Dave Grohl and the rest of Foo Fighters have been performing live for decades now, so they’ve done a number of radio appearances over the years. One of their earliest was for the Rockline radio show in 1996, and now the band has released that session as an Amazon Music-exclusive EP, Live On The Radio 1996.
Ahead of the release, Foo Fighters shared a photo of an original DAT (digital audio tape) of the session from producer Scott Weiss, who recorded it. The band wrote, “Might have to get our hands on that DAT…,” and they linked to Weiss’ website where he wrote:
“I was cleaning my garage and came across this DAT tape in an old box. I thought “Oh yeah, this is from that time I recorded the Foo Fighters for a nationwide radio broadcast!”
In 1996, I was working at a small recording studio in Seattle. The studio took a booking to do a radio interview session with the Foo Fighters and I was booked as the audio engineer. It was a really fun night. Putting this tape in and giving it a listen after all these years was such a flashback! It’s a unique recording and I don’t think Foo fans often get a chance to hear Dave sing like he did that night. And the Watershed improve was a show stopper! Thanks for the memories guys!”
Then, early this morning, the band formally announced the EP by sharing the post again and adding, “‘Alexa, play Rockline from March 18th, 1996.’”
Weiss also shared a statement about the release, saying of the alternate version of “Wattershed” that details a trip to Canada, “The band laughed and then dove in and started to work up the idea. The show would cut away for commercials and [Foo Fighters] would practice the new ‘Wattershed’ idea. The version of Wattershed that would soon be known as ‘Water Fred’ was born.”
Listen to the EP here or stream it below.