You know him mostly from the band "Foo Fighters" but he also has a solo career...
Please welcome the guitar player, creator, and singer Chris Shiflett.
(Photo: Guitar.com)
1. His full name is Christopher Aubrey Shiflett and he was born in Santa Barbara, California on May 6, 1961.
2. During his childhood Chris was a very talented Soccer player and was even part of the American Youth Soccer Organization.
3. At the same time as his Soccer talent Chris started to develop another talent and at the age of 11, he started learning to play the guitar.
4. At the age of 14 he had to make a decision about the talent he wanted to continue to develop, as we know he chose a guitar and joined his first band.
5. In his youth Chris grew up on Punk Rock music in San Francisco, he started his career as a fan on the club floor and very quickly moved on stage as a guitarist for several bands like: "No Use for a Name" (punk rock band with which he released three albums), "Me First and the Gimme Gimmes" (a cover band he works with to this day), "Lost Kittenz" and "Rat Pack".
6. At one of "Rat Pack" shows, Chris came on as a bassist as they were an opening act for "Scream", whose drummer at the time was Dave Grohl.
7. There's a story that in 1999 a friend of Chris's who was very involved in the US music scene, offered him to audition for a band called "Guns N' Roses", Chris was not enthusiastic about the idea and instead asked his friend to arrange for him an audition for a band called "Foo Fighters" which he heard was looking for a guitar player.
8. Chris came to the Foos' audition and Dave who really liked Chris' musical background and talent, recruit him to the band. He joined immediately after the recording of the album "There Is Nothing Left to Lose" which came out in 1999 as an accompanist for the tour to promote the album but became a regular part of the band before the recordings for the band's fourth album.
(Photo: Martin Philbey)
9. In light of his commitment to the Foos', Chris left his band "No Use for a Name" but at the same time continued with his cover band "Me First and the Gimme Gimmes" as he begins his journey to the top.
10. In 2002 Chris was part of his first "Foo Fighters" album and the band's fourth album "One by One". The album was recorded after a difficult period in which the band's future was unclear and when Dave almost dismantled the band out of lack of interest and boredom.
11. In 2002, Chris and his brother Scott Shiflett, guitarist Trever Keith, drummer Josh Freese, and keyboardist Chad Blinman formed the band "Viva Death". They have released four albums: "Viva Death" (2002), "One Percent Panic" (2006), "Curse The Darkness" (2010), and "Illuminate" (2018).
12. In 2003 Chris again formed with his brother another punk rock band called "Jackson United" with whom Chris only released an EP called "Jackson" but left the band a year later.
13. In 2005 the Foos' released their fifth and double album "In Your Honor", which consists of an electric album and an acoustic album.
14. In 2007 the band released their sixth album "Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace" which was nominated for five Grammy Awards and even won one.
15. That same year Chris returned to "Jackson United" and began work on the band's third album. During the recordings, things did not work out with the drummer who came to record and Dave and Taylor Hawkins came to support their friend and recorded the drums parts on the album together.
16. In 2010 Chris was looking for diversity among his various ensembles, leading him to set up another side project called "Chris Shiflett & the Dead Peasants" with which he was focusing more on country and rockabilly music. They released their first album bearing the band's name.
(Photo: Michael Elins)
17. In 2011 Foos' released their seventh album "Wasting Light" which is one of our favorite albums and we recommend that you pay some attention to it.
18. In 2013 Chris releases another album with the "Dead Peasants" called "All Hat and No Cattle". This band prepared the ground for the style of his solo albums to come later.
19. A year later, the Foos' released their eighth album "Sonic Highways" which consists of local influences from different cities in the US, with each song actually representing a different city and a different influence.
20. In 2015 the band released the "Saint Cecilia" (EP) and two years later their ninth album "Concrete and Gold". Dave described the album theme as "Hope and Despair" when on this album they took Greg Kurstin who is a famous pop album producer and this is the first hard rock album he is producing.
21. In April 2017, Chris released his first solo album "West Coast Town", an album consisting of catchy and dancing country songs called honky tonk tracks, a country-style bar music.
22. In June 2019 he releases his second solo album "Hard Lessons". The album was produced by Dave Cobb who is one of the biggest country producers in Nashville, and together they created a collection of songs dubbed the Americana rodeo.
23. The Foos' ninth album was out in 2021 and is "Medicine at Midnight". This album is different from what we were used to getting from the Foos'. It's bouncing, It's happy, It's catchy It's a party. This album also holds the record as Foos' shortest studio album, with only 36 minutes of music. Dave stated that he wanted to produce a "fun" album something like "Let's Dance" by David Bowie.
24. In July 2021, the band returns the disco to the stage and releases a cover album of the great songs of the "Bee-Gees" band, they release the album under the name "Dee-Gees" and the album is called "Hail Satin".
25. In October 2021, Chris entered the "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame" with the "Foo fighters".
26. On February 25, 2022, Chris and his friends from "Foo Fighters" debuted their comic-horror movie "Studio 666".
27. On March 25, 2022, Taylor Hawkins was found dead in a hotel in Bogota, where he was scheduled to perform alongside the "Foo Fighters". Currently, there is no information about the rest of the band or the band's future, but we hope they will recover from this tragedy.
28. In May 2023 the band revealed its new drummer!! The band released a comical video in which they are seen in a rehearsal room "as if" waiting for their new drummer. A number of famous drummers such as Chad Smith, Tommy Lee and Danny Carey enter the room with ridiculous claims (food delivery, blocked parking, dog shower) and immediately leave, until the camera reveals Josh Freese sitting on the drums all this time waiting for his new friends to start playing. The video continues to a "rehearsal" called "Preparing Music For Concerts" in which the band plays a setlist for the first time in its new line-up.
29. In June 2023, the band releases its first album after Taylor's death, the album "But Here We Are". The album was produced by Greg Kurstin and the band with Dave recording all the drums parts on the album. This is undoubtedly a lament album, both in terms of sound and lyrics, Dave reflects in the songs the feelings that he and the band experienced following Taylor's death but also what he himself experienced following the death of his mother Virginia.
30. Chris said that in his early years with the Foos' he was constantly anxious that one day he would be dumped and replaced by Pat Smear who was one of the first in the band and Dave's best friend. It wasn’t until Pat became a regular member of the band that Chris was freed from those anxieties.
31. In some of the ensembles in which Chris was a partner he used to perform under the name Jake Jackson.
32. Occasionally Chris took part in Hawkins' band, a special band called "Chevy Metal", a kind of super-star cover band !! With Hawkins on drums and Wiley Hodgden being permanent members of the band and all other band members changing from show to show and featuring big stars in the rock world.
33. Sounds very painful but it is said that Chris has a tattoo of the phrase "Gimme Gimme", part of his band name, on the inside of his lower lip.
If you fancy a bit of country, feel free to listen to Chris's "Hard Lessons" latest album on Spotify, Apple Music
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