Even the most casual fan of Foo Fighters knows the song “Big Me”. It was one of their early hits from their self-titled debut record in 1996, and it found some footing on the pop charts as well.
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The song itself is great on its own. However, the music video also became massively popular when it was released. The video parodies Mentos commercials in the 1990s and has a very comical tone to it, which was fitting for a band that never took itself too seriously.
“We had some difficulty finding a treatment that would suit the song, which is this short, tongue-in-cheek, ridiculously candy-coated pop tune,” said frontman Dave Grohl. “We didn’t want to make this big, pretentious portrait video, we wanted to make fun of ourselves and the song.”
Poking fun at themselves worked. The video was nominated for five different awards at the MTV Video Music Awards in 1996, and took home the win for Best Group Video.
So why exactly did Foo Fighters take a break from performing the song? The reason is just as funny as the music video.
Why Foo Fighters Stopped Playing The Song “Big Me”
Allegedly, some fans would come to Foo Fighters’ live shows and throw Mentos at the band whenever they played “Big Me”. It became a thing. And it eventually got to the point where the band stopped playing the song live. All because they wanted to avoid being assaulted with the minty treats.
“We did stop playing that song for a while because, honestly, it’s like being stoned,” Grohl said of the candy-pelting habits of the band’s fans. “Those little … things are like pebbles, they hurt.”
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Luckily, it wasn’t a permanent shelving. The band eventually started playing the song again. Specifically, they started up again after Weezer began performing covers of the song during their co-headlining tour back in the early aughts.
“And they played it [‘Big Me’] every night,” Grohl continued. “And we actually started to miss it. So once that tour ended and we went back out on our own, we kinda threw it back into the set list.”
Thanks, Weezer!
Photo by Frank Micelotta
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