Longtime Foo Fighters guitarist Pat Smear will miss three of the band’s upcoming shows after “smashing the shit out of his left foot” in “the classic tradition of rockstars having bizarre gardening accidents,” according to a social media post.
Multi-instrumentalist Jason Falkner, who has played with Beck and St. Vincent and was also a member of the beloved ’90s power pop band Jellyfish, will fill in for Smear.
A smiling Smear, 66, is depicted in an accompanying mock tabloid cover image giving the cameraperson the finger while being wheeled away on a stretcher. “This means he’ll unfortunately be missing a few shows while the multiple broken bones in his foot heal,” said the band of upcoming gigs in Guanajuato, Mexico (Jan. 10), Los Angeles (Jan. 14) and Tasmania (Jan. 24). “We’ll miss our beloved Pat as much as you will, but we want him fully healed and back on his feet as soon as possible.”
The artist, whose real name is Georg Ruthenberg, was a member of pioneering L.A. punk band the Germs and later joined Nirvana as a touring member in 1993. When Dave Grohl formed Foo Fighters after Kurt Cobain’s 1994 suicide, he extended an invitation to Smear, who has been a mainstay in the band despite a hiatus between 1997 and 2005.
Smear is expected to be back in action in time for the Foos’ May 8 appearance at the Welcome to Rockville festival in Daytona Beach, Fla., and a summer European tour, which begins June 10 in Oslo. North American stadium dates will follow.
