The Foo Fighters‘ ongoing celebration of three decades of rocking continued on Wednesday morning (July 2) with the release of the soaring new single “Today’s Song.” The first bit of new music from the band since 2023’s But Here We Are album is a classic uplifting Foos anthem with lyrics a release describes as touching on “personal evolution and perseverance in the face of life’s uncertainty and the passage of time.”
“I woke today screaming for change, I knew that I must/ So here lies a shadow, ashes to ashes, dust into dust/ You know that nothing can prepare you, oh no/ Don’t let this cruel world compare you, oh no,” band leader Dave Grohl sings in a melancholy tone over spare organ backing in the song’s first verse. “Waiting for someone to repair you,” he adds before the track explodes into a classic Foos rave up. The song’s chorus hints at a crossroads of change and turbulence, with Grohl singing, “Two sides to a river/ Too troubled to cross/ It might take you under/ Today’s song/ We’ll drown in the middle/ Which side are you on/ One way or another/ Today’s song.”
In a note to fans written by singer/guitarist Grohl recounting his Thanksgiving 1994 first meal with bassist Nate Mendel and the band’s subsequent formation and early years on the road, he writes, “Over the years, we’ve had moments of unbridled joy, and moments of devastating heartbreak. Moments of beautiful victory, and moments of painful defeat. We have mended broken bones and broken hearts. But we have followed this road together, with each other, for each other, no matter what. Because in life, you just can’t go it alone.”
It continued, “It should go without saying that without the boundless energy of [original drummer] William Goldsmith, the seasoned wisdom of [former guitarist] Franz Stahl, and the thunderous wizardry of [recently departed drummer] Josh Freese, this story would be incomplete, so we extend our heartfelt gratitude for the time, music, and memories that we shared with each of them over the years. Thank you, gentlemen.”
The note includes with a special shout-out to beloved late drummer Taylor Hawkins, who took over from Goldsmith in 1997 and kept the beat for the band until his death at 50 in March 2022 while on tour with the Foos in Colombia. “And… Taylor. Your name is spoken every day, sometimes with tears, sometimes with a smile, but you are still in everything we do, everywhere we go, forever. The enormity of your beautiful soul is only rivaled by the infinite longing we feel in your absence. We all miss you beyond words. Foo Fighters will forever include Taylor Hawkins in every note that we play, until we do finally reach our destination.”
The missive ends with a scene from a recent long international flight Grohl took during which someone stuck a Post-It note to his seat with a mysterious message to “watch the lobster and the Rabbi.” Unsure what it meant, Grohl says his research revealed the cryptic phrase was tied to a story of growth.
“A lobster is a small, fleshy animal that lives within a hard, rigid shell, and as its body grows too large for its shell, it begins to feel discomfort. Once this happens, the lobster instinctively retreats to a safe place, sheds the smaller shell, grows a new one, and resurfaces,” he writes. “But eventually that new shell becomes uncomfortable as its body continues to grow, so it retreats again. New shell, new growth, over and over again. The point being that life’s challenges have a way of signaling the need for change and growth, so when that time comes, you retreat, rebuild, and resurface stronger than before. Something I’m sure that we all can relate to as human beings. And if you’re lucky, you share this process with the ones that you love the most, be they onstage or off.”
The single’s cover image of a white bird in flight with a single wing extended to the side was drawn by Grohl’s 15-year-old daughter, Harper Grohl. On Tuesday (July 1), the band also posted a series of dark, moody studio pics, featuring shots of equipment and what look like images of some members performing in the studio alongside a “2025 #FF30” caption.
The Foo Fighters’ self-titled 1995 debut just turned 30 and the band has been celebrating it with a series of throwback posts and a deep-dive Substack with notes, photos and items tied to the band’s 11 studio albums. Earlier this week, they also dropped a surprise cover of early influence Minor Threat’s 1981 hardcore classic “I Don’t Wanna Hear It,” with an instrumental track from 1995 and vocals recorded sometime this year.
The Foos are gearing up for a run of shows later this year, beginning with an October 2 gig in Jakarta at Carnaval Ancol, followed by an appearance at an F1 event in Singapore on Oct. 4 and shows in Tokyo and Osaka that month, as well as a slot at the Corona Capital festival in Mexico City on Nov. 14; at press time no information was available on who will play drums for those gigs.
Listen to “Today’s Song” and check out Grohl’s full note here (and listen to him read it below).
