JOSH FREESE Has 'A Couple Of Theories' As To Why He Was Fired From FOO FIGHTERS

During an appearance on the December 10 episode of SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk", legendary rock drummer Josh Freese was asked if he has gotten "any clarity" on why he was fired from the FOO FIGHTERS in May 2025, two years after he was recruited to fill the vacancy left by the late Taylor Hawkins. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Not really. I mean, I've got a couple of theories, but I feel like people are so interested in that because they're such a massive band that I'm kind of hesitant to comment at all about it yet because anything I say is gonna be used and thrown around and republished and reposted. But, yeah, I loved my time I spent down there. I had a great couple of years with those guys."

Addressing the fact that FOO FIGHTERS hired now-former NINE INCH NAILS drummer Ilan Rubin to occupy their coveted drumming throne, while Freese returned to take Rubin's place with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross in NINE INCH NAILS, Josh said: "As far as the drummer swap thing, it's funny because it's just coincidence the way it worked out. It's not like there was a purposeful drum swap. And, actually, if Ilan, who was playing with NINE INCH NAILS, who joined the band after I left in 2009, if he left NINE INCH NAILS to go join — pick a band — MUSE, I don't know, Trent would've called me. It's not like it was an intentional swap. It's like when Trent needed a drummer, when Ilan split, he was, like, 'Well, I'm gonna call Freese.' And he called me and I was, like, 'Hell yeah.' Because I missed working with Trent and I loved working with him the last time I did it back between '05 and '09. And it just so happens to be he needed a drummer because his drummer was going to join the band that I just was let go from. So it was just completely coincidence that that that's the way that that worked. You know what I mean? It wasn't premeditated, it wasn't worked out by anybody. It was just kind of, like, 'Well, I need a drummer. Sure, I'll call Josh. Oh, how funny. I'm calling Josh because I need a drummer, because my drummer just left to work with the band that Josh just left.' [Laughs] So it'was just pure coincidence."

When Freese announced he was fired from FOO FIGHTERS last May, he shared a statement on Instagram in which he said the FOO FIGHTERS called him earlier that week to let him know that they had decided "to go in a different direction with their drummer." Freese added, "No reason was given."

In a light-hearted follow-up post, Freese shared a list of the 10 possible reasons he might have been fired from the band, including "once whistled [the FOO FIGHTERS' hit] 'My Hero' for a week solid on tour" and "never even once tried growing a beard."

FOO FIGHTERS frontman Dave Grohl thanked Freese for his work with the band in an extensive July 2025 letter celebrating FOO FIGHTERS' 30th anniversary, writing that without the "thunderous wizardry of Josh Freese, this story would be incomplete."

Freese released his new album, "Just A Minute, Vol. 2", on November 28, 2025 via PEARL JAM co-founder Stone Gossard's Loosegroove Records. The follow-up to his first installment, released in 2021, once again crammed 25 songs into 25 minutes, with every track landing precisely at the one-minute mark.

Recently profiled in The New York Times, Freese is among the most revered drummers in modern rock music today, keeping time for some of the biggest and most influential rock bands in history, including GUNS N' ROSES, WEEZER, FOO FIGHTERS, A PERFECT CIRCLE and NINE INCH NAILS. He has helped breathe new energy into legendary acts like DEVO and THE REPLACEMENTS and has played on hundreds of studio recordings spanning artists as stylistically wide-ranging as Bruce Springsteen, Katy Perry, THE DWARVES and Lana Del Rey.