Josh Freese

Joshua Ryan Freese (born December 25, 1972) is an American drummer. Freese has been a member of punk rock band the Vandals since 1989, new wave band Devo since 1996 and alternative rock band A Perfect Circle since 2024, the last of which he previously played in from 1999 to 2012.

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, 311, 100 gecs, Ween, the Offspring and Danny Elfman. He was previously in hard rock band Guns N' Roses from 1997 to 1999 and rock band Foo Fighters from 2023 to 2025.

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

Early life

Joshua Ryan Freese was born on December 25, 1972, at Florida Hospital in Orlando, Florida. At the time of his birth, Freese's father, Stan Freese, was working at the newly opened Walt Disney World Resort as the director of bands and leader of the Walt Disney World Marching Band. His mother, Patricia (née Weatherhead, later Bridenstine), is a classical pianist and a writer.

In 1974, Freese's father was transferred to Disneyland Park in Southern California to lead the Disneyland Band. Freese and his younger brother Jason spent summers at the park while their father worked. Freese said that some of his earliest memories are of he and his brother marching with the Disneyland Band holding toy instruments.

Freese's first job was at Disneyland as a shoe shine boy during the summer of 1985. Freese and his brother would shine the shoes of park employees and worked for tips.

Career

Freese began playing the drums when he was eight years old. His father set up a Yamaha drum set he had received through a promotional deal. After playing around on that drum set for two years, Freese's father took him to the 1983 NAMM Show, an annual music industry trade show at the Anaheim Convention Center. There he attracted the attention of the crowd by playing on a vendor's sample drum set.

Freese returned to the NAMM Show in 1985, where a representative from Simmons found the 12-year-old Freese playing a sample drum set and signed him to an endorsement deal. Freese played a Simmons electronic drum set at PASIC (the Percussive Arts Society International Convention) and in television commercials for Simmons.

Disneyland

By 1985, Freese's father had transitioned out of his bandleader role and into talent booking at Disneyland. That summer, Freese's father hired Polo, a Top 40 cover band composed of teenagers around Freese's age, which had just won the Junior Star Search competition on television. Freese became friends with the band's drummer, Jimmy Keegan, and was invited to sit in on a few songs during their sets at the Tomorrowland Terrace stage. The guest spots went so well that Freese was invited to join the band as an additional drummer. Freese played with Polo at Disneyland and other venues from 1985 to 1988.

The Zappas

In 1988, Freese met and befriended Ahmet Zappa, son of musician Frank Zappa, at a shoot for the TV movie 14 Going on 30. Zappa got Freese together with Zappa's brother Dweezil and the two began playing together casually. Dweezil then asked Freese to record with him, and Freese dropped out of high school to pursue recording full-time (Freese eventually received his GED years later). Not being old enough to drive, Freese's father drove him to the recording session in Los Angeles before Freese began staying with the Zappas during the week and going home to Orange County on the weekends. Freese's first recorded collaboration with Dweezil was the 1991 album Confessions.

The Vandals

While he was playing at Disneyland with Polo, Freese caught the eye of Dave Quackenbush and Joe Escalante, two members of the punk rock band the Vandals. In 1989, they hired Freese to be the band's drummer. Freese has played on all of the band's albums since except 2000's Look What I Almost Stepped In..., on which Suicidal Tendencies drummer Brooks Wackerman was deputized due to Freese's commitments with A Perfect Circle.

Devo

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. Freese has said that he learned to play drums thanks to Devo's 1980 album Freedom of Choice. Freese played drums on Devo's 2010 album Something for Everybody, and provided backing vocals on Devo's holiday single "Merry Something to You".

Guns N' Roses

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

A Perfect Circle

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. "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."

The band's follow up release, 2003's Thirteenth Step, charted at number two in its opening week with over 233,000 copies sold. Freese ultimately played drums on the band's first three albums before leaving in 2012. 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. In March 2024, Freese confirmed he would be touring with A Perfect Circle in April for the first time in 13 years.

Foo Fighters

Freese appeared as one of several guest drummers for the Foo Fighters during a pair of concerts held in tribute to the band's former drummer Taylor Hawkins, who died on March 25, 2022, 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". On May 16, 2025, Freese announced on social media that he was dismissed from the band without explanation. He told The New York Times in August 2025 that the band's music did not "really resonate" with him. Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl would eventually state in 2026 that Freese had been dismissed from the band, and that the decision did not "happen overnight." According to Grohl: "We called, as a band, all of us called, it wasn't just me. Basically, we called Josh and were, like, 'Hey, man, that was awesome. That was such a blast, thank you so much, but we are going to move on and find another drummer.'" Freese also expressed overwhelm regarding the purported high expectations associated with being "Dave Grohl's drummer" and "the guy that's supposed to save the day after the beloved Taylor Hawkins died."

Session and touring work

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."

Among his early studio recordings as a session musician, Freese played on the Infectious Grooves album Sarsippius' Ark and the Suicidal Tendencies album The Art of Rebellion in 1992, as well as two albums by the Korean group Seo Taiji and Boys' in 1994 and 1995. He also played some shows in early 1998 with the band 311 as a fill-in drummer for them on the Warped tour in Australia, Japan and Hawaii. Chad Sexton, 311's drummer had broken a hand just before a show in Australia early in the tour. Freese was already on the tour playing with the Vandals every day and played with both bands for the majority of the tour. In 1999, Freese drummed on Mike Ness' first solo album Cheating At Solitaire.