Foo Fighters Reveal How Some of Their Biggest Hits Came to Be

Band discusses writing songs "Monkey Wrench," "Everlong," and "My Hero"

December 3, 2014

Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters have been longtime fans and friends of the Stern Show, but the full band has never shown up to rock out. Since his first – and now legendary – acoustic performance of ‘Everlong’, Dave has played many Foo Fighters hits solo.

This morning, all the boys showed up, played two magnificent tunes and took Howard through the history of the band.

Here are the highlights from Howard’s interview with the Foo Fighters:

Dave had written and recorded songs by himself even before joining the legendary band Nirvana. He kept writing his own material while recording and touring, but he admitted that when you’re in a band with a songwriter like Kurt Cobain, you don’t show him your songs.

After Kurt killed himself, Dave decided to gather some of his songs on a demo. He didn’t want to call it ‘Dave Grohl Solo Project’, so he took the name Foo Fighters – from a UFO book he was reading at the time. The name stuck, though Dave didn’t seem thrilled with the choice.

As he often does, Howard took the guys through some of his favorites.

Photo: The Howard Stern Show
Photo: The Howard Stern Show

The Foo Fighters’ latest project took them to eight different cities to record songs in every city. They worked with guys like Rick Neilson of one of Howard’s favorite bands, Cheap Trick.

Watch the fantastic HBO docu-series about the making of the album, and don’t forget to pick up the album itself.

And, of course, don’t miss the Foo Fighters on tour. They’re one of the best live acts around.