From the Ashes of Nirvana

Dave Grohl had been writing songs from his teen age years, but they never got into Nirvana albums. So, after Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain was found dead and Nirvana subsequently disbanded, Dave Grohl had about forty songs ready. He switched drums to guitar and headed to the studio with his friend Barrett Jones and they started recording a bunch of the songs Grohl had made. Dave Grohl's first idea was to release those songs anonymously and at first, only a hundred copies were made available of this album. Soon, the tape started to get a lot of publicity, and finally Grohl ended up making a major recording deal.

Grohl started to gather a band around him. From a band called Sunny Day Real Estate, he found a bass player Nate Mendel and the drummer William Goldsmith to the band. Pat Smear, who had played as a tour-guitarist in Nirvana, jumped in as well. Grohl had also some conversations with Nirvana bass player Krist Novoselic about joining the band, but they both eventually thought that it wasn't a wise move to make. The band decided to call themselves Foo Fighters, after the World War II aircraft that were said to search for unknown flying objects. The Foo Fighters self-titled debut album "Foo Fighters" was finally released on July 1995 and it was a success story from the very begin and it sold platinum in the U.S. in six months.

After an extensive tour in 1996, the band went to studio to record their second album "The Colour And the Shape". During these studio sessions, drummer William Goldsmith decided to leave the band and therefore Dave Grohl played the major part of the drum tracks on the album. Before "The Colour And the Shape" was released, Foo Fighters appointed former Alanis Morissette drummer Taylor Hawkins to replace Goldsmith. Just after the album was released, also guitarist Smear leaved the band, and he was replaced with Franz Stahl. This replacement didn't last long, and so their third album "There Is Nothing Left to Lose" where recorded without a second guitarist. After the recording session had been finished, Chris Shiflett was appointed to the band, first as a tour-guitarist, and later he became a full member of the band. The single "Learn to Fly" from "There Is Nothing Left to Lose" was their first single to reach the top 100 on the U.S. Charts.

During 2001 and 2002 the band were rumoured to be splitting up, but the release of the album "One by One" put end to all those rumours. "One by One" is said to be one of the worst part of the Foo Fighters discography, and that's why it is pretty ironic that it is the only one that has won them a Grammy award.

In 2005 they returned to the studio, and this time the result was a double album. The first side of the album contained hard rock that the fans were used to, but the second side showed a new side of the band. All the songs on it were purely acoustic featuring guest stars like Led Zeppelin bass player John Paul Jones and jazz-singer Norah Jones.

On the autumn of 2007, Foo Fighters released a single "Pretender" and soon after it the album "Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace". It was nominated for 5 Grammy awards in 2008.