Josh Freese "wishes" he wasn't in the Foo Fighters.
Josh Freese replaced Taylor Hawkins in the Foo Fighters following his shock death at the age of 50
The 51-year-old rock star joined the band in 2023 to take the place of late drummer Taylor Hawkins - who died in 2022 at the age of 50 - but finds the whole thing to be "bittersweet" because the pair were on friendly terms with each other for more than two decades.
He told the Daily Star newspaper's Wired column: "It continues to be bittersweet. Part of me wants to say like I wish I wasn't there at all. I wish there wasn't a reason for me to be the drummer in Foo Fighters. I was friendly acquaintances with Taylor for like 25 years and then in the last five/six years we became a lot closer, which makes the whole thing even more odd."
Josh now plays in the band alongside the remaining members Dave Grohl, Nate Mendel, Chris Shiflett Pat Smear, Rami Jaffee, and knew most of them in some form before joining but recalled feeling that there would be no way for the 'Best of You' rockers to continue when Taylor died of an overdose.
He said: "I've known Chris Shiflett and Rami Jaffee for 30 years, well before they were in the band, and I met Dave before he was in Nirvana.. I met Dave at a concert at Cal State Long Beach in like 1990 when he was in Scream. After Taylor's passing, first thing I thought was how are these guys going to move on from this - Taylor was such an important component, on and off stage. And he wasn't just a drummer, you know. He was such a big personality. [I thought] 'Are they even going to go on...does Dave go solo now?'
Tagged in Dave Grohl Taylor Hawkins