Jason Falkner might not be a household name, but he's played with some of the best. Alongside being Beck's touring guitarist for years, he's recorded with Paul McCartney, Cheap Trick, and Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, and has also toured with St Vincent.
Recently, he added another name to the list, having been drafted into the Foo Fighters as emergency cover for Pat Smear.
Smear was sidelined from the Foo's latest run of shows after a “bizarre gardening accident” left him with a broken leg earlier this year. Grohl and co turned to Falkner for help.
Article continues below“I was getting ready to rage per usual on New Year’s Eve when Dave called me and told me about Pat's injury,” he tells Guitar World in a new interview. He was more than willing to step in.
“And then, he told me how soon everything was kicking off. I had four days to learn 23 songs at home before we started five days of rehearsals on the 5th of January, with the first show in Mexico on the 10th!”
That first show, at Velaria de la Feria, León, Mexico, went off without a hitch, as Grohl’s faith in Falkner paid off. But what made him the man to dep for Smear?
“So, I think he knew I would fit in quickly, but I was truly chuffed when Dave told me he and Pat thought of me for this basically at the same time.
“I’m a Pat fan going back to the Germs,” he adds. “Pat's guitar playing is direct and heavy. I don’t want much more than that!”
Between agreeing to the gig and that first rehearsal, Falkner listened to a lot of Foo Fighters as he got the songs under his fingers. But there was one small issue.
“The one mistake I made was not listening to the live versions earlier because they can be quite different from the record's arrangement,” he details. “I learned that the hard way at full band rehearsals!”
Meanwhile, Rush has credited Foo Fighters for kickstarting their reunion, while GW scribe Daryl Robertson has gone to painstaking lengths to deliver the ultimate Dave Grohl gear guide.
Falkner’s full interview will be published online in the coming weeks.
