William Goldsmith - Foo Fighters (1995-1997)

Foo Fighters (1995-1997)

During one of Sunny Day Real Estate's last concerts, former Nirvana member Dave Grohl left the band a note. Goldsmith called him back, and Grohl invited both Goldsmith and Mendel to his new band, Foo Fighters, along with former Germs guitarist Pat Smear. In 1995, they embarked on a club tour supporting Mike Watt along with Eddie Vedder's side project Hovercraft. Afterwards, the band's already recorded debut album - on which Grohl had recorded nearly all instruments by himself - was released. Goldsmith stated that while he enjoyed the smaller venues, "pretty much everything after that blew", saying that as the band got bigger "it turned into a world-domination thing that became really creatively stifling" and he grew tired of reproducing songs he had no input composing. The drummer also contracted carpal tunnel syndrome after the tour.

After touring through the spring of 1996, the full lineup entered a Seattle studio with producer Gil Norton to record the band's second album. It was an arduous and mostly frustrating process for Goldsmith given Grohl's perfectionism, which led the drummer to do his tracks over and over - "Dave had me do 96 takes of one song, and I had to do thirteen hours' worth of takes on another one. It just seemed that everything I did wasn't good enough for him, or anyone else." With the sessions nearly complete, the band took a break. According to Grohl, Goldsmith's drumming had good moments, but his performances mostly did not fit what Grohl had conceived for the drum track. So the frontman decided to redo them himself. The band regrouped in Los Angeles in February 1997 and almost completely re-recorded the album, this time with Grohl on drums, not telling Goldsmith about the session at all. Goldsmith even asked if he should travel along, but Grohl dismissed this by saying he was only performing overdubs. Goldsmith only found out that his work was being replaced through bassist Mendel. Feeling betrayed and not happy with Grohl's proposal of continuing on the band performing only live, he decided to leave the band soon thereafter; he was replaced on drums by Taylor Hawkins. The finished album, The Colour and the Shape, was released on May 20, 1997.

As a result of this, Goldsmith actually recorded little material that would be released by Foo Fighters in spite of being a member of the band from 1995 through 1997. Most of what little material he recorded with them was discarded. In fact, he can only be heard on three tracks from The Colour and the Shape: "Doll", "Up in Arms" (the slow beginning), and the verses of "My Poor Brain". Additionally, he also played on "Dear Lover", the song "The Colour and the Shape", and the Gary Numan cover "Down in the Park", as well as on various live bootlegs and demos.