by The ‘M’ in MTV is almost redundant in 2025. However, there was a time when it was the kingmaker of the music industry, and no artist wanted to face its wrath.
The recent news that MTV is planning to take all five of its remaining music channels off the air didn’t come as a surprise. In all honesty, the days of sticking on a music channel on in the background feel like a distant memory, and their decision is unlikely to shake up the landscape.
The ground once held by MTV is now occupied by social media, and YouTube has been the undisputed home for music videos for almost two decades. But, in a bygone era, artists needed to keep MTV satisfied and play by their rules. Nevertheless, on one occasion in the early 2000s, Foo Fighters delved too far into NSFW territory, which led to the broadcasting giant refusing to play the video on their television channels.
In 2003, Foo Fighters were one of the biggest bands on the planet and Jack Black, following the success of School of Rock, was also perched at the top of his respective field. Foo’s frontman Dave Grohl had previously joined forces with the comedic talent for the Foo Fighters’ iconic ‘Learn To Fly’ video, in which Black and his Tenacious D accomplice Kyle Gass portrayed airline mechanics. While ‘Learn To Fly’ was an MTV staple, the broadcaster looked less favourably upon their second collaboration.
The controversial video was supposed to promote ‘Low’, the third single from the Foo Fighters album One on One. Initially, Black was set to be the only person to feature in the visuals and be in drag for the video. However, director Jesse Peretz had other ideas and convinced Grohl to be the School of Rock actor’s co-star, which led to things getting wild.
In the video, the duo play exaggerated caricatures of hillbillies, which is the kind of jape expected from a Foo Fighters video with Black. The two characters then proceeded to get blasted, cross-dressed and filmed themselves with a handheld camcorder as their behaviour became more drunken and debauched.
During an interview with NME, Foo Fighters’ guitarist Chris Shiflett said of the video: “It’s Dave and Jack Black being incredibly sketchy. It’s white-trash porn. Dave’s a big man to let the world see him in that way. It’s a side of Dave Grohl you’ve never seen before!”
Thankfully, the track was the third single from One on One, therefore, Foo Fighters didn’t need ‘Low’ to be a commercial success as the album had already sold well. The pressure was off their shoulders, and they allowed themselves to have fun with the shoot, so there were no tears being shed when the final result was deemed unacceptable for broadcast by MTV.
When describing ‘Low’, Grohl said it was “the kind of song that you pray would be a single,” before adding: “It’s the one that everybody likes, but there’s just no way ’cause it’s too weird.” If off-beat was the aim, Foo Fighters and Black successfully matched the absurdity of the recording with the thrill-seeking video.
While it would have stung for most bands to have MTV ban the video, Foo Fighters were in a privileged position that cushioned them from any real consequence. Their fans had already been out to buy the album to hear ‘Low’, and as a result, MTV were only robbing themselves of airing a fantastically entertaining video.
Remarkably, the video for ‘Low’ that was released was the heavily sanitised version. Speaking to NME in 2003, Grohl confessed: “We edited so much stuff out of that video. Simulated cocaine, a massive black dildo that we stuck on the wall and batted around, smoking joints. Jesse, the director, went and made a fake porn that plays on the television behind us. Totally funny, but totally fake. There’s real nudity but fake cum shots, a massive blast of Lubridenn. That’s one of the reasons it didn’t get shown. It was just fuckin’ lotion! We tried to clean it up enough but even the edited version couldn’t make it to MTV!”
Even though it was edited down, Foo Fighters can’t have been particularly shocked by the decision not to show it on MTV while viewers washed down their Cornflakes at breakfast.
