Foo Fighters recently returned with a new drummer, a stadium tour announcement, and an emotional single, “Asking For A Friend”, last month.
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Following the death of Taylor Hawkins, longtime session drummer Josh Freese filled the seat, only to be replaced by former Nine Inch Nails drummer Ilan Rubin. Then Freese joined Nine Inch Nails, completing the rock star version of a pro sports trade.
Dave Grohl and his band begin their North American tour in Toronto at Rogers Stadium on August 4, 2026. The Take Cover Tour, as it’s being called, will also feature Queens Of The Stone Age.
“Asking For A Friend” looks to the future, but Grohl has lately reflected on his 30-year history with Foo Fighters. The new music and upcoming tour are as much a celebration of the past as they are the Foos’ next chapter.
About “Asking For A Friend”
In “Asking For A Friend”, Grohl ponders big questions, but the heavy tune also feels engineered to rock a stadium audience.
Writing on Substack, Grohl said that the song “is for those who have waited patiently in the cold, relying on hope and faith for their horizon to appear. Searching for ‘proof’ when hanging by a wish until the sun shines again.”
Save your promises until we meet again
You can save all your promises till the bitter end
What is real? I’m asking for a friend
What is real? I’m asking for a friend
Or is this the end?
Foo Fighters songs have typically felt open to interpretation, which makes them an ideal stadium band. Faith and hope are universal but often intangible, like a faraway person, place, or state of comfort. “Asking For A Friend” doesn’t have any answers, but maybe there’s consolation in asking the questions. (For a friend, that is.)
Give me a reason, show me a sign
Ugliest truth or your prettiest lie
Free you from burden, take what I give
Take it away now, permission to live.
“A Test of Faith”
In the same Substack newsletter, Grohl wrote about one night in Japan. Standing on the terrace of his hotel room, looking out over Lake Kawaguchi, he felt small against the enormity of Mt. Fuji. But he couldn’t see it due to the clouds. He hoped the weather would clear so he could get a glimpse of Japan’s tallest mountain.
As the winds blew, he spotted an outline, but fog again blocked his view. So he sat and waited. “A test of faith, if you will,” he said. Then the fog cleared, and there it was.
Photo by Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images for Harley-Davidson
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