“That’s how I imagine”: the artist Dave Grohl called the model for brilliant writers
Dave Grohl’s charm lies in his eagerness to dismantle certain myths surrounding the perfect creative process, preferring honesty over rockstar romanticism. One of his most telling reflections comes from a moment when he describes the writing process for ‘Best of You’, a song which has become one of Foo Fighters’ most emotionally expansive anthems. He describes the scene thus: “I wrote [it] sitting smoking cigarettes in my garage on a welcome mat with a fucking boom box next to me. I always see pictures of Nick Cave sitting at a desk with a typewriter, and that’s how I imagine brilliant writers to write, not sitting on a welcome mat next to a minivan in a fucking garage with a pile of cigarettes next to you.”
It’s a wonderfully contrasting image. For Grohl, Cave represents this idealised version of the songwriter as a kind of literary character, brooding over a typewriter in a dimly candlelit room. But who can blame him? Cave is such a convincing ‘Prince of Darkness’ enigma that anyone would surely believe he could pluck poetic stanzas out of thin air. For him, Cave’s reputation for novelistic songwriting has clearly made a lasting impression.
Indeed, his influence on Foo Fighters’ lead singer might not show up in sound so much as in lyrical content. While Grohl leans into muscular rock anthems and Nick Cave into gothic storytelling, both share a similar thematic positioning surrounding notions such as vulnerability, love, and redemption. Grohl has often spoken about writing as a way to process grief and frustration, something Cave has embodied throughout his career, particularly on albums like The Boatman’s Call and Ghosteen. Cave’s ability to balance beauty and brutality, weaving personal tragedy into his lyrics, is the kind of artistry Grohl admires.
The irony in this story, however, is that their writing routines aren’t actually all that different. Although Cave famously puts on a suit each day to write at a desk during regular office hours, that wasn’t always the case. His early catalogue (for example, with The Birthday Party) was mostly recorded in dingy bedrooms and derelict studios. I’m sure there was no shortage of cigarettes, either. All in all, it’s not that far off Grohl’s welcome mat setup.
You might be thinking, well, what more does Dave Grohl want? He sells thousands more records than Nick Cave as it is. Whether his story is simply a tongue-in-cheek comment or hints at a deeper insecurity about how he views his own artistry, we can only speculate. What Grohl clearly admires about a writer like Nick Cave is his rigid commitment to his artistry and willingness to bypass commercial success for meaningful writing, which connects with fans on a deep emotional level.
Maybe that’s the beauty of it. Regardless of how big you get, there’s always someone to aspire to, bashing away on a typewriter somewhere. Grohl might have the stadium tours in the bag, but he’s still chasing that Nick Cave level of cool. There’s something deeply humbling about the fact that even rockstars have their heroes.
