Foo Fighters

Dave Grohl (lead vocals, guitars, drums) founded the Foo Fighters as a one-man project after the death of Kurt Cobain marked the end of Nirvana in 1994. Now a full-fledged band, the Foos have gone on to become one of the biggest alt rock bands of the 90s and the new millennium.

Grohl had built up an arsenal of songs over the preceding years which prompted him to record a demo on which he played all the instruments. Grohl circulated the tape to friends and it eventually made its way into music industry circles. The tape's warm reception prompted Grohl to recruit band members Nate Mendel (bass), Pat Smear (lead guitar), and William Goldsmith (drums, percussion) to support the album. Grohl refused to do interviews or tour large venues to promote the July, 1995 eponymous album, Foo Fighters.

Foo Fighters made their live debut on March 3, 1995 during a show at The Satyricon in Portland, OR. They followed that with a show at the Velvet Elvis in Seattle, WA on March 4. The Foo Fighters undertook their first major tour in the spring of 1995, opening for Mike Watt.

Drummer Goldsmith didn’t last long. Ongoing disputes with Grohl meant that he left while the band were recording their second album and Grohl took to the drums once more in order to finish recording. Alanis Morissette's touring drummer,Taylor Hawkins ended up relieving Grohl of his drumsticks in time for the album The Color and the Shape in 1997. However, the release, too, marked the departure of Smear and the short-lived arrival of Franz Stahl, who was quickly replaced by Chris Shiflett, after further creative differences with Grohl surfaced.

The band recorded their third album Nothing Left to Lose at Grohl's home studio in Virginia. The album spawned several singles, including Learn to Fly, the band's first single to reach the US Hot 100.

Between the band’s third album and their fourth, One By One, Grohl worked with Queens of the Stone Age on Songs for the Deaf. As an aside, Grohl would later join with Queens' guitarist Josh Homme to form Them Crooked Vultures with Led Zeppelin's bassist, John Paul Jones.

Near the end of 2001, the band reconvened to record its fourth album. After spending four months in a Los Angeles studio completing the album, Grohl scrapped it in its entirety, save for "Tired of You," and re-recorded the entire thing at his Virginia studio. The final album was released in October 2002 with the title of One By One.

The Foo Fighters next album was released in June 2005. It was a double CD album called In Your Honor and it consisted of equal parts of rock and acoustic tracks. In support of the album, the Foos rallied for a short acoustic tour in the summer of 2006.

In November 2006, the band released their first ever live CD, Skin and Bones, featuring fifteen performances captured over a three-night stand in Los Angeles. An accompanying DVD was released which featured tracks not available on the CD.

The follow-up to In Your Honor saw the band calling upon The Colour and the Shape producer Gil Norton. Guitarist Smear also announced that he'd rejoined the band and Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace was released on September 25, 2007. The Foo Fighters toured extensively behind the release, traveling throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Asia.

The band began recording their seventh studio album on August 16, 2010 according to a post by Grohl on the band's twitter account. It is reportedly being produced by butch Vig and is being recorded on analog tape, as opposed to digital capture.