Foo Fighters and HIV AIDS Denialism

I came across this thread on Bluesky and hadn't heard about it at all. I lived through this time period of The Foo Fighters coming out, and somehow never heard much about this. It was back before every single possible issue with a band, artist, or celebrity was highlighted and shared. Causes were the annoying thing bands did instead of playing their music.

From The Foo Fighters’ AIDS denialism should be on the record:

This heroic refusal to look back would seem to include not looking back upon his band’s very public support for Alive and Well AIDS Alternatives, an AIDS denial group that argued HIV did not cause AIDS — and that HIV was, in fact, harmless and non-contagious. Alive and Well argued that AIDS was likely caused by recreational drug use and/or the very antiretroviral drugs used to treat HIV patients, and as such it discouraged people from taking HIV tests, practicing safe sex, or, for those living with HIV, accepting medication.

And this clip from John Safran, an Australian comedian (via Schmutzie on Bluesky):

In hindsight, I'm willing to bet that Dave Grohl and crew regret having been involved in this. But it does feel weird that it's not mentioned in the band's archives or biographies. The impact of telling a bunch of people that they don't need to worry about medication or treatment for a very treatable disease feels worth at least a paragraph or two in their history.

You might say that this is old news, except that it was never really news in the first place — and there’s almost no cultural memory of it now. Regarding the band’s destructive foolishness, the internet resembles a hastily cleaned crime scene. Professionally rinsed, however, are Paul Brannigan’s “in-depth” and best-selling 2011 biography of Grohl, and Mick Wall’s 2015 band biography Learning to Fly. Many years of interviews and magazine profiles — accounting for hundreds of thousands of words — have never referenced it. A 5000-word profile of Grohl in Rolling Stone in 2017 refers to the “crazy” early years of the band, which included the 2001 overdose and subsequent coma of its drummer, Taylor Hawkins, but the band’s long and destructive support of HIV denialism is, typically, never mentioned.

Maybe The Foo Fighters have talked about this in some way that more hardcore fans of the band are aware of. As a huge U2 fan, I know how annoying it is when people bring up random facts about the band that the band themselves have actually dealt with or responded to, but the apologies or explanations don't make the news in the same way that the initial controversy does.

And I don't think this means people who like The Foo Fighters should stop listening to them. Their music is still their music. And they obviously are not promoting this cause or organization in any way anymore—to the point that they've scrubbed it from their history completely. But it still would be admirable to see some attempt at an apology or explanation for what happened. I'm sure the families who had to watch their relative refuse treatment because The Foo Fighters told them about a cause and a book would appreciate it.