Background and career
Joshua Ryan Freese (born December 25, 1972) is an American drummer who has been a member of the punk rock band the Vandals since 1989, and the alt-rock supergroup A Perfect Circle from 1999 to 2012, and again since 2024. He was the drummer of the new wave band Devo from 1996 to 2023, the hard rock band Guns N' Roses from 1997 to 1999, the reggae rock band Sublime with Rome from 2011 to 2017, and the rock band Foo Fighters from 2023 to 2025. A prolific session and touring drummer, Freese has appeared on over 400 albums since 1986 and performed live with artists including Nine Inch Nails, Weezer, Sting, 311, 100 Gecs, Ween, the Offspring and Danny Elfman. Freese's considerable output has earned him "the pristine reputation as one of the most in-demand session drummers in the business", according to Variety, while he jokingly dubbed himself "the blue collar freelance drummer to the stars".
Joshua Ryan Freese was born on December 25, 1972, at Florida Hospital in Orlando, Florida. At the time of his birth, Freese's father, Stan Freese, was working at the newly opened Walt Disney World Resort as the director of bands and leader of the Walt Disney World Marching Band. His mother, Patricia (née Weatherhead, later Bridenstine), is a classical pianist and a writer. In 1974, Freese's father was transferred to Disneyland Park in Southern California to lead the Disneyland Band. Freese and his younger brother Jason spent summers at the park while their father worked. Freese said that some of his earliest memories are of he and his brother marching with the Disneyland Band holding toy instruments. Freese's first job was at Disneyland as a shoe shine boy during the summer of 1985. Freese and his brother would shine the shoes of park employees and worked for tips.
Freese began playing the drums when he was eight years old. His father set up a Yamaha drum set he had received through a promotional deal. After playing around on that drum set for two years, Freese's father took him to the 1983 NAMM Show, an annual music industry trade show at the Anaheim Convention Center. There he attracted the attention of the crowd by playing on a vendor's sample drum set. Freese returned to the NAMM Show in 1985, where a representative from Simmons found the 12-year-old Freese playing a sample drum set and signed him to an endorsement deal. Freese played a Simmons electronic drum set at PASIC (the Percussive Arts Society International Convention) and in television commercials for Simmons.
By 1985, Freese's father had transitioned out of his bandleader role and into talent booking at Disneyland. That summer, Freese's father hired Polo, a Top 40 cover band composed of teenagers around Freese's age, which had just won the Junior Star Search competition on television. Freese became friends with the band's drummer, Jimmy Keegan, and was invited to sit in on a few songs during their sets at the Tomorrowland Terrace stage. The guest spots went so well that Freese was invited to join the band as an additional drummer. Freese played with Polo at Disneyland and other venues from 1985 to 1988.
In 1988, Freese met and befriended Ahmet Zappa, son of musician Frank Zappa, at a shoot for the TV movie 14 Going on 30. Zappa got Freese together with Zappa's brother Dweezil and the two began playing together casually. Dweezil then asked Freese to record with him, and Freese dropped out of high school to pursue recording full-time (Freese eventually received his GED years later). Not being old enough to drive, Freese's father drove him to the recording session in Los Angeles before Freese began staying with the Zappas during the week and going home to Orange County on the weekends. Freese's first recorded collaboration with Dweezil was the 1991 album Confessions.
While he was playing at Disneyland with Polo, Freese caught the eye of Dave Quackenbush and Joe Escalante, two members of the punk rock band the Vandals. In 1989, they hired Freese to be the band's drummer. Freese has played on all of the band's albums since except 2000's Look What I Almost Stepped In..., on which Suicidal Tendencies drummer Brooks Wackerman was deputized due to Freese's commitments with A Perfect Circle.
