Foo Fighters Bio

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Foo Fighters:

Dave Grohl

Nate Mendel

Taylor Hawkins

Franz Stahl

Pat Smear

William Goldsmith

Band Biography

Explains how the band got together

About the new album and the New Foo.

Other Articles

Dave Eric Grohl (vocals, guitar)

Birthday: 1/14/69 ???
Former Bands:
	Freak Baby
	Mission Impossible
	Fast
	Dain Bramage
	Trouble Funk
	Melvins
	Scream
	Nirvana

Born in Warren, Ohio and grew up in Springfield, Virginia, the lead man of Foo Fighters learned to play music at a young age. His first instrument was a trombone. He recieved his first guitar at the age of 10. Soon he started to play with his makeshift drum kit (chair as a high hat, a pillow as a snare, etc.) in his bedroom because his parents could not afford a drum set. In high school, Dave started to play for a couple of bands-- Freak Baby*, Mission Impossible, Fast and Dain Bramage. Later in his career he started to play with bands like, Minor Threat, Trouble Funk, and the Melvins until he became a member of Scream. Dropping out of school at the age of 17 for full-time touring until he left in July 1990. Buzz Osborne of the Melvins brought him to Seattle. This opened the doors to Nirvana in Septmeber 1990. He replaced Chad Channing after the release of Nirvana's debut albunm, Bleach. Nirvana became a huge hit with the release of Nevermind which sold over 10 million copies. After the release of the single Heart Shaped Box which featured Dave's Marigold, Dave recorded a demo tape, LATE! Pocketwatch in '91. On tour with Nirvana, he would practice with a guitar. After Kurt took his own life, Dave was out of place. He did not know what to do. He played for Tom Petty for awhile until 1994, he decided to record some tracks. It became the first Foo Fighters album. And the rest... became history.

* Grohl originally played the guitar until the bassist left. The original
drummer took the bass and Grohl ended up behind the drum kit. The drummer turn
out to be a better bass player. Freak Baby also was renamed to Mission Impossible
than to Fast until they broke up in '86.
** Touch Soundtrack with Veruca Salt's Louise Post and X's John Doe.
*** Worked with Puffy Daddy on remix of "Its all about the Benjamins."

Nate Mendel (bass)

Birthday: 12/2
Former Bands:
	Diddly Squat
	Christ On A Crutch
	Chewbacca Kaboom
	Empty Set 
	Sunny Day Real Estate

Nate Mendel with William Goldsmith and Dan Hoerner formed Sunny Day Real Estate in 1992. SDRE was later joined by Jeremy Engik in '93 for lead vocals and guitar. After the breakup of SDRE in '95, Nate along with Will was offered to join Foo Fighters by Dave. In '97, was reunited with SDRE. He's pulling double shifts with Foo Fighters and SDRE

Taylor Hawkins (drums)

Birth year: 1972 ???
Former Bands:
	Tour Drummer for Alanis Morissette

The drummer is from Laguna Beach, California, just 50 miles from L.A. He spent about two years on the road in Alanis Morissette's backing band. His idol is Stewart Copeland (of Police... know your classic bands). Taylor Hawkins was resting after the monster tour with Alanis until asked to join Foo Fighters by Dave. Taylor is also a talented guitarist, pianist, and singer.

* he could be seen in the Alanis video, "You learn." He was the one who threw
the first cream pie into her face.

Franz Stahl (guitar, backup vocals)

Former Bands:
	Scream
	Wool

Franz And his brother, Peter formed the legendary hardcore band, Scream way back in the late 70s/early 80s (???). Scream was looking for a drummer, Dave Grohl called and called until Franz and Co. allowed him to demo for them. Franz and Co. thought he was good, signed him up, and sha-bang. The band became a great success otherwise they would not be legendary. Several years after Grohl departed (for a small band named Nirvana), Scream decided to break-up (early 90s). Franz and his brother started a new band named Wool. Wool seems to... disappear in the mid 90s and I guess broke up. Franz ends up in Japan playing with a punk rock kid, Jay who was in a successful band, Luncay. Later, Dave called Franz saying he needed someone to play for Foo Fighters before Pat left. Franz's first day of availability was happened to be the day of the MTV Music Video Awards. Pat came up with the idea for Franz to be introduced as the replacement during the MVA's and Franz came an offical Foo on Sept. 4 1997.

