Foo Fighters give update on Pat Smear's recovery following injury: "He's getting restless"

25 February 2026, 17:34

Chris Moyles Meets Foo Fighters

The Foo Fighters revealed in a sit down interview with Chris Moyles that their rhythm guitarist is going a little stir crazy.

Foo Fighters have revealed that Pat Smear is "getting restless".

In early January it was announced that the band's beloved rhythm guitarist would have to miss the band's shows abroad due to breaking his foot in a "bizarre gardening accident."

Now, talking to Chris Moyles in a sit down interview, the band have given an update on the musician and hinted that he might be going a little stir crazy.

"He's getting restless," revealed bassist Nate Mendel when asked about Smear's recovery. "Sending texts out today about what we should be doing for the shows in the summer. Just these long texts about 'I've got these ideas,' so he's ready to get off the couch".

"He's had a lot of time on his hands," added Grohl.

Watch our full interview with Foo Fighters and Chris Moyles above.

However, Smear's not just been spending his free time thinking of ideas for the band's upcoming shows. He's also been using AI to go on deep dives into vintage US sitcoms.

"He and I started talking about [TV show] The Brady Bunch," recalled the Grohl. "And we were trying to figure out, like, wait a second. What happened to the other spouses? Like, Mike Brady? What happened? Were they both divorced?"

"Well, Pat sent me the ChatGPT answer to this question," the Times Like These singer went on. "That's what he's doing at home. He's like, 'We were talking about The Brady Bunch yesterday. I should probably text Dave and let him know that Mike Brady was a widower, but they never revealed Carol Brady's status because they didn't want to say she was divorced.'"

Grohl joked: "I'm like, dude, you fix your leg and get back out on the road!"

Watch our full interview with Foo Fighters and Chris Moyles above.

Read more: Dave Grohl had "absolutely nothing to do with daughter Violet's "amazing" album & record deal

The band also discussed the making of their 12th studio album Your Favorite Toy, which is released on 24th April, and described the shift between Grohl sending out snippets of ideas to them deciding to start recording it.

"Usually Dave will just send out a text like, hey, I've been working on some songs," revealed lead guitarist Chris Shiflett. "Not like we're going to record or it's going to be this or happen at this time. Just like, started working on some songs and just kind of send them out, you know, just little snippets. You can kind of tell something's brewing."

The new album marks new drummer Ilan Rubin's first with the band and the percussionist revealed how rapid the process was for him personally. "I found out on a Monday and we were pretty much done by Thursday," he said.

"That's true," admitted Grohl. "It went fast, but it's a long. It's a long period of, like, messing around with song ideas and different melodies until finally you get to the point where it's like, ooh, okay, we have some good stuff. Let's do it really quickly."

Shiflett recalled: "I remember you saying something along the lines, like, let's just record something fast and not over produce it and just kind of find some tones and stick to them kind of thing..."

Before the album was created, Foo Fighters released two singles in Today's Song and Asking For A Friend last year - a novel move for the band.

"We'd never done that thing 'til last year of just putting out a song and was the first time we ever did that," said Shiflett.

"You could just release a song," added Grohl. "You don't even need a whole album or a cassette or whatever.

"You don't have to like make a fully formed thing and present everyone with all of that at once. You could just do one song at a time."

Grohl also revealed that he had "nothing to do" with his daughter Violet's "amazing" debut album.

"Violet, my daughter, she's 19. She's about to turn 20," he told Moyles. She made this album with a producer named Justin Raisin, and she did it on her own. Like, she met the producer, and they would go to the studio every day and make songs, and she would send me songs when she was finished. But I had absolutely nothing to do with this record at all."

As it turns out, the rocker had no knowledge of Violet's record deal, either, and was only told the news she'd secured a contract when she came over one night for dinner.

"And I had no idea she [signed]," he added of his daughter, who's Thum single was a former Radio X Record of the Week. "I knew that she was looking to sign a record deal and then she's like, 'Hey, dad, can I come over for dinner tonight?' And I'm like, 'Yeah, sure. What do you want me to make?'

"And she'd come over and tell me, like, 'I signed my record deal today.' I was like, 'Oh, my God.'"

"So, I'm totally, like, uninvolved," he added. "I'm like the dad that wants to be there and know everything and she's just totally doing her own thing. It's amazing."

Your Favorite Toy follows Foo Fighters (1995), The Colour and the Shape (1997), There Is Nothing Left To Lose (1999), One by One (2002), In Your Honor (2005), Echoes Silence, Patience & Grace (2007), Wasting Light (2011), Sonic Highways (2014), Concrete and Gold (2017), Medicine at Midnight (2021) and But Here We Are (2023).

Listen to the album's title track Your Favorite Toy track below:

Foo Fighters - Your Favorite Toy (Lyric Video)

See the artwork and and tracklist for Your Favourite Toy below:

See the Your Favorite Toy tracklisting below:

• Caught In The Echo
• Of All People
• Window
• Your Favorite Toy
• If You Only Knew
• Spit Shine
• Unconditional
• Child Actor
• Amen
• Caveman
• Asking For A Friend

Foo Fighters' Your Favorite Toy is available to pre-order here.

Last week saw the band announce as trio of surprise intimate dates, which kicked-off at The Academy Dublin on Monday (22nd February).

On the night, the band treated local fans - who could only buy tickets from a box office in person - to a career-spanning set of 21 hits, which ended on their Everlong anthem.

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Today (25th February) will see Foos take to London's Shepherd's Bush Empire, before the band head to Manchester's O2 Ritz on Friday (27th February).

Read more:

• Who is Foo Fighters' My Hero about? The story of the 1998 anthem
• Dave Grohl turns 57: Everything to know about the Nirvana & Foo Fighters rocker