Foo Fighters: Back and Forth Page #3

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I knew we were gonna be OK

and be able to continue

after I heard the song My Hero,

'cause it was great.

There were some songs

that we just started writing

and throwing into the set.

There were only a couple songs that we had

that were really good openers.

I thought, "God, I need to write

an opening song for us. "

In Europe and in England,

when bands play

the audience don't beat the sh*t out

of each other like they do in America.

They do this bounce, right?

Everybody bounces.

So I wanted to write a song

that everyone would start bouncing to

when we first came out and played.

So I had a melody and a riff idea,

but I didn't know the tempo.

So I jumped up and down,

and I found a tempo by, like, bouncing.

The tempo should be this...

I wrote the song, brought it to sound check,

said, "I have this new song.

"Let's learn it, so we can open with it

tomorrow night or tonight. "

We sound checked, ran through it,

the next night we opened with that song,

the audience was going...

It worked.

It's like, "Wow, cool. Let's keep it. "

We played, like,

I'm exaggerating, but it felt like.

Then we just toured a lot!

Pat was keeping track,

Pat was always...

Every other day he'd look at me and be like,

"12 months. 13 months. 16 months. "

I was just like...

I remember each time he would tell me

I'd be like, "No f***in' way!"

We've been on tour for so long.

We've been a band for almost a year now,

and I'd say about seven months

out of that year has been spent on the road.

I wasn't some kid who was just like,

"Yeah!" at that point.

It was just kind of like, you know...

I'm older and I'm lazier...

What?

...and still I'm playing the same 20 songs

This song's called For All The Cows.

This song is called

For All The Cows.

It's called For All The Cows.

This one's called For All The Cows.

This song is called

For All The Cows.

The second album that we made -

The Colour And The Shape,

we decided to work

with this producer named Gil Norton.

And Gil, at the time,

was famous for making the Pixies records.

This was my first real recording process.

Now there's a producer,

someone who's not just pressing play

but actually is saying, like,

"I think that should be a C.

And you should also play it in time. "

We went into the studio with Gil

and he worked us hard, real hard.

I was f***ing terrible.

And William was having his own challenges.

Gil called Nate and I the "rhythmless section".

So that was encouraging.

I could tell, when I had

to do something a million times,

that it was taking longer than I wanted,

and it was my first realization -

"I'm not a fully-formed musician.

I've got to keep getting better. "

Constantly, there was this feeling that,

whatever song we were working on,

Dave had a drum...

a drum part for it already,

in his head or whatever.

When I've written a song,

I have kind of a clear idea

of where the basic root accents should lie.

That's a fancy way of saying,

I know what the drums should sound like

in my head as I'm doing this thing.

That's not necessarily fair

to say that as a songwriter, you know,

who's collaborating with other musicians.

You're the drummer for a band

where your singer is the greatest

rock 'n' roll drummer in the world,

looking over your shoulder waiting for you

to do it as good as him.

That's just f***ed-up pressure.

Regardless of how good you are,

that's just f***ed-up pressure.

And remember that William was a kid.

He was really young.

I think that William

played the best that he could.

And sometimes it was great,

and sometimes it wasn't.

What sucked about all that was, you know...

I don't think the drum performances

were the best.

They didn't...

They weren't horrible.

If I listen to a song and I don't think

it has the thing that it needs,

it's not necessarily gonna get past me

and get on an album.

We left Seattle, and went to Los Angeles

to a different studio

to finish this thing up.

And Dave comes in, he's like,

"Listen, we're gonna redo... "

"My Poor Brain. "

Or whatever the song is.

"Drum track's not quite right.

Actually, I'm doing the drums on this one.

"We're just gonna redo it. "

William's up in Seattle

at this point in time.

They'd call me down and say,

"We need you to come play guitar on a song. "

And I'd go down and I'd be like,

"Well, I already played this song. "

"Well, we did it over. "

"Oh, OK."

You know, do it again.

I'd go home, then I'd get called again,

"Come down and play. "

I'm like, "All right, cool. Let's do it. "

"I already played this song!"

It just kept happening.

"What the f*** is going on here?"

And this happens three or four times,

like, "Hey, we're gonna try this one again. "

It ended up like, "Wait a minute.

We're just doing this whole album over. "

I remember asking, "Does William know?"

William's still up in Seattle,

so he doesn't know what's going on

and that this is happening.

And I'm stressing pretty hard because

that's gonna be a big problem.

I was like, "What's going on?

"Should I book a flight?

I should be down there. "

Dave calls me, like, "Don't come down here. "

I was like, "Why?"

He goes, "I'm redoing a couple of drum tracks. "

I was like... "Whoa. OK."

And I met with Nate.

I said, "What's going on?

Dave's redoing a couple of the tracks?"

He goes, "Is that what he told you?"

I said, "Yeah. "

He goes, "He redid 'em all. "

The conversation

that I eventually had with William

was that I really wanted him

to stay in the band,

and I really wanted him to be the drummer...

but...

I was gonna play drums on the record.

I don't know whether it was management,

the record company, Gil,

all of the above, Dave,

that wanted him to play drums

and didn't want me to play drums,

but him redoing the drum parts

has never been explained to me.

It's a tough thing to talk about,

because I know that William

will never forgive me

for playing drums on that record.

I know it.

And I wish things were different.

But I felt like this is what I had to do

in order to make this album happen.

We talked and Dave said,

"I still want you to tour the record. "

And I was just like,

"Dude, I mean, I have to, you know...

"As it is now, I have to rebuild my soul,

"or refind it, if you know what I mean.

"If I do that, it's like, 'see ya'.

"So... thanks but no thanks. "

It was a really weird time,

and I was young.

What the f***?

I heard on the radio...

"Foo Fighters drummer has left the band. "

I was like, "Whoa! Really?

"I wonder if they have a drummer yet?"

I remember vividly my brother saying,

"You should be in this band. "

I was like, "Well, f***, yeah,

that'd be great, wouldn't it?

"I would love to have been in the Who,

Jane's Addiction and Led Zeppelin too. "

Around that time, Taylor Hawkins

was playing drums with Alanis Morissette.

And she was blowing up.

I'd seen him play before, and there's no

question the dude's a monster on the drums.

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