Foo Fighters: Back and Forth Page #6

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and he was a good guy,

and he'd been in bands,

and he didn't smell,

and he was awesome.

So the next day, just all day,

I just sat there by the phone.

And at like, around five or six,

the phone rang

and it was Dave and Taylor

And they said,

"All right, you know, you got the gig.

We start rehearsing tomorrow.

"Say goodbye to your friends, you're not

gonna see anybody for the next year. "

It was like, Chris joined the band

and we had our itinerary ready to go.

"Ready? We're gonna leave for ten years.

Let's go. "

The Foos found their new best buddy

in Chris Shiflett,

a former member of punk bands

No Use For A Name and 22 Jacks.

I remember wanting

to help Chris feel comfortable.

We went out to dinner a couple of times.

Trying not to have a situation

where he comes in and it's like, "OK, go!"

When I joined Nirvana,

I was the fifth drummer of Nirvana.

With Chris, it was maybe the same way,

you know?

He was the third guitar player

of the Foo Fighters.

In the early days of being in the band

I didn't wanna step on anybody's toes.

I didn't even know what...

I didn't know what my place was.

And I was just genuinely, like,

this was everything that I ever wanted -

the dream coming true.

Every time Foo Fighters

would put out a record,

I would get really excited

and miss it so bad.

I found out after being in the band

for a couple months

that they had almost replaced me with Pat.

Pat almost came back,

who they had a lot of history with,

and there was a relationship there.

Dave didn't know that I knew that,

and probably most of them didn't.

There was at least a couple times where

I called Dave and said, "I want back. "

Then when it looked like it might

actually happen, I got scared.

After being in the band for a couple months,

I had this feeling,

"This could all end,

and I'm gonna enjoy this while it lasts.

"Because it probably will end

sooner than I want it to. "

That third record, we went on the road

with the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

For, like, four months

we toured America with them.

We had never played arenas before.

We hadn't done that arena rock thing.

That's when we started

coming up with jams onstage

and working out, like, a show.

Not a "show,"

not dancers and sh*t in the show,

but really like kinda work out a good set.

So that it's impressive.

Taylor really drove that home.

It was great.

That changed the band, probably, forever

and made us concentrate more

on really playing together.

We had a stage setup

that we had built for the arena.

It was basically modeled after

the Queen Live Killers record cover,

it was very seventies.

Hi. This is our dressing room,

where we get dressed before we play.

And we had these little uniforms set.

And we brought a wardrobe case

Everything was red and black, or white.

That was our color theme for the tour.

It was the first time we thought

in terms of something like,

"Let's look a certain way on stage. "

I had the black shirt with white tie

and black pants.

Nate had the red shirt with black tie and...

We looked like Kraftwerk

or something like that.

We were... It was silly, really.

But we put on this show,

and we f***in' killed it.

OK, we'll see you guys in a town near you,

I hope very soon.

Take care and...

I love you.

It just stands to reason no matter how great

a thing that your life or your job is,

after a while, you need a break.

That was fun

until after two months of doing it.

It feels like Groundhog Day,

all those arenas look the same.

You start bringing the bottle of whisky

to the stage with you.

It started with, "Let's do a shot

before we play. " We'd call it "band prayer".

Then that turned into like,

"Let's do ten shots before we play. "

And we all started gettin' f***in' hammered

before we went onstage.

And we got really shitty by the end.

I think that's probably why so many musicians

wind up getting so f***ed up,

just 'cause you need something to keep it fun.

Taylor had been struggling with...

with drugs, I think.

He and I had talked about it a few times.

I didn't really know how to deal

with the way you were supposed to be.

I thought that to be a rock 'n' roller

you have to be the f***in' Keith Richards.

You have to be the dark, partying, f***in'...

the real deal.

That's the only way it's real rock 'n' roll.

Rock 'n' roll!

I would tell him, I'd say,

"You know, dude, I love you like a brother.

"I'm not a cop. I'm not your dad, whatever.

"But I'm worried about you, you know?"

We were in London,

and we all went out to a bar

across the street from the hotel.

We were having a good time,

and I came back to my room early.

And in the morning I got a call

that he was on his way to the hospital.

We got word that Taylors in a coma

at the hospital,

and OD'd on, you know,

whatever it was.

I think it was heroin that he did.

And our sound man at the time,

he was like, "Oh yeah, Taylor f***ed up.

"He's gonna die, like, he's f***in' dead. "

It was so weird, like, he hadn't died,

but he had overdosed.

And...

I just felt so totally helpless,

you know?

What sort of things do you demand on tour?

Instruments.

So I sat with him...

for those couple weeks.

Until he woke up.

And when he woke up,

I said to him,

"Dude, it's gonna be OK."

And he looked at me and he said, "F*** off!"

And I thought,

"Oh, good, everything's gonna be OK."

Dave's my best friend.

And even more than a best friend,

he's like a brother. He really is.

And, yeah, he was...

as I would be with him,

if something happened to Dave

where he was on the brink of death,

I would be losing my mind.

And he was losing his mind.

So we get back from London

after my f***in' OD,

and then two months after that,

we start trying to make this record.

But we weren't ready.

And nobody's really into it.

Everyone's playing half-assed.

I'd do something

and Dave would listen and say,

"This has gotta change. This is not working

with the vocals. That's too busy. "

I was disagreeing.

I had a shitty attitude 'cause I was pissed.

It was bizarre.

It was my first record with the band.

And I was just

showing up to the studio every day

and was sort of confused, like,

"It's weird, I'm never playing on this.

"I show up at noon every day

and I kinda sit here

"and I eat food and drink coffee

and then I go home.

"What is this?"

There's starting to...

There's a little bit of infighting

and whispers of, "Blah-blah's pissed

at blah-blah about wah-dah. "

And the vibes just were not happening.

Dave's like, "I feel like you guys

are taking the band for granted.

"It's just, show up, make a record,

and go on and do our thing.

"There's no... You don't have

to show up with a passion for it. "

And he had a point.

I would walk in,

listen to what we have, and think,

"I don't really know

if I want anyone to hear this. "

The making of that record was a f***in'...

It sucked.

We finished it, and...

we gave it to our manager, John Silva,

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