It’s been almost a year now since it happened but the rumpus over Josh Freese’s firing from the Foo Fighters continues to rumble on.
In the Guardian over the weekend, the band were interviewed and Nate Mendel suggested that the hazy reasons that were given for Freese’s exit last year were, well, hazy deliberately.
“Yeah. We made a decision that it was best for all parties,” the bassist explained. “To get into the personal details (with Freese), of why that didn’t necessarily sync up, just didn’t seem like it was going to benefit anybody.
"Some things are OK to be like: this is what’s best for us, and we’re going in a different direction.”
However, Mendel did praise Freese for “coming into a situation and doing exactly what needs to be done musically to make it work” after the sudden death of the previous drummer, Taylor Hawkins, in 2022.
As for Freese, in an interview he gave last month to Modern Drummer, he insisted that he’s living his best life right now, back behind the kit with Nine Inch Nails: “Someone recently said to me, ‘Man, you’ve had a tough year.’ And I thought, Really? So the Foo Fighters thing is over. Big deal, that was a blip.”
“The fact that I’ve been touring with Nine Inch Nails and A Perfect Circle again, playing some shows with Weezer, working in the studio with everyone from Danny Elfman to Billy Idol. I feel like I’m back where I belong. Trust me… no one should feel sorry for me.”
However, Freese did admit that the day the axe fell last year, he felt “in shock”.
“The day it went down I was hanging out on a day off with A Perfect Circle and the Primus guys,” he recalled. “Everyone was in shock and asking me what the hell happened. I just remember thinking that I was really grateful to be out there on tour with my friends and with a great crew… playing music I liked with people that I’ve had a long history with.”
