JOSH FREESE Reflects On His Time With FOO FIGHTERS: 'They Were Good To Me - Until They Weren't'

In the cover story for the latest issue of Modern Drummer magazine, 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 said: "The FOO FIGHTERS are such a big, mainstream band that everything I say gets taken out of context, reposted, and blown out of proportion. People created headlines from one quick, simple comment I made on a podcast not long ago, it's crazy. I've got to be careful about what I say about it. But I've got a lot to say about it and I've been just trying to figure out how and when, to go about really articulating it."

He continued: "I have a couple small theories [as to why I was let go], but I can't really go into them right now. I did really enjoy the two years I spent with those guys however, and they were good to me… until they weren't. I liked playing with them. And I loved having [FOO FIGHTERS frontman] Dave [Grohl] as a bandleader. I truly respect him so much as a drummer first and foremost. To me, he's a drummer first and everything else is second. I've listened to him on all the great records he's played drums on more than I've listened to any FOO FIGHTERS stuff. It really was cool being in a band where the leader is a phenomenal drummer that you respect… That's really fun… We basically came from the same era too and could relate to one another."

Freese added: "I enjoyed being around those guys, they were generous and good to me… and that's what makes the whole thing even more of a mystery. I think I'm a pretty good read on people, and I did not see that coming. One day it was nothing but laughs, we're on stage and Dave's looking at me every night like, 'You're killing it, dude!!!' And then it was just — over."

Last December, Freese addressed 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 told SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk" at the time: "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 in May 2025, 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", in November 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.