It was officially announced this morning that Josh Freese has been recruited as Foo Fighters new drummer!
The band confirmed Freese as the new drummer during their global listening event on May 22nd after some comedic cameos from famous drummers Chad Smith, Tommy Lee and Danny Carry.
WHO IS JOSH FREESE?
Freese has an impressive list of names that he’s recorded, performed and toured with across the years. His CV includes A Perfect Circle, Guns N’ Roses, Nine Inch Nails, Puddle of Mudd, Weezer, Sublime, Paramore, Sting, The Vandals and The Replacements, to name a few.
He’s one of the industry’s most sought-after session drummers, having appeared on close to 300 different records, including massive tracks such as Evanescene’s ‘Bring Me To Life’, Puddle of Mudd’s ‘She Hates Me’, and even Michael Buble’s ‘Haven’t Met You Yet’ (seriously!).
How did Josh Freese start drumming?
Freese started drumming at the age of eight, benefitting from both his parents being involved in the musical world. His mum was a classical pianist and his dad was the conductor of the Disney World band in California and the Disneyland band in Florida.
He worked professionally for a Disneyland band at just 12 years old and dropped out of high school to pursue a career behind the drumset at the age of 16. Soon he was working with The Vandals before eventually going on to have a hugely successful career spanning across genres.
He does love making songs across the whole musical spectrum, but also admitted to Drummer’s Journal he's dreamt of being in a big band (well mate, you can tick that one off).
“It’s not like I woke up one day and said, ‘I’m going to be a session drummer.’ It just sort of happened,” he said. “Aside from having multiple sources of income, I like the variety of playing music with different people in different situations.”
“Maybe if I was the drummer for Muse, I could say, ‘Ok, I’m successful enough where I don’t have to do anything else except concentrate on my band… Being in just one band…I honestly fantasize about that sometimes. I’m only human,” he added.
Has Josh Freese played for the Foo Fighters before?
Freese took stage with the Foo Fighters at the Taylor Hawkins tribute concert in Wembly last year. He banged the drums to the tunes 'Times Like These' and 'All My Life'.
Freese specifically asked to play on Taylor's drum set, saying in an Instagram post: “Without hesitation, I said ‘Taylor’s drums need to be up there and I want to play on his exact setup. I want THAT energy to be up there on THAT stage."
“I want to sweat all over the same drums he was sweating all over every night…don’t change a thing.”
How did Josh Freese know Taylor Hawkins?
Reese and his predecessor, the late great Taylor Hawkins, were really good mates as they grew up in the same town.
“Taylor and I both grew up in Orange County...30 mins away from one another,” he said in an Instagram post last year. “Whenever we were in a group full of musicians, we'd joke that we were the only 2 guys from O.C. in the room.”
“We always had that funny little bond and he'd always remind me that he was tired of hearing about ‘that other young guy from OC who was already making records and touring’ when he was a teenager. I'd then ask him if he wanted to trade bank accounts with me, LOL!”
Freese, who most recently was stickman for The Offspring and Danny Elfman’s band, will join the Foo Fighters when they kick off their tour later this week.
