Foo Fighters' Chris Shiflett

<p>When Chris Shiflett left No Use for a Name and joined the Foo Fighters in 1999, he almost had no gear. The band was rehearsing to support their third album,&nbsp;<em>There Is Nothing Left to Lose</em>, and leader Dave Grohl was doing an inventory check on their newest member.</p><p>“Dave asked me how many guitars I had, and I said, ‘Well, I have two, but one has a broken headstock,’” recalls Shiflett. “Dave chuckled and said, ‘We gotta get you a few more guitars.’”</p><p>The duo ventured down to Sunset Boulevard hitting all the guitar shops and Grohl gifted Shifty a pair of Gibsons (that we’ll meet later). (This story is even more proof that Grohl is one of the coolest rock stars ever.)</p><p>“I had been going to some of those Sunset stores since I was a teenager, and they’re never nice to you because they know you’re not buying anything. So, when I went in there with Dave Grohl and his AmEx card, it was a real moment for me. Here I am joining my dream band, and he’s like, get whatever you want … and he&nbsp;<em>really&nbsp;</em>meant it!”</p><p>Shiflett’s gear germination didn’t stop there. “When I joined the band, I didn’t have any pedals. And now my bandmates constantly make fun of me for the size of my pedalboard—it’s ridiculously big and there are a lot of pedals on it—but my view has always been, ‘as long as I don’t have to carry it around, bring them&nbsp;<em>all&nbsp;</em>[<em>laughs</em>].’”</p><p>But they all serve a purpose and allow Chris to stand out in a three-guitar band. “I do love that my role in Foos over the years has become the color guy with all these pedals.”</p><p>His growth as an artist doesn’t stop there. Shiflett’s put out punk albums in Jackson United and for nearly 25 years, he sparked endless good times in the best punk-rock cover band (Me First and the Gimme Gimmes). In 2010, he shifted his creative outlet to busting out alt-country twangers and Bakersfield barroom bruisers as Chris Shiflett &amp; the Dead Peasants, and then, later, solo. Since 2013, he’s been hosting a podcast (<