This Is How Many Grammys The Foo Fighters Have
There's been a debate raging for years in rock circles over whether or not rock music is dead. Some of the rock's biggest names — musicians who had a hand in shaping the genre itself — are on record saying it is. The always outspoken Gene Simmons, the bassist for KISS, has provided the very-Gene Simmons reasoning that rock music is doomed because (via Kerrang) "the business model just doesn't work." That's coming from a guy whose band has turned everything from pinball machines to caskets into a marketing opportunity.
While that debate can rage on, one band who is still keeping the genre alive, at least in the eyes of the mainstream, is Foo Fighters. The Dave Grohl-led outfit has been churning out hits for over 25 years through adversity like interband tension in the mid-2000s and the tragic death of drummer Taylor Hawkins in 2022. For almost their entire career, they've been a frequent presence at the Grammy Awards
Say what you will about the Grammys, but it's fair to say that any artists who accumulate as many as the Foos — they've won 12 and been nominated 31 times in many different categories — have achieved a degree of mainstream success and helped keep rock music afloat.
43rd Annual Grammy Awards (2000)
The first time the Foos managed to claim victory at the Grammys came at the 43rd Annual Grammy Awards. That year, the band won two Grammys and were nominated for a third, and despite it only being six years into the band's history, the awards were a long time coming.
The band's self-titled debut album was nominated at the 38th Annual Grammy Awards in 1995 for best alternative music performance. Foo Fighters lost out on the Grammy, but Dave Grohl didn't as the award was given to Nirvana for "MTV Unplugged in New York." They were nominated again at the 40th Annual Grammys in 1997, this time getting the nod for best rock album for their sophomore effort "The Colour And The Shape" and best hard rock performance for the album's lead single "Monkey Wrench." They lost to John Fogerty's "Blue Moon Swamp" and The Smashing Pumpkins' "The End Is The Beginning Is The End," respectively.
Finally, they took home hardware in 2001, claiming best rock album honors for "There Is Nothing Left To Lose" and best short-form music video for the famously tongue-in-cheek video for "Learn To Fly."
45th Annual Grammy Awards (2002)
With two Grammys to their name, the monkey — monkey wrench? — was off the Foo Fighters' back going into the 45th Annual Grammy Awards. That year, their hopes hinged on one song, "All My Life," which was nominated for both best hard rock performance and best rock song. "All My Life" came off the band's 2002 album "One By One." That album has a notorious history that involved the Foos rerecording the already finished record, with the first version becoming known as the "Million Dollar Demos" after the high price tag of making them.
"At the time, we were making an album that wasn't working. We'd started in October of 2001. After about three-and-a-half months, I realized it didn't sound familiar," Dave Grohl told Billboard. The band took a break before reconvening to rerecord the album in the basement of Grohl's home in Virginia. The decision paid off because the subsequent record featured some of the band's biggest hits, including "Times Like These" and, of course, "All My Life."
"All My Life" earned the band a Grammy for best hard rock performance but lost to Bruce Springsteen's "The Rising" for best rock song.
46th Annual Grammy Awards (2003)
The very next year, the Grammy wins continued for "One By One," which likely made its turbulent production history much more tolerable. The album that started out as the "Million Dollar Demos" — which leaked online in 2012, per Rolling Stone — took home the honors for best rock album, where it beat out strong contenders like Audioslave's self-titled album and Evanescence's "Fallen."
However, the other nomination the band received at the 46th Annual Grammy Awards didn't turn out in their favor. The band was nominated for best rock performance by a duo or group with vocal (an overly wordy category), and the Foo's song "Times Like These" was in a strong field that included Radiohead's "There There" and The White Stripes' stadium-shaking "Seven Nation Army." However, none of them won, and top honors went to Warren Zevon & Bruce Springsteen for "Order In The House."
50th Annual Grammy Awards (2007)
The Foo Fighters hit a bit of a dry spell in the mid-aughts, where they went winless during the album cycle for 2005's "In Your Honor," despite several nominations. However, the band was back to their winning ways with the release of their 2007 effort "Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace."
The album was nominated for both best rock album and album of the year at the 50th Annual Grammys Awards. It won in the rock album category, but it lost out on album of the year to Herbie Hancock's "River: The Joni Letters." Meanwhile, the album's smash hit, "The Pretender," earned a pair of nominations itself. The song was in heavy rotation on rock radio at the time and was named best hard rock performance. Unfortunately for the Foos, it lost to Amy Winehouse's "Rehab."
Foo Fighters have performed at the Grammys multiple times, and the 50th Annual Grammys Awards was one of those years. They performed "The Pretender" alongside Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones, with whom Dave Grohl would former the supergroup Them Crooked Vultures.
54th Annual Grammy Awards (2011)
Foo Fighters single most successful showing happened at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards, where they went home with five Grammys. That year the Foos won in a category they never had before: best long-form music video. They earned that victory for their documentary, "Foo Fighters: Back And Forth," which chronicled the band's entire history up to that point. It also showed the recording process for their 2011 album "Wasting Light," which was recorded at Dave Grohl's home in Los Angeles.
Speaking of "Wasting Light," it won for best rock album and was up for album of the year but lost to Adele's "21." That same year, the song "Walk" won two awards, one for best rock performance and the other for best rock song. The final Grammy that the band won that year was slightly unexpected. It came in the best hard rock/metal performance category, which included a field of heavy hitters (no pun intended), including Dream Theater, Mastodon, Megadeth, and Sum 41 (via Blabbermouth). Still, victory went to the Foo's "White Limo," a song that is far and away the heaviest track off of "Wasting Light" and gains a little extra hard rock and metal street-cred for featuring Motorhead's Lemmy Kilmister in its music video.
60th Annual Grammy Awards (2017)
Foo FIghters' most recent Grammy win came at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards. The band was up for two nominations, both of which hinged on the song "Run" from their 2017 album "Concrete and Gold." Perhaps the thought was that "Run" could capture some of the Grammys seen by "Walk" several years earlier. "Run" came up short in the best rock performance category, where it lost to "You Want It Darker" by Leonard Cohen. Still, the track managed to score the band their 12th Grammy by winning for best rock song over a loaded field that included entries from Avenged Sevenfold and Metallica.
In all, Foo Fighters have racked up a dozen Grammy victories and have been nominated a staggering 31 times. Their most recent nominations are for the 64th Annual Grammy Awards, and they came over one week after the death of the band's drummer Taylor Hawkins. They are up for three awards, including best rock album for "Medicine at Midnight."