Foo Fighters’ Rescued: Healing Through Music

Foo Fighters have just put out their first music since Taylor Hawkins died in 2022. For this track, and record, Grohl finds himself back on the drums as the band tries to process such a shocking and traumatic event. For a band that has largely stayed together since 1994 this is a time they had to pull together and it shows the emotional toll that takes in Rescued.

First of all, Grohl is not new to using music to work through personal grief and loss. He started writing and thinking about forming the Foo Fighters in the wake of Kurt Cobain’s suicide. Musically, the band drifts back to the raw rock sound that put them on the map back in the mid to late 90s. There is an anger and kinetic energy that flows through the track, which is unlike previous records. Guitars crunch and scream as Grohl pounds on the drums like he’s trying to tame a wild mustang. In a lot of ways, this is a throwback to his emotionally raw and powerful drumming that helped propel Nirvana to superstardom. The band also follows the quiet / loud song structure which was pioneered by the Pixies, but helped make Nirvana’s sound iconic.

Grohl’s vocals mirror the raw instrumentation behind him. There is a mix of anger, fear, grief and hope all rolled together in his epic snarls. I fell off of the Foo Fighters as their sound fell into safer paint by numbers rock, but you can tell this track has come from the heart and it takes on the energy of a much younger punk rock band. At times his anthemic rock vocal morphs into a guttural growl full of rage and fear. He sings about wanting to be rescued from the shock and overwhelming grief from Hawkins’ death. There is a raw honesty in this track that is both emotionally cutting and highly relatable. Grohl is bringing you into how a family grieves the shocking death of one of its brothers, which inspires empathy and love from the listener. On the one hand, Grohl lets you into the pain and chaos of such a sudden death, while also giving you the glimmer of hope that the music will pull them through.

The entire record has a raw emotion and pain to it, which feels like you are with the band as they process their loss. For a band that’s been together since 1994 it makes sense that they turn to music in their time of need. The fact that he is letting the fans in on their process shows how he sees them as part of the family as well. We are all working through the grief of Taylor’s death and this album is the light that can bring all of us through to the other side.

Listen to Rescued