Foo Fighters

Foo Fighters came about due to tragic circumstances. After the suicide of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain in 1994 and the band's following disbanding, drummer Dave Grohl decided to focus on recording a collection of songs he'd been developing for a few years. Handling all the vocals and almost all the instruments himself, Grohl called his 1995 debut Foo Fighters, which was also the name of his new band, a reference to World War II terminology for unidentified flying objects. The album showcased Grohl's melodic rock songs indebted to hard rock and punk, establishing the band's musical blueprint.

Grohl recruited bassist Nate Mendel and drummer William Goldsmith, both formerly of Sunny Day Real Estate, as well as fellow Nirvana touring bandmate Pat Smear as guitarist to complete the lineup. The band began with performances in Portland, Oregon. Goldsmith quit during the recording of the group's second album, The Colour and the Shape (1997) when most of the drum parts were re-recorded by Grohl himself. Smear's departure followed soon afterward. They were replaced by Taylor Hawkins and Franz Stahl, respectively, although Stahl was fired before the recording of the group's third album, There Is Nothing Left to Lose (1999).

The band briefly continued as a trio until Chris Shiflett joined as the band's lead guitarist after the completion of There Is Nothing Left to Lose. The band released its fourth album, One by One, in 2002. The group followed that release with the two-disc In Your Honor (2005), which was split between acoustic songs and heavier material. Foo Fighters released its sixth album, Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, in 2007. In 2010, it was confirmed that Smear had officially rejoined the band after touring with the Foo Fighters as an unofficial member between 2006 and 2009. Over the course of the band's career, three of its albums have won Grammy Awards for Best Rock Album, and all seven albums have been nominated.

The band's seventh studio album, Wasting Light, was released on April 12, 2011. The album sold 235,000 in its first week of release and debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart, becoming the band's first number-one album in the US. On November 30, 2011 the album was nominated for six Grammy Awards including Album of the Year. The band's single "Walk," reached number one on the Billboard Rock Songs chart on July 20, 2011, dethroning the album's previous single "Rope" and giving the band their third number one single on the chart, the most on the chart so far. The song received 2 nominations in 54th Grammy Awards for Best Rock Performance and Best Rock Song.

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