The 1990s classic that Dave Grohl claimed was a reinvention of “1970s hard rock”
Culture is, and always has been, cyclical in nature. Over the years, virtually every trend in fashion, art, or music has gone away only to find a resurgence some years down the line, like some Boethius prophecy. Even during the grunge era of the 1990s, certain outfits were harking back to the big hair and tight trousers of 1970s rock.
Dave Grohl was one such figure, defining the American rock sounds of the 1990s alongside grunge heroes Nirvana, all the while harbouring an undying love for the classic rock sounds of years gone by. To his credit, the drummer-turned-frontman has never been one to shroud his music taste in mystery, taking virtually every opportunity presented to him to espouse the joys of hard and classic rock.
After all, it was the likes of hard rock heroes Led Zeppelin who first inspired Grohl to go down the path of his musical dreams, so even when the realm of abrasive Sub Pop independence took over, Grohl never lost his appetite for those classic rock sounds. Luckily, he wasn’t the only one, either.
Throughout music history, there have always been detractors of whatever the prevailing sound of the day is. During Grohl’s journey to the upper echelon of rock with Nirvana, it was Kyuss who represented that searing alternative, refusing to conform to the sounds dominating the rock charts from Seattle, Washington, and establishing themselves as an entirely unique voice in the process.
A pioneering force for stoner rock, Kyuss might not have been one of the most commercially successful outfits of the 1990s, but their incredible influence seemed to find those who needed it most. What’s more, the legacy of the Palm Desert band is still pretty unavoidable to this day, taking on new heights with the emergence of Queens of the Stone Age and a multitude of other groups who have Kyuss as their origin story.
Given the group’s debt to the classic rock sounds of the 1970s, it is no surprise that Dave Grohl was a natural disciple of Kyuss, with their 1992 record Blues for the Red Sun being a particular favourite. In fact, during a 2000 interview with Melody Maker, the frontman went as far as to declare, “This album changed my life.”
“I was 24 and something about the grooves and the guitar sounds, and the drums and the bass made this new noise that kinda sounded familiar,” Grohl explained. “Like you’d heard it in the early ‘70s, but you’d never heard it that good.”
He concluded, “They reinvented this genre of music, ‘70s hard rock.”
Although it is a rather bold claim to make, that Kyuss reinvented old-school hard rock, it is also difficult to argue with. They weren’t, after all, shilling old Led Zeppelin riffs and passing them off as their own, preferring instead their own innovative sound that was nevertheless indebted to the likes of Jimmy Page and the gang.
Grohl didn’t bother to expand upon exactly how that 1992 album changed his life, but it is probably no surprise that, in the wake of Kurt Cobain’s death and the demise of Nirvana, the drummer chose to explore the extent of his classic rock obsession with Foo Fighters.
