Songfacts®:

• "No Son Of Mine" finds Dave Grohl addressing two-faced people in power who say one thing and do another. "This is the kind of song that just resides in all of us and if it makes sense at the time, we let it out," the Foo Fighters frontman said in a statement. "Lyrically it's meant to poke at the hypocrisy of self-righteous leaders, people that are guilty of committing the crimes they're supposedly against."
• Dave Grohl has three children - all daughters - so it's clear he is not literally talking about a son. Rather, he is comparing the bad actions and behavior of leaders to the moral characteristics he hopes his offspring will have.
• Musically, the ear-ringing track finds the Foo Fighters returning to their riff-tastic arena rock stylings with nods to Metallica's debut album Kill 'Em All and early '80s-era Motörhead. They released the rocker as the second single from Medicine At Midnight following the more laid-back and groovy "Shame Shame."
• Foo Fighters had planned to drop "No Son of Mine," along with the rest of Medicine at Midnight, in spring 2020, until COVID-19 put a spanner in the works. "It was almost exactly a year ago that we finished recording our 'new' record Medicine at Midnight, with a massive world tour planned that would have taken us around the globe celebrating our 25th anniversary as a band," Grohl wrote in a statement that accompanied the song's release. "But, well... you know..."
  
  The release of the song on January 1, 2021, is the band's way of saying "Happy Foo Year" to their fans. "As we say goodbye to 2020 (f--- you) and flip the calendar page to 2021, let's ring in the New Year with a new rocker, 'No Son of Mine,'" Grohl added. "Pour a drink, turn it up, close your eyes and imagine that festival field blowing up to this."
• The Foo Fighters produced the track alongside Greg Kurstin - he was the guy behind the boards on their Concrete and Gold album.
• Genesis also released a single with the same title back in 1991. The British band's song is about a son recalling the words of his abusive father.
• Speaking to the January 2021 issue of OK magazine about his admiration for Lemmy, Grohl noted the late Motorhead frontman's influence on this song. He remarked that "No Son Of Mine" started out with "this country swing to it", before the band "decided for something a bit more aggressive, and it turned into these chunky riffs."
  
  "I wish Lemmy were alive to hear it, because he would see how much an influence he's been to me," he added.