Foo Fighters Debut The Product Of A One-Man-Band

Foo Fighters Album Cover

Welcome to “Behind The Cover” which takes a close look into the story behind the music and cover of an iconic album released in the past few decades. It is brought to you by Pure Music Manufacturing of Manchester, UK.

The debut album by American rock band Foo Fighters was released on July 1995 and was titled, “Foo Fighters.” The most interesting thing about that statement is that at the time the album was recorded, there was no band. The entire album was written and recorded by former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl with one exception, a guest guitar spot performed by Greg Dulli and production assistance from Barrett Jones at a recording studio in Seattle, Washington. Grohl claimed at the time of its release that recording the album was “just for fun…a cathartic experience” he used to help recover from the death of Nirvana bandmate Kurt Cobain.

Grohl decided on the name Foo Fighters to be used for the musical project so that he could conceal his true identity as he distributed copies of the album on cassette to personal friends. The tapes soon attracted the interest of a record label and a full band was recruited to tour and play the music live. A total of six singles were released from the album with two receiving music videos to further enhance the marketing.

With such extensive touring and the high number of singles released, “Foo Fighters” was becoming much more than just a project to deal with mourning a friend. It became a smash hit album. The album soared to the top five on album charts in several places around the world including the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. 

A Foo Fighter is the term used by aircraft pilots in World War II to describe UFOs. The theme was continued with Grohl’s interest in sci-fi as he named his record company Roswell Records in honor of the community of Roswell, New Mexico that became a UFO hotspot following a famous incident in 1947.

Jennifer Youngblood, Grohl’s then-wife, created the cover art for the album. It features a photo by Youngblood of a vintage XZ-38 Disintegrator pistol as used by sci-fi character Buck Rogers. The use of the weapon on the front cover drew some criticism from reviewers who claimed it was in bad taste considering that Cobain had taken his life with a firearm. Grohl shrugged it off stating it was nothing more than a coincidence as the cover reference was meant to follow the sci-fi theme of the band name and record company name. 

As part of the liner notes in the inner sleeve, the record company put pressure on Grohl to include a photo of the band. This was provided although the ‘band’ did not contribute anything to the album project.

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