Josh Freese has issued his first statement about re-joining Nine Inch Nails after leaving the Foo Fighters.
The Hollywood Reporter exclusively reported on Wednesday that Freese would to return to the band over 15 years after he first departed, as NIN’s Ilan Rubin was tapped to become the Foo Fighters’ next drummer. Freese wrote a statement on his Instagram late Wednesday night celebrating his reunion.
“Leaving Nine Inch Nails at the end of 2008 was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make,” Freese wrote. My wife and I were expecting our third child, and I knew I needed to step away from life on the road to be home with my family. NIN was a band that left me walking off stage every single night thinking, ‘that was incredible. We absolutely crushed it.’ And it wasn’t just a feeling, it was a certainty. That level of intensity, pride, and satisfaction after each show is something I’ve rarely experienced anywhere else.”
He continued, “Now, being back on tour with Trent and the crew — helping them do what they do best night after night — is something I’m incredibly excited about. To be part of that energy again feels amazing. If you get a chance to catch one of these shows over the next six weeks, I promise, they’re going to be absolutely unforgettable.”
Freese joined Foo Fighters in 2023 following Taylor Hawkins’ death in 2022.
In May, Freese confirmed his departure from the band on Instagram by writing that Foo Fighters were going in a “different direction with their drummer.” Freese said he was “not angry-just a bit shocked and disappointed.”
Dave Grohl thanked Freese for his work with the band earlier this month in an extensive letter celebrating Foo Fighters’ 30th anniversary, writing that without “thunderous wizardry of Josh Freese, this story would be incomplete.”
Nine Inch Nails’ North American leg of their Peel It Back tour begins on Aug. 6 at the Oakland Arena in California. The Foo Fighters, meanwhile will play their first shows of 2025 starting in Jakarta, Indonesia in October and culminating with a Mexico City show on Nov. 14.
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