New FOO FIGHTERS Drummer ILAN RUBIN Opens Up About How He Landed Gig, Says NINE INCH NAILS Drummer 'Switch' Was 'A Very Logical Thing'

In a new interview with Go With Elmo, the weekly podcast hosted by Elmo Lovano, a renowned musical director, producer, and founder of Jammcard, Ilan Rubin spoke about how he landed the gig as the new drummer of the FOO FIGHTERS, following the 2025 exit of Josh Freese. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Well, at some point in time I got a call from Dave [Grohl, FOO FIGHTERS frontman]. We talked about some stuff. He knew that my touring commitments [with NINE INCH NAILS] at the time were coming to an end, and I was available after that. I know that's a bit of a vague way of putting it, but there's some delicacy here. 'Cause I went from a band I'd played with for almost 17 years. So that was an end of a lengthy, extensive era for me. And this new chapter has been incredible — still very new, obviously. I don't even know how long it's been — maybe six, seven months, give or take. I have no idea. But it's been incredible — the most outgoing, inviting people and organization. Kind of just feeling like everything fits like a glove is great, especially after having played with so many bands for such a long time. I'm not saying that those weren't great in their own right, but I'm very much a creature of habit. So I like to stay where I am. Even though my career kind of unexpectedly turned into this thing where I've played with multiple bands, that was never my intention — ever. But I stay where I go. And going into a whole new world can be very daunting, but it's just been so welcoming that I couldn't be happier. Everything's awesome. So much fun. Everything is fun, which is great. The smiles are real, and I can't get enough of it. I don't know how many shows we've played up to this point, but it's still super fresh. Very exciting. And it's a great place to be and a great group of people."

Asked if he already knew Dave prior to getting a call from him, Ilan said: "We had met a few times over the years, but it's not like we were 'buddy buddy' texting all the time. [He had seen me play with the NINE INCH NAILS] probably a couple of times over the years, probably going back to, like — I don't know — if I had to say, maybe 2017 or so. But there would be years in between of seeing one another again.

"I haven't really talked about this whole sort of chapter, so this is a new thing," Ilan continued. "Not that I have anything to hide here, but it was just kind of, like, 'Hey, you probably didn't expect to hear from me, but there's some stuff going on, and I see that your last date is' — whenever it was; time is a giant blur, regardless of bands and touring. I have two kids, and I don't know what day it is today. But that's how it started."

Reflecting on his early rehearsal sessions with the FOO FIGHTERS, Ilan said: "For those who are somewhat familiar with the story or with the band, or this chapter with the band, at some point there were some auditions. And very understandable considering that it's such a massive band, but things didn't work out perhaps the way everyone had hoped over the last couple of years. So they really wanted to make sure that whoever kind of came in was — I don't know— vetted as best as possible. Make sure you check everything else out before you make your choice. These are assumptions here. But, yeah, so I played a second time, and then I was invited. But it was a great time. I mean, sitting down, playing songs. And like I said, very inviting group of people. And the songs are obviously incredibly fun to play."

Ilan continued: "I like to be prepared. So I'm a bit of a perfectionist in that way. And when I got the batch of songs that they wanted to play, I really did my research, because, obviously, the band's been around for so long. A lot of these songs have gone through different iterations over the years. And as somebody who's toured a lot with various bands, I know that things can change from tour to tour. So I really did my research as to what they had been doing for the last couple of years and just showed up as if it was ready to be night one of a tour. And we just played smoothly, and that was that."

