role:: Drums role:: Vocals
Biography
Ilan Samuel Rubin (born July 7, 1988) is an American musician, producer, songwriter, and composer. He is the current drummer of Foo Fighters, having joined the band in 2025, replacing Josh Freese. Prior to this, he was known for playing drums with a variety of artists, including Nine Inch Nails, Paramore, Lostprophets, Angels & Airwaves and Danny Elfman. In 2008, he formed The New Regime, in which he sings and plays all instruments in the studio and plays guitar with a band for live performances. In 2021, he released music for the first time under his name.
Rubin was raised in San Diego, California. He began playing drums at eight when he discovered his father’s 1968 Silver Sparkle Ludwig drum kit in the garage. After three months of “toying” with the kit, he had taught himself to play and was jamming with his older brothers. By age nine, he was ready to play for F.o.N., a band that eventually would do three stints on the Vans Warped Tour, where Rubin would also fill in on drums for bands such as NOFX. In 1999, F.o.N. opened Woodstock ‘99 on the Emerging Artist Stage; as a result, 11-year-old Rubin gained entry into the Guinness Book of World Records as the youngest musician to ever play on a Woodstock stage.
On November 15, 2008, Trent Reznor announced via the Nine Inch Nails website that Rubin would be joining industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails as their drummer after the departure of Josh Freese in late 2008. Rubin’s role in the live iteration of Nine Inch Nails grew to include playing piano, synths, bass, guitar, and even cello. Rubin was the longest tenured live drummer for the band. In July 2025, it was announced that Rubin would be leaving the band after his decision to join the Foo Fighters, replacing Freese. In July 2025, Freese rejoined Nine Inch Nails.
In 2011, Rubin joined Angels & Airwaves, replacing drummer Atom Willard. He has appeared on all the band’s studio releases since the 2014 album The Dream Walker. Rubin acts a multi-instrumentalist for the group during recording and frontman Tom DeLonge has credited him as a major contributor to the band’s songwriting process.
On July 30 2025 , The Hollywood Reporter reported that Rubin, would join the Foo Fighters, replacing Josh Freese.
In 2020, Rubin was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Nine Inch Nails, making him the youngest living inductee in its history. He is also the first Rock Hall inductee to be born in the 1980s, and the first to be born after the establishment of the Hall itself.