Dave Grohl’s anthem-rocking band was slated to perform at the conclusion of the 67th Primetime Emmy’s presentation last night — but Fox scratched them off the schedule.
Grohl, whose band won two Creative Arts Emmy Awards earlier this month for the titular HBO rock series following the Foo’s new studio album Sonic Highways, revealed the news in a recent encounter with TMZ, telling the publication in no uncertain terms, “We were supposed to play on the Emmys, and we were gonna play on the Emmys, and then they kicked us off.”
The Foo Fighters had planned to perform a song from Sonic Highways, according to TMZ, but Fox wanted them to play just half of the song and then part of their 1999 hit Learn to Fly. In an official statement to Rolling Stone, the band had this to say: “The band and the Academy were extremely happy and excited to have Foo Fighters play as the first ever rock band on the Emmys. Fox then refused to allow the band to play a full song from the Emmy-winning Sonic Highways. That is why the band decided not to perform.”
After its debut last October, Sonic Highways won Emmys for Outstanding Sound Editing for Nonfiction Programming and Outstanding Sound Mixing for Nonfiction Programming. Grohl narrates the series, which takes viewers on a tour of eight different cities’ musical histories, from which he derived the lyrics for the new studio album. The eight episodes included explorations of Chicago, Nashville, New York and LA’s rock scenes, among others. The band tied the record, into the project by recording the tracks in (or near) each of the cities that Grohl and co. visited.
Grohl, who has said there will be a second season of Sonic Highways at some point, doesn’t hold a grudge against the Emmys though. When TMZ asked the frontman if he’d consider performing at the awards ceremony next year, he simply said “I’ll do anything.”
