Low

About

“And now for something completely different”, British comedian John Cleese famously said when introducing an upcoming wacky video in the Monty Python sketch series and that was very much the case for the music video made to accompany Foo Fighters’ ‘Low’. This would not be a regular performance video or another light-hearted, family friendly comedic band video.

Instead, Dave Grohl had a rather more interesting concept. “I had this idea that it would be funny if it seemed like a video tape that you found behind a dresser in a seedy motel and you [play it] and you see these two rednecks in lingerie listening to metal, wrestling”.

That was the basic premise for the video shoot which took place one night in 2003. Joined by Jack Black and producer Jesse Peretz it had initially been considered just shooting Jack Black in drag dancing alone for the full duration of the song but Peretz suggested it would be funnier if both were involved. Playing the characters Lester (Grohl) and Cole (Black), the pair spend the duration of the song dancing, drinking, putting on lingerie and general debauchery. Grohl’s wife Jordyn was on hand to select the outfits for the pair.

The footage at the beginning and end of the video featured large trucks driving to and from the motel which was performed by stunt driver Stephen R. Hudis.

According to Grohl the result was relatively PG considering the entire footage they shot, totalling around six hours. “We just had a couple of drinks, [it] was a lot of fun to make. That was just Jack and I, and Jesse in a room. It was a lot more tame than I imagined it to be. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been.". Footage left on the cutting room floor reportedly included sex toys being passed around.