paul Standard. 

But let’s not miss those little details, like the white single-ply binding that has been applied to the body’s top and back, the fingerboard and most pleasingly on those diamond-shaped soundholes. 

The mother of pearl inlays on the fingerboard continue with the theme with split diamond detail, introducing more angles on a semi-hollow template that typically eschews straight lines. And those black top-hat style control knobs with nickel inserts look good against Pelham Blue.

As with Jones and Hammett’s top-tier Epiphone guitars, the quality of the components is not to be sniffed at, with CTS pots and Mallory capacitors used as standard, and Switchcraft providing the three-way pickup selector switch and 1/4” output jack.

If the DG-335 looks like something a little bespoke that’s because it is, drawing its design cues from the Gibson Trini Lopez signature model and the classic semi-hollow template set by the ES-335. The form factor is similar. This has the ES-335 body, with Grohl’s model comprised of layered maple and poplar, and the all-important maple centre block to cut down on feedback in high-volume, high-gain playing scenarios.

The one-piece mahogany neck is glued to the body and shaped into the elliptical neck profile that Grohl prefers, and it’s a shape that offers players plenty to hold onto when playing chords without feeling like you’re playing something too chunky. 

The Pelham Blue finish extends across the neck and the back of the headstock, which is where you’ll find Grohl’s signature. And that’s that when it comes to signature appointments. This is one guitar that doesn’t need too many details to tell you who it was made for.

Elsewhere, the dimensions are classically Epiphone/Gibson, with a 24.75” scale length and 12” fingerboard radius both on-message for the brand. Other fundamentals to note are the 22 medium jumbo frets and the 43mm Graph Tech nut. It is equipped with a set of Grover Mini-Rotomatic tuners and a LockTone Tune-O-Matic bridge and stop-bar tailpiece.

Shipping in a signature hard-shell guitar case – because this is a serious guitar after all – the Dave Grohl DG-335 is priced £1,249 / $1,299. See Epiphone for more details.

He might be a world-famous rock star and internationally recognised as ‘The Nicest Man in Rock’ but that doesn’t mean that Dave Grohl has forgotten his early days as an unknown concert-going rock fan. 

As proof, the multi-instrumentalist took time out before headlining Asbury Park, New Jersey’s Sea Hear Now festival in September to visit music photographer and Sea Hear Now co-founder, Danny Clinch’s Transparent Clinch Gallery Pop Up Art Tent, where he produced two sketches to be auctioned for charity.

Drawn on corrugated ‘Prohibited Items’ signage, swiped from the festival site, both serve as a reminder of Grohl’s ’80s adolescent years, with the first drawing showing how to make a beer bong using a funnel, a valve/tap, two-and-a-half-foot of plastic tubing and some metal clips.

The second sketch depicts a retro, step-by-step method — presumably employed by Grohl on at least one occasion — of using a modified cassette tape to smuggle hash into a concert by dismantling the plastic casing, removing the spool of tape and filling the void with lumps of the concentrated devil’s lettuce extract.

The drawings are now being auctioned individually, each winning bidder will also receive a 11x14 print of Dave Grohl, taken by Clinch during the Foo Fighters' set at Sea Hear Now 2023. 

Proceeds from both sales are being donated to multiple charities in the Asbury Park area including the Boys and Girls Clubs of Monmouth County; the Cazzeek Brothers; Konscious Youth Development & Service, aka KYDS; Garden State Equality; Catsbury Park; Clean Ocean Action; and Operation Beachhead.

The auctions are open until 27 December, with bids already in excess of $5,000 for each drawing at the time of writing. To place a bid, visit the auction’s webpage.

The Foo Fighters are no strangers to collaboration – they even invite their fans up onstage to jam with them. Now H.E.R is the latest honoury Foo as she performed with the band on Saturday Night Live (28 October) – but she didn't bring either version of her signature Fender Strat.

The band's all-humbucker toting guitar lineup saw her utilising what looks to be a Charvel HSS Style 1 model in sleek satin black with a caramelised maple neck.

Elsewhere in the episode, Dave Grohl flexed his comedy chops, appearing in a number of skits on the show, while the Foos also performed their single Rescued (introduced by Christopher Walken) from 2023's But Here We Are album. 

Epiphone has a Dave Grohl DG-335 in the works, with the Foo Fighters frontman/guitarist pictured holding one in a promo shot for the band’s new album, But Here We Are.

The Gibson-owned brand has been busily expanding its artist roster in recent years with some seriously cool signature guitars arriving for the likes of Adam Jones, Joe Bonamassa, Jerry Cantrell and Jim James. 

And it shows no time of slowing down soon, with Kirk Hammett’s Greeny Les Paul looks like it is coming imminently – the Metallica guitarist even going so far as to declare that, of all version Gibson has released of the iconic electric guitar, once owned by Peter Green and Gary Moore, the more affordable Epiphone is his favourite. 

But an Epiphone Dave Grohl DG-335 based off his number one 1967 Trini Lopez semi-hollow would break the internet – or at least the guitar-focussed corner of the internet – and surely would become one of the brand’s biggest artist collaborations ever. 

