FOO FIGHTERS
The Dave Grohl-fronted hard-rockers start their U.S. summer tour on July 9 in Seattle and conclude with the Virgin Festival in Baltimore (Aug. 9-10), at which they'll share top billing with Kanye West, Jack Johnson, Stone Temple Pilots, and Nine Inch Nails.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Why should we come and see this summer's Foos tour?
TAYLOR HAWKINS, DRUMMER: The inside arena show is cool because we have a trick-a-doodle thing we do in the middle of the set — a stage comes out into the arena and we do a little acoustic set. That really breaks things up. But otherwise we just try to play the songs we think people want to hear. We have a lot to pull from — some hits, some minor hits, some near misses. We've been around a plenty long time. We're dinosaurs!
During a Foos show earlier this year, you played Rush's ''YYZ'' with the band's guitarist Alex Lifeson and bassist-vocalist Geddy Lee. What was that like?
That was a real frickin' dream come true. First of all, man, I'm no [Rush drummer] Neil Peart, not by any stretch of the imagination. But a lot of times when I warm up, I'll just play through that song. Alex and Geddy were definitely slumming it. But it goes down as one of the top five most exciting stage moments for me ever.
Favorite tour-bus activity: Scrabulous or sex?
We play a lot of cards. We play gin like a bunch of old ladies. We keep saying we're gonna learn how to play poker because that sounds so much cooler. But we keep playing gin. I bet next tour we'll just knit.
