This past May, drummer Josh Freese was let go from Foo Fighters after only two years with the band. Several months later, the group hired Nine Inch Nails’ Ilan Rubin to take his place.
In an ironic turn of events, Trent Reznor and co. – now left drummerless – turned to Josh Freese to fill the vacancy.
Freese joining NIN is familiar territory for the drummer, who previously toured with the band from 2005 to 2008 before stepping away to spend more time with his family.
Now, in a new interview on SiriusXM’s “Trunk Nation with Eddie Trunk,” Freese addressed swapping places with Rubin, calling it a complete “coincidence.”
“As far as the drummer swap thing, it’s funny because it’s just coincidence the way it worked out. It’s not like there was a purposeful drum swap. And, actually, if Ilan – who was playing with Nine Inch Nails, who joined the band after I left in 2009 – if he left Nine Inch Nails to go join – pick a band – Muse, I don’t know, Trent would’ve called me. It’s not like it was an intentional swap,” he explained.
“It’s like when Trent needed a drummer, when Ilan split, he was, like, ‘Well, I’m gonna call Freese.’ And he called me and I was, like, ‘Hell yeah.’ Because I missed working with Trent and I loved working with him the last time I did it back between ’05 and ’09. And it just so happens to be he needed a drummer because his drummer was going to join the band that I just was let go from,” Freese continued.
“So it was just completely coincidence that that’s the way that that worked. You know what I mean? It wasn’t premeditated, it wasn’t worked out by anybody. It was just kind of, like, ‘Well, I need a drummer. Sure, I’ll call Josh. Oh, how funny. I’m calling Josh because I need a drummer, because my drummer just left to work with the band that Josh just left.’ So it was just pure coincidence.”
