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When Chris Shiflett left No Use for a Name and joined the Foo Fighters in 1999, he almost had no gear. The band was rehearsing to support their third album, There Is Nothing Left to Lose, and leader Dave Grohl was doing an inventory check on their newest member.

\\u201cDave asked me how many guitars I had, and I said, \\u2018Well, I have two, but one has a broken headstock,\\u2019\\u201d recalls Shiflett. \\u201cDave chuckled and said, \\u2018We gotta get you a few more guitars.\\u2019\\u201d

The duo ventured down to Sunset Boulevard hitting all the guitar shops and Grohl gifted Shifty a pair of Gibsons (that we\\u2019ll meet later). (This story is even more proof that Grohl is one of the coolest rock stars ever.)

\\u201cI had been going to some of those Sunset stores since I was a teenager, and they\\u2019re never nice to you because they know you\\u2019re not buying anything. So, when I went in there with Dave Grohl and his AmEx card, it was a real moment for me. Here I am joining my dream band, and he\\u2019s like, get whatever you want \\u2026 and he really meant it!\\u201d

Shiflett\\u2019s gear germination didn\\u2019t stop there. \\u201cWhen I joined the band, I didn\\u2019t have any pedals. And now my bandmates constantly make fun of me for the size of my pedalboard\\u2014it\\u2019s ridiculously big and there are a lot of pedals on it\\u2014but my view has always been, \\u2018as long as I don\\u2019t have to carry it around, bring them all [laughs].\\u2019\\u201d

But they all serve a purpose and allow Chris to stand out in a three-guitar band. \\u201cI do love that my role in Foos over the years has become the color guy with all these pedals.\\u201d

His growth as an artist doesn\\u2019t stop there. Shiflett\\u2019s put out punk albums in Jackson United and for nearly 25 years, he sparked endless good times in the best punk-rock cover band (Me First and the Gimme Gimmes). In 2010, he shifted his creative outlet to busting out alt-country twangers and Bakersfield barroom bruisers as Chris Shiflett & the Dead Peasants, and then, later, solo. Since 2013, he\\u2019s been hosting a podcast (Walking The Floor with Chris Shiflett) that\\u2019s featured conversations with Wolfgang Van Halen, Mike Campbell, Greta Van Fleet, Billy Strings, and recent Rig Rundown subject Marcus King. Where does the dude find the time?!

Following Foo Fighter\\u2019s recent Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert at L.A.\\u2019s Kia Forum to honor their dearly departed drummer, Shiflett carved out some precious time and invited PG\\u2019s Chris Kies to the Foo\\u2019s HQ, Studio 606. The laidback conversation covered his essential live guitars (including a not-so-golden \\u201957 Les Paul and a few gracious gifts from Grohl), some custom Friedmans, and a pair of unusual AC30 stacks that only he and Sir Paul have \\u2026 and all his pedals that sting, sparkle, shimmer, and sizzle.