Josh Freese will join Foo Fighters as the band’s new drummer, the group announced on Sunday.
The addition of Freese, a session drummer who comes from a family of musicians and is considered a longtime friend of lead singer Dave Grohl, comes over a year after the death of drummer Taylor Hawkins in March 2022.
Foo Fighters shared the news during its Preparing Music for Concerts livestream — a teaser of the band’s 11th studio album — on Sunday, according to Pitchfork.
The reveal was made with a witty video featuring appearances from Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Chad Smith, Tool’s Danny Carey and Mötley Crüe’s Tommy Lee.
Freese played drums with the band during its tribute shows to Hawkins.
In an Instagram post last year, the drummer said that, before the London tribute show, he requested to use Hawkins’ drum kit.
“Without hesitation I said ‘Taylor’s drums need to be up there and I want to play on his exact set up. I want THAT energy to be up on THAT stage,’” Freese wrote in the post.
Freese has also worked with Devo, Guns N’ Roses, Nine Inch Nails, Weezer, Paramore and Sting.
In a tweet from late December, Foo Fighters said they would not have become the band they were without Hawkins and acknowledged that they’d “be a different band going forward.”
The band is set to start its summer tour on May 24 and is set to drop its album But Here We Are on June 2. It will be band’s first tour and studio album since Hawkins’ death.