Josh Freese

Joshua Ryan Freese (born December 25, 1972) is an American drummer.

Josh Freese was born on December 25, 1972, in Orlando, Florida, U.S.A. His father, Stan Freese, conducted the Disney World (Florida) and Disneyland (California) band, and his mother was a classical pianist.

Freese began playing the drums when he was 8 years old.

Freese attended El Dorado High School in Placentia, California.

He started playing professionally at the age of 12 (in a primarily Top 40 band at Disneyland).

He played electronic drums in the teen-and-tween rock band named Polo, a Junior Star Search winner.

Polo already had a drummer before joining the Magic Kingdom, band founder Jimmy Keegan, but they found room on stage for the son of Disneyland's Director of Bands, Stan Freese.

Other bands on the same stage were limited to performing Top 40 hits, but such constraints did not apply to Polo.

The band recorded and released an eponymous EP that received some airplay on KROQ.

The young Freese's familial connections and corresponding exposure led to an endorsement deal with the Simmons electronic drum company.

There is an old Simmons commercial (directed by Mitch Brisker), featuring Freese on the additional content section of the Vandals' Live at the House of Blues DVD.

At the age of 16, he left high school and started touring and making records, first with Dweezil Zappa and then with the Vandals.

He has worked with many respected artists in the last 25 years, as a first call session drummer, band member and sometimes as a temporary replacement.

Freese has said that he learned to play drums thanks to Devo's 1980 album Freedom of Choice.

Freese began his professional drumming career in a Top 40 cover band called Polo at the Tomorrowland Terrace Stage at Disneyland from 1985 to 1988.

A prolific session and touring drummer, Freese has appeared on over 400 albums since 1986 and performed live with artists including Nine Inch Nails, Weezer, Sublime with Rome, Sting, 100 gecs, the Offspring and Danny Elfman.

His considerable workload has earned him "the Pristine reputation as one of the most in-demand session drummers in the business," according to Variety, while Freese jokingly dubbed himself "the blue collar freelance drummer to the stars."

A member of punk rock band the Vandals since 1989, Freese has also been a member of new wave band Devo since 1996 and rock band Foo Fighters since 2023.

Freese has been a member of punk rock band the Vandals since 1989, and has played on all the band's albums since except 2000's Look What I Almost Stepped In..., on which Suicidal Tendencies drummer Brooks Wackerman deputised due to Freese's commitments with A Perfect Circle.

In 1996, Freese joined a reformed Devo for a show at the Sundance Film Festival, replacing David Kendrick.

Freese has become their primary drummer in concert and in the studio since.

He was previously a member of hard rock band Guns N' Roses from 1997 to 1999 and alternative rock band A Perfect Circle from 1999 to 2012.

Freese was a member of hard rock band Guns N' Roses from 1997 to 1999, replacing Matt Sorum and signing a two-year contract.

Initially hesitant about joining the band, he was persuaded by his friend and collaborator Paul Westerberg of the Replacements, who told Freese, "You should do it. Go do it. It sounds totally wrong; go do it. What are you going to do, be in some totally cool alternative band? Are you going to join the Foo Fighters or something obvious?"

Coincidentally, Freese would subsequently go on to join an alternative band, A Perfect Circle, and later joined Foo Fighters.

With Guns N' Roses, Freese recorded the song "Oh My God" for the End of Days soundtrack and co-wrote the song "Chinese Democracy" with Axl Rose.

Freese drummed on 30 tracks to potentially be included on Chinese Democracy, but his recordings were scrapped and re-recorded note-for-note by Bryan Mantia.

Freese left Guns N' Roses in 1999 to join A Perfect Circle alongside Tool vocalist Maynard James Keenan and the band's founder Billy Howerdel.

Freese said he chose to make the switch "because it seemed like a more tangible thing that was really going to happen. These guys aren't spending a million in the studio. They seem like they want to start a regular band. They want to write and record a record and go on tour six weeks from now. It all seemed very realistic."

A Perfect Circle's first album, 2000's Mer de Noms, was the highest charting debut for a rock group at number four on the Billboard 200 in its first week of sales.

The band's follow up release, 2003's Thirteenth Step, charted at number two in its opening week with over 233,000 copies sold.

He was credited with arrangements on four tracks on the album, released in 2008.

Freese also played drums on two solo albums by Howerdel, one released under the moniker Ashes Divide in 2008 and the other under Howerdel's name in 2022.

Freese appeared as one of several guest drummers for the Foo Fighters during a pair of concerts held in tribute to the band's late drummer Taylor Hawkins in London and Los Angeles in September 2022.

In May 2023, the Foo Fighters introduced Freese as their full-time drummer during a streaming event titled "Preparing Music For Concerts".

Throughout his career, Freese has performed as a session drummer on hundreds of recordings for dozens of artists, joking that his client list of popular musicians made him "the blue collar freelance drummer to the stars."

Freese played drums on Devo's 2010 album Something for Everybody, and provided backing vocals on Devo's holiday single "Merry Something to You".

Freese ultimately played drums on the band's first three albums before leaving in 2012.

"I think it's a great record, and I feel proud of it," Freese said, retrospectively, in 2020.

"I always feel okay patting myself on the back for certain projects because there's tons of projects I played on that I don't like."