While discussing his musical influences on Office Hours Live with Tim Heidecker, Foo Fighters drummer Josh Freese shared his thoughts on Alex Van Halen, saying:
“There’re like five or six drummers that really, like, I loved as a kid and really shape me and still to this day. And not that I play like any of them, but just as inspirations. The first two, and they are drastically different, but the first two were Buddy Rich and Alex Van Halen.
“I think Alex is really underrated in the way that he happened to be in a band with his brother [Eddie Van Halen] who was an alien and, you know, took so much of the f*cking spotlight.
“And then there were guys I started – by the time I was, I don’t know, 11 or 12 and reading modern drummer magazine and trying to get into some prog rock or jazz sh*t or whatever. Just studio drummers and guys that were a little outside of the rock and roll realm.”
