page_title: Dave Grohl
section_title: Foo Fighters (1994–present)
hierarchical_section_title: Dave Grohl / Career / Foo Fighters (1994–present)
caption_attribution_description: Foo Fighters
context_page_description: David Eric Grohl is an American musician. He was the drummer for the rock band Nirvana, and is the founder of Foo Fighters. Grohl is also the drummer and co-founder of the rock supergroup Them Crooked Vultures, and wrote the music and performed all the instruments for his short-lived side projects Late! and Probot. He has also recorded and toured with Queens of the Stone Age.
  At age 17, Grohl joined Washington D.C.-area favorites Scream after the departure of drummer Kent Stax. He joined Nirvana soon after Scream's unexpected disbandment. Nirvana's second album, and the first to feature Grohl, Nevermind, exceeded all expectations and became a worldwide commercial success. Following the death of Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain in 1994, Grohl formed Foo Fighters as a one-man project. In July 1995, the eponymous debut album was released by Roswell and Capitol Records. Foo Fighters have released nine further albums.
  Grohl established himself as a respected drummer with Nirvana and in 2014 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, along with bandmates Cobain and Novoselic, in the group's first year of eligibility.
context_section_description: Following Cobain's death in April 1994, Grohl retreated, unsure of where to go and what to do with himself. In October 1994, Grohl scheduled studio time, again at Robert Lang Studios, and quickly recorded a fifteen-track demo. With the exception of a single guitar part on "X-Static" played by Greg Dulli of the Afghan Whigs, Grohl performed all of the instruments himself.
  At the same time, Grohl wondered if his future might be in drumming for other bands. In November, Grohl took a brief turn with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, including a performance on Saturday Night Live. Petty asked him to join permanently, but Grohl declined. He was also rumored as a possible replacement for Pearl Jam drummer Dave Abbruzzese and even performed with the band for a song or two at three shows during Pearl Jam's March 1995 Australian tour. However, by then, Pearl Jam had already settled on ex-Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons, and Grohl had other solo plans in the works.
  After passing the demo around, Grohl found himself with considerable major label interest. Nirvana's A&R rep Gary Gersh had subsequently taken over as president of Capitol Records and lured Grohl to sign with the label. Grohl did not want the effort to be considered the start of a solo career, so he recruited other band members: former Germs and touring Nirvana guitarist Pat Smear and two members of the recently disbanded Sunny Day Real Estate, William Goldsmith (drums) and Nate Mendel (bass). Rather than re-record the album, Grohl's demo was given a professional mix by Rob Schnapf and Tom Rothrock and was released in July 1995 as Foo Fighters' debut album.
  During a break between tours, the band entered the studio and recorded a cover of Gary Numan's "Down in the Park". In February 1996, Grohl and his then-wife Jennifer Youngblood made a brief cameo appearance on  The X-Files third-season episode "Pusher".
  After touring for the self-titled album for more than a year, Grohl returned home and began work on the soundtrack to the 1997 movie Touch. Grohl performed all of the instruments and vocals himself, save for vocals from Veruca Salt singer Louise Post on the title track, keyboards by Barrett Jones (who also co-produced the record) on one track, and vocals and guitar by X's John Doe on "This Loving Thing (Lynn's Song)". Grohl completed the recording in two weeks, and immediately joined Foo Fighters to work on their follow-up.
  In the midst of the initial sessions for Foo Fighters' second album, tension emerged between Grohl and drummer William Goldsmith. According to Goldsmith, "Dave had me do 96 takes of one song, and I had to do thirteen hours' worth of takes on another one. [...] It just seemed that everything I did wasn't good enough for him, or anyone else". Goldsmith also believed that Capitol and producer Gil Norton wanted Grohl to drum on the album. With the album seemingly complete, Grohl headed home to Virginia with a copy of the rough mixes and found himself unhappy with the results. Grohl penned a few new songs, recording one of them, "Walking After You", by himself at a studio in Washington, D.C. Inspired by the session, Grohl opted to move the band, without Goldsmith's knowledge, to Los Angeles to re-record most of the album with Grohl behind the kit. After the sessions were complete, Goldsmith officially announced his departure from the band.
  Speaking in 2011 about the tension surrounding the departure of Goldsmith, Grohl explained that "there were a lot of reasons it didn't work out, but there was also a part of me that was like, you know, I don't know if I'm finished playing the drums yet". He also stated that he wished he had "handled things differently".
  The effort was released in May 1997 as the band's second album, The Colour and the Shape, which eventually cemented Foo Fighters as a staple of rock radio. The album spawned several hits, including "Everlong", "My Hero", and "Monkey Wrench". Just prior to the album's release, former Alanis Morissette drummer Taylor Hawkins joined the band on drums. The following September, Smear (a close friend 
caption: Foo Fighters in 2009; from left to right: Hawkins, Shiflett, Grohl, Mendel
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