It was up to the artists to satisfy MTV and follow their guidelines before YouTube emerged as the clear leader in the music video market. The broadcasting giant, however, refused to play the video on their television channels because Foo Fighters once crossed the line into inappropriate content.
Jack Black and Foo Fighters were the best in their respective genres in 2003. In the famous Foo Fighters video “Learn To Fly,” Black and his Tenacious D partner Kyle Gass played airline mechanics, Dave Grohl previously teamed up with the comic talent. Nevertheless, their second partnership fell short of expectations.
The two combined their creative energies to make a music video for “Low,” the third single off the Foo Fighters album One on One. Director Jesse Peretz persuaded actor Adam Grohl to co-star with Black, who had originally been the only person to appear in the images.
The two play hysterical portrayals of hillbillies in the video. When they arrive at their hotel room drunk, the movie takes an unexpected turn. The two characters consume increasing amounts of alcohol and engage in increasingly debauched behavior. They start to cross-dress and record themselves on a handheld camera.
Chris Shiflett, the guitarist for Foo Fighters, described the video as “extremely sketchy” in an interview with NME. That porn is white trash. Dave is a big guy to allow others to perceive him that way. You’ve never seen Dave Grohl like this before!
Foo Fighters didn’t need “Low,” the third single from One on One, to be a commercial hit. The album had already been released and was doing well in the marketplace. As a result, they let themselves enjoy the photo session, but MTV decided the end product was not suitable for broadcast.
“Low,” according to Grohl, is “the kind of song that you pray would be a single.” However, it’s also the one that everyone likes, but it’s just too weird to make happen. Keeping that in mind, Foo Fighters and Black successfully attempted to match the ridiculousness of the recording in the video.
Foo Fighters can’t have been overly shocked by the decision, even though it would have hurt to have MTV ban the video and prevent many people from hearing “Low.” In the end, they probably realized it wasn’t appropriate for broadcast after completing the project. They initially created the project for their entertainment.
In a 2003 interview with NME, Grohl acknowledged, “We cut a lot of stuff out of that video.” We smoked joints and faked cocaine with a giant black dildo that we threw against the wall. Jesse, the director, created the fictitious material that is now playing on the TV behind us. Completely phony, yet incredibly funny. There’s a huge blast of Lubridenn with real nudity but phony cum shots. That is why we did not broadcast it. It was nothing more than lotion! Despite our best efforts, we were unable to edit the video to meet MTV’s broadcast standards.
Watch the ‘clean’ version of Foo Fighters’ video for ‘Low’ below.