There are, of course, no details, besides what we can make out from the press shots taken by Danny Clinch at the band's rehearsal space, and used to accompany the NME’s review of But Here We Are, which is out on 2 June through Roswell Records. It will be the band’s first studio album since the death of Taylor Hawkins, and will see Josh Freese make his debut behind the drum kit.

There has been some black-and-white rehearsal footage circulation that shows Grohl playing a Gibson DG-335 in what looks like a Polaris White finish. Again, we’re dealing with a black-and-white image here but colour us amazed if that is not a Pelham Blue finish on the guitar Grohl is holding.

Indeed, from the photograph here, the only noticeable difference between his original USA Gibson DG-335 is the name on the Firebird headstock. The diamond-shaped Trini f-holes are present and correct. The Epiphone has a pair of humbuckers at the neck and bridge. 

We might expect Epiphone’s impressive Alnico ProBuckers here but who can say if Epiphone has done what it did for Joe Bonamassa’s Lazarus Les Paul Standard and springs for a set of Gibson USA BurstBuckers. 

The sighting this Epiphone DG-335 in the wild would give you the impression that Gibson and Epiphone take requests. Just 17 days ago, the brand president and interim CEO Cesar Gueikian said "OK" to the suggestion of an Epiphone DG-335. And lo… There was more. The ‘80s Gibson Explorers will be coming in White. Mesa/Boogie guitar amps will be available in the UK/Europe “after the summer”, and he said yes to the Epiphone Greeny.

In other Epiphone news, the brand recently refreshed its Broadway, Casino and Sheraton models in a range of classy finishes.

The Foo Fighters are officially back, and are armed with strong new songs that got their first chance to shine in a live setting during last night's (21 May) Preparing Music For Concerts livestream.

In addition to officially revealing Josh Freese as their live drummer, the band gave fans the chance to hear brand new song Nothing At All for the first time, alongside recent singles Resecued and Under You. 

The live stream was broadcast in black and white but Dave Grohl played what looked to be a white Gibson DG-335 signature model. We'll add that to the list of finishes we'd like to see if Gibson ever gets the wheels turning on core and Epiphone versions of the model.  The good news is interim CEO Cesar Gueikian seems open to it. 

Fellow Foos Pat Smear and Chris Shiflett clearly got the memo on B&W-friendly finishes with their SG, Gretsch White Falcon and Les Paul Custom too. 

A band that coordinates their guitars together, stays together.

The Foo Fighters will release new album But Here We Are on 2 June. 

Foo Fighters have recently been gearing-up for the band’s first live dates since the passing of drummer, Taylor Hawkins, and now the band has shared a brief clip of what appears to be a new song.

The clip follows comments made in February by UK radio presenter, Chris Moyles, who claimed live on air that Foo Fighters had a new album coming “in March”. 

Posted to the band’s social media channels on 12 April, the 13-second, un-named clip is accompanied by the caption “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” 

The clip, featuring a syncopated, octave-guitar riff, harks back to a blend of the band’s sound on In Your Honour and There Is Nothing Left to Lose backed by some dreamy chords while the drums play flams on the backbeat, interspersed with flowing tom fills.

It might be short, but the clip is just long enough to have set the comments section alight with questions and speculation over who is drumming on the recording and who will be filling the drum stool for the band’s packed summer schedule.

Many fans are convinced that the drummer on the recording is Dave Grohl, and while there’s not much to go on, there’s enough to lend that theory weight: the huge snare backbeat and pounding toms for a start, coupled with the fact that Grohl is the most obvious candidate to play drums on a Foo Fighters recording in Hawkins’ absence. However, both stylistically and logistically this could quite easily be a Taylor Hawkins drum track recorded prior to his death.

Which leaves the big question: who will be drumming for Foo Fighters’ upcoming live shows? Comments from fans are still centred around three main candidates: Pearl Jam’s Matt Cameron, The Darkness’ Rufus Taylor and session drummer Josh Freese who’s played with, well…pretty much everyone.

Matt Cameron is seemingly out of the running, having said pretty clearly that “The internet rumours are false, I haven’t joined the Foos”.

Rufus Taylor has been another strongly-rumoured replacement for his “hero, mentor and big brother”, however following The Darkness’ recent announcement of an anniversary tour marking 20 years since the band released debut album Permission to Land (and the fact both bands have clashing live dates), we think this is also unlikely.

A quick look at Devo’s calendar shows that frontrunner Josh Freese will either be in Europe and the US at the same time in August, or depping-out Devo’s European dates in order for it to be him. But that’s not out of the question, given that former Devo drummer Dave Kendrick, former Offspring drummer Pete Parada and drummer/comedian Fred Armisen have all filled-in for Freese with Devo at times.  

Another name that has been mentioned in relation to Foo Fighters recently is ex-Angels and Airwaves drummer, Atom Willard. Back in March, The Sun named Willard and Matt Cameron as likely replacements (possibly even sharing the live schedule) for Hawkins after the former posted footage of himself at Foo Fighters’ Studio 606, adding that he was using some of Taylor Hawkins' drum shells. 

