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American rock band Foo Fighters introduced new drummer Josh Freese and unveiled songs from their next album with a global live-streamed event on Monday morning.
Freese, 50, has played with Nine Inch Nails, Guns N’ Roses, A Perfect Circle, the Offspring, Weezer, and the Vandals in a career spanning 35 years. Originally from Orlando, Florida, Freese is also a highly regarded, prolific session drummer and has recorded with many high-profile artists, including Sting, Lana Del Rey and Bruce Springsteen.
Dave Grohl on stage with Foo Fighters in Geelong last year. The band’s new drummer is Josh Freese, replacing the late Taylor Hawkins. Hawkins, 50, died in March last year.Credit: Paul Rovere
The free streaming event began at 5am AEST and was the first time Foo Fighters, fronted by Dave Grohl, have performed publicly since the death of drummer Taylor Hawkins.
Streamed live from the band’s Studio 606 in Los Angeles, the performance featured songs from new album But Here We Are, due for release on June 2.
Hawkins, 50, died in March last year while on tour in South America. His death came three weeks after the band performed a massive stadium show in Geelong.
Monday morning’s live performance, called Preparing Music For Concerts, on streaming service Veeps, also included behind-the-scenes footage and was the group’s first time on stage together since the loss of Hawkins, who joined Foo Fighters in 1997.
Josh Freese (left) performs with the New Radicals on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in 1999. Credit: Getty
“It works for me,” Grohl said, after Foo Fighters opened with All My Life. New song Rescued was followed by No Son Of Mine from 2021 album Medicine At Midnight, which was Hawkins’ last studio album with the band. Under You and Nothing At All were among other new songs played in Monday’s hour-long jam session, along with fan favourite Monkey Wrench.
The live-stream began with footage of the band’s crew setting up equipment, followed by Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, Tommy Lee and Tool’s Danny Carey all briefly popping into the studio. After several minutes, the camera turned to Freese, sitting behind his drum kit.
As part of their upcoming tour, Foo Fighters will play in New Hampshire on Wednesday ahead of other US dates in Boston, Columbus and Washington this month. An extensive list of tour dates has been announced, including festival shows. New Australian tour dates are yet to be announced.
The band cancelled all of last year’s tour dates, including a run of November shows in Australia, just days after Hawkins died in his hotel room in Colombia.
Tribute concerts were held for Hawkins in London and Los Angeles last September, but Foo Fighters did not perform live at those events. Freese was among the many drummers, including Chad Smith, Metallica’s Lars Ulrich, and Blink-182’s Travis Barker, who joined other musicians on stage for the two tribute shows.
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