While he was drumming with Nirvana, Dave Grohl was recording original songs at home that never received public release. Those tapes would become the foundation of Foo Fighters, the band he formed in 1995, after the death of Kurt Cobain. Like Nirvana, Foo Fighters melded loud, heavy guitars with pretty melodies and mixed punk sensibilities with a sharp sense of pop songwriting.

Dave Grohl began playing guitar and writing songs in his early teens, as well as performing with a variety of hardcore punk bands. In the late '80s, when he was still in his teens, he joined the Washington, D.C.-area hardcore band Scream as their drummer. During the final days of Scream, Grohl began recording his own material in the basement studio of his friend Barrett Jones. Some of Grohl's songs appeared on Scream's final album, Fumble. After Scream's 1990 summer tour, Grohl joined Nirvana and moved to Seattle.

In 1995, Foo Fighters consisted of Grohl (vocals, guitar, occasional drums), Nate Mendel formerly of Sunny Day Real Estate (bass), Pat Smear (guitar) and William Goldsmith of Sunny Day Real Estate (drums). However, after a dispute with Goldsmith during the recording of the next album The Colour and the Shape, Grohl fired the drummer in the middle of the recording process and recorded the rest of the percussion himself.

Soon afterwards, current drummer and backing vocalist Taylor Hawkins joined. Smear announced his resignation from the band in 1997, introducing Franz Stahl as his replacement. But Stahl would only last until 1999, at which point he was replaced by final current member, Chris Shiflett (former guitarist for the punk band No Use for a Name and current guitarist for punk rock cover version band Me First and the Gimme Gimmes and Jackson United). Initially as a touring guitarist, but later as a full time band member.

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