Twenty-nine songs, four months of work, more than a million dollars spent—and the band threw it all away. That's the strange prehistory of One by One, the fourth studio album from Foo Fighters, the American rock group led by Dave Grohl. On October 22, 2002, the record finally reached the public on Roswell and RCA Records, but it almost didn't exist at all.
The million-dollar demos
The trouble began with the first sessions, recorded from November to December 2001. The band laid down 29 tracks, including a song called "The One" for the film Orange County, but nobody was happy. Drummer Taylor Hawkins called the finished mixes "million-dollar demos," and Grohl felt the rough versions had "sucked the life out of the songs." By April 2002, Foo Fighters abandoned the material and took a break.
The pause nearly became permanent. During the downtime, members scattered into side projects: Grohl played with Queens of the Stone Age, while guitarist Chris Shiflett and bassist Nate Mendel worked with other bands. When the group reunited to rehearse for the Coachella festival that same month, a major argument broke out between Grohl and Hawkins. The future of Foo Fighters hung on a single performance.
Twelve days in Virginia
The Coachella show went well enough to convince the musicians to keep going. Then Grohl made a radical suggestion: record the album again, fast, at his home studio in Virginia. Over twelve days, he and Hawkins rebuilt the drum, vocal, and guitar parts from scratch. Shiflett and Mendel added their contributions later in Los Angeles. The entire album was re-recorded in two weeks.
This was also a record of firsts. One by One marked the debut of guitarist Chris Shiflett on a Foo Fighters album, and it was the first time Grohl did not play drums—Hawkins handled every beat. The only survivor from the abandoned sessions was "Tired of You," which features Queen guitarist Brian May. The rest of the songs were brand new, built for speed and force.
A heavier, more aggressive sound
The sound that emerged was heavier and more aggressive than anything the band had done before. Grohl said the goal was to capture the energy of their live shows, and the lyrics reflected a band under pressure. He described the songs as "eleven tortured love songs," with the main theme being "submission to oneself." "Times Like These" directly addresses doubts about whether the group would survive.
The gamble paid off. One by One topped the charts in Australia, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, and sold more than a million copies in the United States. In 2004, the album won the Grammy for Best Rock Album—the band's second. The cover art came from Raymond Pettibon, known for his work with Black Flag and Minutemen, and the record appeared with both black and white versions.
The story of One by One is not about a smooth success. It is about a band that spent a fortune, hated the result, fought, nearly split, and then rebuilt everything in a burst of urgency. The album that came out on October 22, 2002, sounds like a group that had to prove it could still exist—and did.
The album that came out on October 22, 2002, sounds like a group that had to prove it could still exist—and did.