Chris Shiflett on His First "Real" Guitar

A longtime member of Foo Fighters, Shiflett has already played an integral role in shaping the sound, swagger, and scope of rock music throughout the 21st century. He joined the band in 1999, after kicking off his career playing guitar for seminal pop-punk groups like No Use For a Name and Me First and the Gimme Gimmes. Foo Fighters quickly made use of his guitar-playing chops with Shiflett contributing to era-defining hits like "All My Life," "Times Like These," and "Best of You." While flying the flag for modern rock & roll, he also made time to pursue projects outside of the band. Groups like Jackson United and Chis Shiflett and the Dead Peasants found him in the driver's seat, establishing his credentials as a frontman, while the long-running Americana podcast Walking the Floor found him shining a light on his heroes and contemporaries, its 200+ episodes highlighting the storytellers, songwriters, and road warriors of contemporary roots music. Two critically-acclaimed solo albums, 2017's West Coast Town and 2019's Hard Lessons, marked Shiflett's own entry into the Americana world, mixing classic Bakersfield influences with greasy guitar riffs, Marshall amplifiers, and country-rock crunch.