Foo Fighters

Recruited into Seattle based grunge pioneers Nirvana in 1990—the year Pearl Jam formed in the same town—Dave Grohl was Nirvana’s drummer until Cobain died in 1994. In the emotionally turbulent aftermath of that suicide, Grohl had offers to play drums for other outfits, including Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Rumours even linked him to Pearl Jam, albeit briefly. But Grohl decided to so something else, and went into the studio to record a brace of his own songs. That was the beginning of the band he leads to this day, the mighty and mightily successful Foo Fighters.

Grohl’s Foo Fighters soak engaging melodies in a storm of riffing guitars, infused by a punk energy. Very much following the 'loud-soft' pattern of Nirvana and the Pixies, the band have recorded and toured regularly. After the debut, every Foo Fighters album (to 2021’s Medicine At Midnight) has made the US Top 10. Their 2009 Greatest Hits package was a #1 album in Australia.

And what of that name? The term was coined by pilots during World War II for unusual or unexplained arial phenomena (UFOs, for example). Said Dave Grohl: "Had I actually considered this to be a career, I probably would have called it something else, because it's the stupidest fucking band name in the world."