“Waiting on a War” was first released on January 14, 2021, as the third single from their tenth studio album, Medicine at Midnight, after “Shame Shame” and “No Son of Mine”. The date was chosen to celebrate frontman Dave Grohl’s 52nd birthday. The band debuted the song live on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on the same date.
Lyrically, the song was described as the Foo Fighters’ modern approach to a “Give Peace a Chance” type song. with Grohl pondering the possibility of a dark future. The lyrical content was inspired by bleak conversation Grohl had had with his own daughter Harper Grohl, in 2019, which reminded him of his own worries about the world:
“Every day waiting for the sky to fall
Big crash on a world that’s so small
Just a boy with nowhere left to go
Fell in love with a voice on the radio”
“Last fall, as I was driving my daughter to school, she turned to me and asked ‘Daddy, is there going to be a war?’. My heart sank as I realized that she was now living under the same dark cloud that I had felt 40 years ago. I wrote “Waiting on a War” that day. Everyday waiting for the sky to fall. Is there more to this than that? Is there more to this than just waiting on a war? Because I need more. We all do.”
The song is currently #1 on active rock and alternative rock charts across the USA.
Listen to the powerful song here.
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