Dave Grohlhas reflected on the day he broke his leg on stage asFoo Fightersreturned to Sweden for a show exactly 11 years later.
It was during the second song (‘Monkey Wrench’) of a gig at Gothenburg’s Ullevi Stadium on June 12,2015thatthe frontman fell from the stage and broke his legin an accident that ultimatelyforced the band to cancel their Glastonbury headline set that year, as well as a pair of shows at London’s Wembley Stadium.
Tonight (June 12), 11 years to the day since that fateful show, Foo Fighters found themselves back in the same country for a gig at the Strawberry Arena in Solna as part of their ‘Take Cover’ tour.
The irony was not lost on Grohl, who took a moment while introducing the song ‘Walk’ to remember that day.“I fell off thestageand I bust my fucking leg,” he said. “That was 11 years ago today. Same day! How fucking weird is that.Coincidence? Idon’tthink so!”
“So, tonight,” he continued, “I’mgonnasing this song real fucking hard, because honestly,I think itwas myfavouriteFoo Fighters showwe’veever had in ourfucking lives.Because we kept playing, we finished that fucking show for you.Sowe’llsing this song for you.”
The band only stopped playing for a few minutes after Grohl’s fall, and remarkably, he rejoined them for the rest of the show, after briefly leaving the stage to get a cast put on his leg.
They returned to the stage just a few weekslater onJuly 4 in Washington DC, with Grohl sittingina throne with his leg propped up.
Florence + The Machine ended up stepping into their headline slot at Glastonbury 2015, with Foo Fighters finally topping the bill in 2017. During that show,Grohl thanked both Florence and his surgeon James.
“I’mabout two years late tonight,I’msorry. Traffic was a bitch,” Grohl said. “But I watched[Florence’s] show on my laptop as I was sitting in a wheelchair with a broken leg, and it looked beautiful. And my friend Florence got to headline that year, andI’mvery happythat that happened, because you know what? I thought she should have been headlining anyway.”
Foo Fighters’ current tour will see them play two nights in Liverpool on June 25 and27, andwill also include their festival appearances atMad CoolandNOS Alivefestival. Support across various dates will includeRoyel Otis,Inhaler,IDLES,Otoboke Beaver,Fat Dog and Die Spitz. Get any remaining ticketshere.
They released their new album ‘Your Favorite Toy’ in April, whichNMEgave 3 and a half stars,noting:‘Your Favorite Toy’ is a few more tracks of that depth away from being the most vital Foo Fighters record since 1997’s ‘TheColourand the Shape’,” we wrote. “For now, at least, they have remembered that no-frills punk, played fast and loud, suits them much better than middle-of-the-road dad-rock.”