Many people were surprised when, in 2025, the Foo Fighters and Nine Inch Nails switched drummers. Ilan Rubin left NIN for the Foos, and dismissed Foos drummer Josh Freese rejoined NIN, for whom he’d drummed more than a decade earlier.
Now, in a new episode of the Go with Elmo Lovano podcast, Rubin has set the record straight. He offered his detailed account of the situation and clarified that it “was certainly not a swap” in the way most people (including me, sorry, Ilan) referred to it.
“There is no story, honestly. I think it’s just a very logical thing,” Rubin said. “There was nothing behind it. And it’s very logical in the sense that Josh played with [Nine Inch Nails] from, I wanna say, ’05 to the end of ’08. I auditioned in ’08, took over the next shows, I think it was February of ’09, and was with the band up until last summer. The last tour I did was a European tour of the Peel It Back cycle.”
Ilan Rubin joined Nine Inch Nails after Josh Freese left in 2008
Rubin went on to say that he eventually came into contact with Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters’ management team. He explained that they were “well aware” he was committed to NIN but wondered if he had anything planned afterward.
“At the time, there was nothing I knew about. The [early 2026 leg of the Peel It Back] tour that Nine Inch Nails had just triumphantly wrapped up was not on the books. So, as far as I knew, my contract ended on a date,” he said. “After that, it was, what am I doing next? And when this happened, and the opportunity presented itself, and it was just an obvious great fit and a great thing for me.”
Regarding the whole “drummer swap” claims, Ilhan clarified that it was simply a coincidence. Freese was a logical choice for NIN due to his history with the band and its frontman, Trent Reznor.
“In terms of wanting to feel comfortable, Trent wouldn’t have to think about anything ’cause he knows that Josh can do it and has done it. So I don’t think there’s anything particularly surprising there,” Ilan said. “But when the news leaked, ’cause it did leak, it was kind of billed as this drummer swap. Now that would imply that Trent and Dave were, like, ‘Hey, you know what would be a great idea? Why not?’ Which is the dumbest thing.”
While the “dots were obviously connected where there was a switch,” Ilhan asserted that it was “certainly not a swap. I left my tenure with Nine Inch Nails to join Foo Fighters. Nine Inch Nails needed a drummer, and the drummer they got was the guy who was no longer with Foo Fighters. And that’s literally what it was.”
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