Josh Freese Honors His 'Favorite' Boss, Paul Westerberg

Posted on Jul 9th 2009 2:00PM by Wes Orshoski
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Though Josh Freese has worked for many accomplished musicians during his career -- most recently, he's worked with Devo, Weezer and the Vandals -- the talented drummer uses one of the tracks on his new solo album, 'Since 1972,' to pay tribute to his favorite former employer, ex-Replacements frontman Paul Westerberg. On the song 'Blood on Your Knuckles,' Freese honors his peer/hero in both melody and lyrics, sliding in a nod to the Replacements' classic 'Bastards of Young' with the lines, "We don't ever wanna miss the guy from Minneapolis/Take one big step and he's missing the whole first rung."

"That's where I come from, that's who I grew up lovin'. He's my favorite, without a doubt," Freese tells Spinner. Despite having known Westerberg since the start of his solo career in the early '90s, Freese -- whose resume also includes stints with the likes of Nine Inch Nails, Avril Lavigne and Guns N' Roses, among dozens of others -- admits to still getting starstruck on the track, singing the lines "Calls me every Christmas day/I never know quite just what to say/going 15 years of kinda sorta being my friend."

"I'm pretty proud of the lyrics, 'cause they're all pretty real and on the money," says Freese, who turns the song into a super-charged Replacements homage with, appropriately, a big chorus. "I figure he might hear about it one day, but I'm not telling him about it right now."

Long a critical favorite and considered a songwriter's songwriter, this isn't the first time Westerberg has been the subject of another band's song. They Might Be Giants' 'We're the Replacements,' Art Brut's 'The Replacements' and Lucinda Williams' 'Real Live Bleeding Fingers and Broken Guitar Strings' are all about the Minneapolis rockers and their former frontman. 'Since 1972' is in stores now.