Dave Grohl discusses how ‘The Teacher’ was inspired by his mother
The recent Foo Fighters album, But Here We Are, is one of their best. The band’s ability to discuss grief and honour loved ones in a way that is still faithful to them, and their sound is inspired. If anything, the unwavering rock-heavy sound of Foo Fighters when talking about such emotional and personal things is a testament to their honesty with those loved ones’ past and their fans.
Much of the album centres around the late drummer Taylor Hawkins, who passed away in March 2022. However, on the Song Exploder podcast recently, Grohl has opened up about ‘The Teacher’ and how it was inspired by his mother, who passed away in July 2022.
“I was with her for all of the time leading up to her passing,” he said, “every day during that period, I would write something on the guitar because I felt that if I didn’t have that release, I would explode. I would spend the day at the hospital and then try to translate it musically – with no clear intention of what I was trying to achieve. I was finding these chords and progressions that mirrored the way I felt.”
After initially seeing the song as a form of therapy, Grohl eventually put the track into two demos. “These two ideas were separate to me until I imagined that if I were to put them together, it’s more than a three or four minute song. It’s something much bigger… I could have a piece of music bigger than anything we’ve ever done that I could dedicate to my mother.”
Upon diving into the lyrics, it’s clear just how much of his personal experience Grohl has injected into the song. It’s sad and beautiful, a true window into the mind of the frontman and an openness with fans that not many get the chance to experience.
He recalls the line “Where will I wake up?” as something his mother asked him in her final days. “I think someone’s immediate reaction to seeing someone dying is to wish for them to wake up, but that’s not how it works. One of my greatest fears in life is that I would be gone when this happened – gone on the road, not present for this. I was there, and we were there together.”
“She was the most important person in my entire life,” he said, “so I thought this had to be the most important music I ever made.”
Listen to ‘The Teacher’ below.
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