30 Unknown Facts Every Fan Should Know About The Foo Fighters

The Foo Fighters, an American rock band, formed in Seattle, Washington in 1994, was founded as a one-man project by Dave Grohl, drummer of Nirvana band, which dissolved in 1994 following the lead guitarist Kurt Cobain's death. The current line-up of the band Dave Grohl, Nate Mendel, Pat Smear, Taylor Hawkins, Chris Shiflett and Rami Jaffee. Here are 30 interesting facts about the band:

1. During the production of the fourth studio album "One by One, the band decided to redo the album from scratch during a two-week period at Grohl's home studio in Alexandria, Virginia, as the initial recording session raised tension among the members and they felt the album was unsatisfying.
2. In the band's self-titled debut album in 1995, every single instrument was played by Grohl himself, except the guitar note on one song which was played by Greg Dulli of Afghan Whigs.
3. Foo Fighters till date have won over 11 Grammy awards which includes four in the Best Rock Album category, three for Best Hard Rock Performance.
4. Following the release of "Foo Fighters" album, Grohl and Krist Novoselic, his former Nirvana bandmate, talked about joining together in Foo Fighters to tour the album. However, they then decided it was not a good idea.
5. About a minute into the Foo Fighters' "Breakout" video, Grohl's mother, Virginia makes an appearance, where she flips the bird at Grohl for driving too slowly.
6. Grohl once happened to fall off stage and break his leg in Sweden, due to which the band had to cancel the European tour. However, Grohl had a custom throne built for him to sit and play the guitar to continue the tour. Later, he lent it to Axl Rose from Guns N' Roses when Rose broke his foot during the GnR's “Not In This Lifetime” tour.
7. At his freshman class, Grohl was elected the vice-president and used to discuss environmental concerns and about the unwanted extra homework issue.
8. "Foo Fighter" was a World War II-era term that Allied aircraft pilots used to identify weird flying objects from the UFOs and various aerial phenomena.
9. During his free time with Foo Fighters, Grohl used to play drums for Tenacious D, Nine Inch Nails and Queens of the Stone Age.
10. Their sixth studio album "Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace," received the Brit Award of Best International Album. It was ranked at #12 in the Q's list of Best Albums of 2007, while it was ranked at #45 in a Rolling Stone's similar list.
    
11. Initially, Grohl recorded the debut album "Foo Fighters," for fun, and even described it as a cathartic experience to recover from the death of his Nirvana bandmate Kurt Cobain.
12. Foo Fighters have been honored with three The Kerrang! Awards, one of Britain's most recognised award by the now-defunct Guinness Book of British Hit Singles & Albums.
13. Before joining Nirvana, Grohl was a part of the band named Scream. He was first introduced to Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic by Buzz Osbourne of the band The Melvins.
14. Warren, Ohia, which is the native town of Dave Grohl, has an alley dedicated to him and a humongous pair of drumsticks weighing 900 pounds made specifically for him. This pair currently holds the Guinness Record for the world's largest pair of drumsticks.
15. It is reported that the band used to fight for their right to the bathroom. Due to this, Grohl once nailed the door shut from inside to spend sometime in peace. However, he kicked the door down when he realized there was no window.
16. Following the "Wasting Light" release, Foo Fighters also released a rockumentary entitled "Back and Forth," directed by Academy Award-winner James Moll. The film chronicals the band's entire career, staring with Kurt Cobain's death that led to dissolution of Nirvana, to the formation of one man band Foo Fighter with just Dave Grohl, ending with the band's status as of 2011.
17. The group named their record company as Roswell, after a New Mexico town where a flying saucer supposedly crashed in 1947.
18. In the year 2011 and also in 2014, Foo Fighters were amed as the Radio Contraband "Major Label Artist of the Year."
19. Grohl has a custom-made Gibson Trini Lopez guitar in Pelham Blue, which he reportedly calls as "the sound of the Foo Fighters."
20. While recording the album "Foo Fighters, Grohl claimed that he would run from room to room, "still sweating and shaking from playing drums and pick up the guitar and put down a track, do the bass, maybe another guitar part, have a sip of coffee and then go in and do the next song."
    
21. After the release of "The Colour and the Shape," the band's original drummer quit, leading to Morissette's Taylor Hawkins to be a replacement for the tour.
22. In the first batch CDs of their seventh studio album "Wasting Light," the band included a piece of the original analog tape the album was recorded on, just as a gift to the fans.
23. In 1993, Grohl joined Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, Mike Mills of R.E.M., and some others to perform songs for the Beatles biopic "Backbeat."
24. Grohl almost joined Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, around seven months after Kurt Cobain's death. He even once sat with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers when they played ‘Saturday Night Live.’ However, he reportedly declined Petty's offer for a full-time gig.
25. The band sues anybody who misspells or writes the name of the band as well as the members wrong. Most of these cases reportedly end with just the first step in court proceedings and are often enforced with a $100 fine.
26. Grohl reportedly had a Grammy award as a doorstep for several years as he said that without the award, his bedroom would trap him inside and even swallow him. The said award is now on a shelf, after it was replaced by a MTV Video Music Award.
27. For the second album, even though Grohl had hired a full band, he played all the original drummers' tracks, as he did not like what the drummer played.
28. In the year 2014, Foo Fighters won Album of the Year Award for their "Sonic Highways," and Song of the Year Award for "Something From Nothing."
29. "Their album "In Your Honor," topped the charts in five countries including Australia, and peaked within top 5 in five more countries including the United States and United Kingdom. Kerrang! ranked the album as the 9th best album of 2005, while Rolling Stone listed it at #30 in the same list.
30. While he was still in Nirvana, Grohl released a cassette of songs called ‘Pocketwatch’ under the name Late, which served as an early stage of the Foo Fighters’ development.
    
31. Foo Fighters Net Worth: Foo Fighters, as a rock band, has an estimated net worth of $30 million, as of June 2017, while the frontman Dave Grohl, regarded as one of the most successful musicians in rock genre, has a net worth of $260 million.