* Franz's brother, Peter is Foo Fighters' road manager.

Former Foo Fighters Members:

Pat Smear (guitar)

Birth Year: 1960 ???
Former Bands:
	Germs
Other Bands:
	Vagina Dentata
	45 Grave
	Twisted Roots
	Tater Totz
	Deathfolk

Originally born Georg Ruthenberg, he grew up in west L.A. He was a son of a German photographer and a African-American/Cherokee teacher/opera singer. When Pat was in seventh grade he met 8th grader, Jan Paul Beahm through a drug dealer and discovered that they both had common interests. Soon, they created the Germs with Norma Jean Baker and Theodosia Goodman. Being in the punk era, they took up different names. Theodosia Goodman and Norma Jean Baker became, "Theda Bara" and "Marilyn Monroe" while Paul Beahm became "Bobby Pyn" and eventually, "Darby Crash." Georg Ruthenburg transformed into "Pat Smear*." After Darby Crash suicide tribute to Sid Vicious, Pat Smear was lost and wondering in the 80s. He played off and on for a series of bands-- Vagina Dentata, 45 Grave, and Twisted Roots. He also created two solo albums. Edging close to poverty, he did a series of jobs from phone sales to a receptionist in a model agency also as a movie extra**. In 1993, he pass the invitation of joining Flea's band, The Red Hot Chilli Peppers because he did not want to play funk. Soon, his closest friend, Courtney Love's husband called Pat to ask him to join Nirvana. Pat Smear said it was like "ESP" that Kurt called him. He always wanted to be in Nirvana because he really like their music. He was looking for Courtney's phone number to ask Kurt if he could join his band. Pat Smear and Kurt Cobain became the closest of friends. Pat and Kurt were also in one tour bus while Chris and Dave in another. Pat states, "It was like a segregated band." After Kurt's death, Dave, Chris and Pat got closer with each other during Dave's wedding and the mixing sessions of Nirvana Unplugged. About a year later, Dave called Pat to join Foo Fighters. Pat could be seen on MTV's House Of Style shopping with the... eck... Spice Girls (I'm going to lose readers but hell... Spice Girls sucks!).

9/9- Pat Smear annouced his departure from Foo Fighters during MTV Music Video Awards. Pat Smear was a Foo since 1995 to Sept. 4 1997.

* "I was in health class, 11th grade and I read about Pap smears and I thought
that was the most disgusting thing I could imagine." explains Pat about his name.
** Pat was in movies from Blade Runner to Howard the Duck, from CHiPs to
Prince's "Rasberry Beret" video. On the set of Breakin', he met extra
Courtney Love who became Pat's best friend.
*** I'm a big Pat Smear fan.

For more on Pat Smear, visit The Pat Smear Page

William Goldsmith (drums)

Former Bands:
	Chewbacca Kaboom
	Thief, Steal Me A Peach
	Empty Set
	Sunny Day Real Estate

William Goldsmith with Nate Mendel and Dan Hoerner formed Sunny Day Real Estate in 1992. SDRE was later joined by Jeremy Engik in '93 for lead vocals and guitar. After the breakup of SDRE in '95, Will along with Nate was offered to join Foo Fighters by Dave. Will left Foo Fighters during the time "The Colour And The Shape" was being recorded. He is now reunited with SDRE.

Foo Fighters FAQ:

http://www.student.uwa.edu.au/student/airjeff/foofaq.html

Articles on Foo Figthers

This is the first chat transcript of Foo Fighters.
Transcript from the chat on SonicNet.
A MTV chat w/ Foo Fighters before opening for Rolling Stones
Here's an interview of Taylor Hawkins.
Here's an article from the NY Post of Dave Grohl
An Interview of Foo Fighters about Pat's departure.
Wanted: An Alternative to Ska
Pop musing: Who's Foo? Only Dave Grohl knows for sure
Hard Working Foo Fighters May Play Overseas Ozzfest

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