Dave Grohl always wanted to reform Them Crooked Vultures: “I hope we do it again”
Anyone in the music industry would do anything they could to at least have the amount of energy that Dave Grohl has whenever he plays.
Considering how many projects he has going on at any given time, there’s a good chance that Taz from Looney Tunes would be telling the guy to slow things down just a little bit. And while Grohl knows not to take on too many projects at once like he did back in the day, he did regret seeing some of his favourite bands fall by the wayside for a little while.
Then again, it’s not like Grohl doesn’t already have a sweet gig with Foo Fighters. He was responsible for some of the biggest hits of the 2000s, and even if he wasn’t always in the best mindset when working on one of their records, he could always relieve that tension by bringing someone new into the picture. He could play nice with everyone from Norah Jones to Trent Reznor, but getting the chance to work with someone like John Paul Jones was a match made in heaven.
Grohl was already a major Zeppelin fan long before Jonesy ever worked with him on In Your Honor, but the seeds were already being planted for a new project when Josh Homme turned up on the same album. Getting the chance to perform with Jonesy and Jimmy Page at Wembley Stadium would have been the highlight of any other rock star’s life, but Grohl figured he’d roll the dice and see if he could get the bassist for a full project.
What’s even more shocking is the fact that Jones agreed so quickly. No one would have expected that Grohl could make the same stomping grooves that John Bonham could, but when Homme came back into the picture to work with Them Crooked Vultures, every one of their songs didn’t sound like they were from the same universe as any of their respective bands.
Homme already had his strange musical affectations left over from Queens of the Stone Age, but a lot of what turned up on their one record feels like something that wouldn’t have felt out of place in 1976. Those riffs feel like something that you can’t appreciate unless they’re being played out of some shitty car speakers in someone’s truck, but even if the songs themselves were amazing, Grohl knew that it was too good to last too long.
Everyone had their own separate projects to work on, but even if Grohl had his hands full with Foo Fighters, he would love the idea of getting the band together all over again, saying, “Them Crooked Vultures is a dream band for any drummer because I got to be a part of this three-piece rhythm section because Josh isn’t just a soloist. Josh plays the drums. He plays the guitar like a drummer. When we sat down to start playing, it was about 30 seconds to a minute, and we realised this is a real band. This is the real deal. I hope that someday we do it again.”
That kind of thing is impossible to predict, but here’s hoping that Grohl does at least have a resistance to all the coffee he was drinking at the time. His animated personality is still one of the most hilarious things that he has ever been a part of, and given what he was working on, he almost needs that kind of energy to be able to play along to tunes like ‘Caligulove’ and ‘Dead End Friends’.
Whether or not we get another Vultures album is anyone’s guess, but it’s not like the want isn’t still there. Grohl always wanted to be a part of a band that had their power, and having three great musicians click together that well is too good for anyone to waste… It might take a miracle, but somewhere along the line, the chances of us getting a new Vultures record could be in the cards if the stars align in just the right way.
