Among their bigger anthems—”My Hero,” “Best of You,” “Learn to Fly,” “Everlong” and more—for the longest time, there was one early Foo Fighters song that Dave Grohl refused to play live with the band for years.
Released on the band’s 1995 eponymous debut, “Big Me” was a song about getting dumped. “Girl meets boy,” said Grohl describing the song. “Boy falls in love, girl tells him to f–k off.”
Videos by American Songwriter
When I talk about it
Carries on
Reasons only knew
When I talk about it
Aries or treasons all renew
Big me to talk about it
I could stand to prove
If we can get around it
I know that it’s true
Well, I talked about it
Carried on
Reasons only knew
But it’s you I fell into
When I talked about it
Carries on
Reasons only knew
When I talk about it
Aries or treasons all renew
“Footos” and the Ban
Foo Fighters accompanied the lovelorn track with a campy music video, their take on the 1990s Mentos commercials, featuring the mint candies and the popular slogan “The Freshmaker.” Instead, the Foo Fighters were endorsing their own Footos in their video.
The video was such a hit that fans started pelting the band with actual Mentos candies while they were performing, which forced them to stop playing “Big Me” live.
“We did stop playing that song for a while because, honestly, it’s like being stoned,” said Grohl in 2006. “Those little things are like pebbles. They hurt.”
Grohl added, “I wish they were like marshmallows or something.”
Weezer
In 2005, Foo Fighters and Weezer co-headlined the Foozer Tour, and after Weezer started covering “Big Me,” it prompted Grohl to reconsider adding the song to the Foo’s setlist again.
“Maybe two weeks into the tour, Rivers [Cuomo] knocked on our door and asked if he could come in,” said Grohl. “I don’t think anyone had ever knocked on our dressing room door before. And he said, ‘Hey, I was wondering if you guys would mind if we played your song ‘Big Me’?” And we hadn’t played that song in six, seven years, and we thought, ‘Yeah, have at it.'”
Then, Weezer started playing “Big Me” every night during the tour. “And we actually started to miss it,” said Grohl.” “So, once that tour ended, and we went back out on our own, we kinda threw it back into the setlist.”
[Get Tickets to See Foo Fighters on Tour in 2024 on StubHub]
After nearly a decade of not performing “Big Me” live, Foo Fighters added the song back onto their setlist and continue to play it live today.
Photo: John Shearer/Getty Images
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