You know that feeling when a joke goes way too far? Like, it starts off funny at a party, but three hours later, people are still shouting the punchline at you while you’re trying to sleep. That is basically the story of Big Me. For most of the late nineties, this sugary, sub-two-minute pop song was the bane of Dave Grohl’s existence.
It’s weird to think about now. Today, the Foo Fighters are these stadium-filling titans of rock, the kind of band that wins Grammys just for showing up. But back in 1995, they were just "that guy from Nirvana and his new project." Dave had recorded the entire first album himself at Robert Lang Studios in Seattle. Every drum fill, every bass line, every guitar strum. It was a solo project disguised as a band because Dave was too shy to put his own name on the cover.
Then came the music video. Honestly, it changed everything.
The Mentos Debacle and the "Footos" Legacy
If you grew up in the 90s, you remember the Mentos commercials. They were everywhere. They usually featured some smug protagonist getting out of a sticky social situation by popping a mint and flashing a "Freshmaker" smile. They were Peak Cringe before we had a word for it.
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The Foo Fighters decided to take the piss out of them.
Director Jesse Peretz pitched a parody called "Footos: The Fresh Fighter." The band loved it. They dressed up in goofy 90s gear, did the thumbs-up, and made one of the most iconic videos of the MTV era. It won a VMA for Best Group Video in 1996. It made them superstars.
But there was a catch. A big one.
Fans started showing up to concerts armed with actual Mentos. Thousands of them. During Big Me, the air would suddenly fill with hard, minty projectiles. "It’s like being stoned," Dave Grohl told Spin years later. He wasn't talking about the fun kind of stoned. He meant the medieval, getting-pelted-with-rocks kind. Those little candies are dense. They hurt.
Eventually, the band just stopped playing the song. For nearly a decade, one of their biggest hits was basically banned from their setlist. They were tired of the bruises and the sticky stage floor. It wasn't until a tour with Weezer in 2005 that they brought it back. Rivers Cuomo basically had to beg them to play it, or at least let Weezer cover it.
What Big Me Was Actually About
Beyond the candy and the jokes, the song itself is surprisingly simple. Dave wrote it while he was still in Nirvana. If you listen to the lyrics, it’s not exactly a happy anthem. "Girl meets boy, boy falls in love, girl tells him to f—k off," is how Dave famously summarized it to American Songwriter.
It’s a song about being dumped.
Musically, it’s closer to The Beatles than to the grunge scene Dave had just come from. It’s got that "candy-coated" pop sensibility that felt like a breath of fresh air in an era defined by distorted guitars and angst. But that lightness is exactly why the Mentos joke worked so well. The song was so sweet it practically demanded a sugar-coated parody.
The Gear and the Sound of 1995
For the gear nerds out there, Big Me is a masterclass in "less is more." Since Dave played everything himself, he wasn't trying to show off. The guitar tone is clean and jangly, likely a Gibson Trini Lopez through a Vox AC30 or a small Fender combo. It doesn't have the wall-of-sound distortion that would define later hits like The Pretender.
It’s only 2 minutes and 12 seconds long. Short. Punchy.
It’s one of the few songs where you can really hear Dave’s drumming style—which is usually powerful and heavy—restrained into a tight, pop pocket. It’s the sound of a guy figuring out who he is after the biggest band in the world suddenly ended.
Why the Song Still Matters
A lot of bands would have let a song like Big Me die. It could have easily been a "one-hit wonder" moment that dated the band to the mid-90s forever. But the Foo Fighters survived the Mentos era. They eventually started playing a slowed-down, almost acoustic version of the song live, which took the "pop" out of it and turned it into a sing-along moment for the fans.
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It proved that the Foo Fighters weren't just a grunge spinoff. They had range. They could be funny. They could be vulnerable.
If you’re looking to dive deeper into the early days of the band, don't just stop at the greatest hits. Check out the Songs from the Laundry Room EP released for Record Store Day. It features the early demos of Big Me where you can hear the raw, unpolished version of the track.
Actionable Insights for Fans:
- Watch the Video: If you haven't seen the "Footos" video lately, go find it on YouTube. It’s a time capsule of 1996 humor.
- Listen to the Lyrics: Forget the Mentos for a second and actually read the words. It’s a much sadder song than the melody suggests.
- Don't Throw Candy: Seriously. If you see them live, keep the mints in your pocket. Dave is still a bit traumatized by the "stoning" of the late 90s.
- Explore the Debut: The self-titled Foo Fighters album is still one of the best "solo" records ever made. Give tracks like Exhausted or Wattershed a spin to see the contrast with the pop-heavy Big Me.