The Foo Fighters song about a wild roadie
The Saint Cecilia EP isn’t one of the best-known releases in the Foo Fighters’ now considerable discography, but it might be one of their best. In terms of pure hit-to-miss ratio, most Foo Fighters albums are mixed bags, but with just five songs to focus on, Dave Grohl and the band truly let things rip on Saint Cecilia. There’s the fist-pounding anthemic rock of the title track, the souped-up explosiveness of ‘Savior Breath’, the hard-driving impact of ‘The Neverending Sigh’, and the languid beauty of ‘Iron Rooster’.
There’s also a wild punk rock song called ‘Sean’ that just might be one of the best songs Dave Grohl has written in the last decade. Featuring frantic guitar riffs, harried screams, and just the right amount of cowbell, ‘Sean’ finds the Foos at their most fun. A quick scan of the lyrics appears to be full of nonsense, with tales of leaving haircuts on lawns and turning headlamps on. What does this all mean, and who is this central Sean?
Foo Fighters superfans might recognise the first name as belonging to Sean Cox, longtime roadie and guitar tech for the band. With a mountain of hair and a Rick Rubin-like beard, Cox is a towering presence behind the front line of amplifiers and drums at every Foo Fighters show. If you pay close enough attention to Chris Shiflett during shows, you might catch a glimpse of Cox running guitars or fixing strings.
“If you’re pretty good at doing what you do, that’s a plus,” Cox explained before a secret Foo Fighters gig in Brighton back in the mid-2000s. “You can’t be a fuck-up, although I’ve done a fair amount of that with this band, and luckily Dave’s a good enough guy to look past the fact that I threw a pint glass at his sister in a complete drunken stupor and pissed on a bunch of people in Barcelona for disco dancing”.
When the situation calls, Cox is ready to raise hell or bring order with his signature headlamp. As is the case with pretty much everyone who enters the Foo Fighters orbit, Cox has quite a few stories regarding drunken escapades (although none of his ever ended by getting arrested for driving drunk on a motor scooter). It’s only appropriate, then, that Cox gets immortalised in a song.
It’s a rare day to hear the Foos play ‘Sean’ live, especially now that the band’s future is in limbo as they search for a replacement for Taylor Hawkins. But whatever they end up doing next, it’s probably a good bet that the real-life Sean will be close behind, ready to hand out the guitars to make the rock show happen at full blast.
Check out a rare live performance of ‘Sean’, plus an interview with the man himself, down below.