However, while there’s no denying that Atom Willard would do an incredible job, the tabloid overlooked the fact that Alkaline Trio's Matt Skiba — who Atom has previously played with — was also present in the video, making it likely that the two are working on new material.

That’s before we even consider other heavyweight drummers including Rage Against The Machine’s Brad Wilk, who appears to have a clear schedule following Tom Morello’s recent response to when RATM could play live again.

So, we’re none the wiser beyond the fact that, whatever it is and whoever will be drumming, there appears to be new Foo Fighters music coming very soon.

Foo Fighters are currently scheduled to make their live return on 24 May in New Hampshire. For a full list of tour dates, click here. 

Dave Grohl joined Tenacious D, actor John C Reilly and producer Greg Kirstin for a cover of Seals & Croft's 1972 hit and yacht rock favourite Summer Breeze on Tuesday (16 August) with the Foo Fighter appearing unexpectedly to recreate the guitar riff vocally.

Grohl strode on and off the stage for his parts during the performance, part of a serious of benefit shows at LA's 280-capacity Largo Theatre organised by director Judd Apatow to raise money for VictimsFirst. The charity helps victims of mass shootings, terrorist attacks and other mass-casualty crimes.

Jack Black and Kyle Gass's mini set at the event also featured a rendition of REO Speedwagon's Keep On Loving You. 

Grohl is expected to appear at two tribute events to late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins with a host of guests on 7 September at London's Wembley Stadium and the LA's Kia Forum on 27 September. The London event will also be streamed.

Ticket and merchandise sales will benefit charities chosen by the Hawkins family: Music Support and MusiCares. 

Music Man signature artist St. Vincent has rereleased a cover of the 1994 Nine Inch Nails song Piggy ahead of a week-long residency with CBS’s popular talk show The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Featuring on their second studio album, The Downward Spiral, the Trent Reznor-penned track was recorded at his infamous Le Pig studio at the 10050 Cielo Drive residence in Beverly Hills, site of the Manson Family’s 1969 Tate murders.

While the track was previously available as an Amazon Original release in 2020, followed by a limited edition 7-inch single for Record Store Day in 2021, this is the first time fans will be able to access the song via wider digital release.

Speaking of the song in a press release, the Grammy Award-winning guitarist said, “[Piggy] remains one of my favourite Nails songs to this day.

“I am obsessed with the slinky tambourine that is just a little lazy in feel. And when I took this song apart to cover it, it took me a long time to really understand the immensity of the groove.

“It’s a dark, industrial reggae. Muscular, but never as distorted as you imagined it when you think of it in your head… They made a complicated thing seem easy and made big, bold sonic choices.”

Beginning 25th July, St. Vincent and her new band, Stay Human, will begin a week-long residency with The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, before returning to stages in North America this autumn.

This includes a spot on the highly anticipated Roxy Music arena tour.

Dates are as follows:

• 7th September – Toronto, Canada – Scotiabank Arena*
• 9th September – Washington, DC – Capitol One Arena*
• 10th September – Boston, MA – Fenway Park**
• 12th September– New York, NY – Madison Square Garden*
• 15th September – Philadelphia, PA – Wells Fargo Center*
• 17th September – Louisville, KY – Bourbon & Beyond 2022
• 19th September – Chicago, IL – United Center*
• 21st September – Austin, TX – Moody Center*
• 23rd September – Dallas, TX – American Airlines Center*
• 26th September – San Francisco, CA – Chase Center*
• 28th September – Los Angeles, CA – The Forum*
• 2nd October – Dana Point, CA – Ohana Fest 2022

* with Roxy Music

** with Red Hot Chili Peppers

Visit the St. Vincent website for more information.

We've already reported on how Dave Grohl and producer / musician Greg Kurstin's Hanukkah Sessions 2021 has been going until now, and now the pair have upped the ante with a version of Van Halen's Jump for the fourth instalment. And it's a beauty! 

Grohl's back on the drums while singing (just in case we thought there might be some musical skill the Foo Fighters man was lacking) with Kurstin on Oberheim keyboard (just like Eddie Van Halen used) and keytar. The latter even has Van Halen's signature stripes. 

Bravo boys!  

The 40 greatest synth sounds of all time, No 4: Van Halen – Jump

Dave Grohl never sleeps and this Hanukkah he's on fire again; performing a different cover with producer / musician Greg Kurstin by iconic Jewish artists each night. And one even sees Grohl singing behind the kit for a cover of Ramones punk classic Blitzkrieg Bop.

Of course, Grohl being Grohl, he has to outdo himself with a sequin jacket to perform Copacabana. He's got some work to before he can get to Manilow-level kitsch mastery but it's an enthusiastic effort.

We're still processing Grohl's dress / death metal vocal dynamic for the take on Lisa Loeb hit Stay (I Missed You) but we think it might be our favourite so far. Like the missing track Probot needed. 

We're looking forward to hearing and seeing what comes next from the duo.