Asked about the "story" of the so-called "drummer swap" between FOO FIGHTERS and NINE INCH NAILS, with Rubin leaving NINE INCH NAILS to join FOO FIGHTERS, and NINE INCH NAILS immediately announcing the return of Freese as his replacement, Ilan said: "There is no story, honestly. I think it's just a very logical thing. There was nothing behind it. And it's very logical in the sense that Josh played with NAILS from, I wanna say '05 to the end of '08. I auditioned in '08, took over the next shows, I think it was February of '09, and was with the band up until last summer. The last tour I did was a European tour of the 'Peel It Back' cycle. And as I said earlier, when I was gotten in touch with, Dave and management, everyone was very well aware that I had a commitment up to this point, and was I doing anything afterwards? And at the time there was nothing I knew about. The tour that NINE INCH NAILS had just triumphantly wrapped up was not on the books. So as far as I knew, my contract ended on a date. After that, it was, what am I doing next? And when this happened and the opportunity presented itself and it was just an obvious great fit and a great thing for me…"

Ilan continued: "I guess I need to take a step back, is that at some point in time, for whatever reason, Josh was no longer with FOO FIGHTERS. And that was the first thing. So it's not like Josh was no longer with the band and they had already been talking. None of that was a thing. They dealt with whatever they dealt with. They needed a drummer. And whenever it was getting a little too close for comfort in terms of shows that were coming up in a few months, I was gotten in touch with. As a result of me taking that opportunity, obviously NINE INCH NAILS needed a drummer. And I would imagine that at this point in time, Trent [Reznor, NINE INCH NAILS leader] doesn't wanna spend however many weeks at a rehearsal studio playing the same songs over and over and over again to break in a new drummer. And aside from that, Josh has already done it before, so it was very logical on that. I mean, why else would you go find somebody else? And going back to what we were talking about earlier, in terms of wanting to feel comfortable, Trent wouldn't have to think about anything 'cause he knows that Josh can do it and has done it. So I don't think there's anything particularly surprising there. But when the news leaked, 'cause it did leak, it was kind of billed as this drummer swap. Now that would imply that Trent and Dave were, like, 'Hey, you know what would be a great idea? Why not?' Which is the dumbest thing. But the dots were obviously connected where there was a switch. But it was certainly not a swap. I left my tenure with NINE INCH NAILS to join FOO FIGHTERS. NINE INCH NAILS needed a drummer, and the drummer they got was the guy who was no longer with FOO FIGHTERS. And that's literally what it was."

Ilan added: ""The only thing that kind of really bothered me at the time when that news leaked was that it kind of gave the impression that I just kind of said, 'Well, this came up. I'm outta here. Have fun, guys,' which was not the case at all. Everyone knew what my commitments were, and I'm a very, very loyal guy and I do what I say I'm gonna do. So it just happened to work out better that even though I was available for that [NINE INCH NAILS summer 2025] tour, it worked out better for NAILS to just have Josh, who was then gonna go do the stuff in 2026. And it worked out great for me that rather than having to… And get this: had everything gone the way it was originally supposed to, I would've finished that American leg of the NINE INCH NAILS tour, I would have had a week to rehearse with FOO FIGHTERS and then play a festival in Jakarta. That's what it would've been. That's what everyone had agreed to, and that's what it was. I was gonna go play with NAILS, have my last tour, and then jump in and really put in the work to go learn all the songs that they wanted to do, and that was that. But because it worked out this way, I had so much more time on my hands, just because Trent had made the decision, 'Well, we might as well have Josh just play now because he's gonna be playing the next leg of the tour. Let's just rip off the Band-Aid' — my words, not his — 'and just do it now rather than doing it later.' But that allowed me to, rather than have a week with the band, to have a couple of months to leisurely learn 40 songs or whatever it was, hang out with the guys, get to know everybody really well. And it gave us the opportunity to play these smaller kind of pop-up secret shows."

Ilan made his live debut with the FOO FIGHTERS on September 14, 2025 at the Fremont Theater in San Luis Obispo, California.

The FOO FIGHTERS announced that they had tapped Rubin as their new drummer in July 2025, joining Grohl, Nate Mendel, Pat Smear, Chris Shiflett and Rami Jaffree.

Freese was with the FOO FIGHTERS from 2023 until May 2025. Before Freese's time with the band, Taylor Hawkins served as the drummer for the FOO FIGHTERS from 1997 until his death in 2022 at 50.