Listen to Dave Grohl’s thundering drum track for Foo Fighters hit ‘My Hero’
Aspiring drummers would do well to revisit some of Foo Fighters’ earliest hits. Drums were the beating heart of Foo’s brand of anthemic alternative rock, and there is a sense that their music will never be quite the same given Taylor Hawkins’ passing. Those of you looking to learn a thing or two from Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins’ drum work will be pleased to hear that we’ve sourced a drums-only version of Foo Fighters’ 1997 hit ‘My Hero’ for your listening pleasure.
Penned by Grohl for Foo Fighters’ The Colour And The Shape album, ‘My Hero’ is, as the name suggests, about the world’s unspoken heroes. Told from a child’s perspective, it reflects Dave Grohl’s reverence for ordinary people doing incredible things. Unspursingly, many listeners assumed the song was written about Grohl’s former Nirvana bandmate Kurt Cobain, whose death is regarded as being a direct result of the band’s startling rise to fame, although Grohl has suggested otherwise. After performing the song on Howard Stern, the interviewer suggested that the track was “loosely based on Kurt Cobain.” Cringing slightly, Grohl replied: “Errr, it’s kinda more about heroes that are ordinary,” adding that he has always looked up to “regular people, more than I up to… [celebrities].”
Back in 2008, Presidential candidate John McCain used ‘My Hero’ in his campaign. Foo Fighters were not best pleased and denounced his use of the track. “The saddest thing about this is that ‘My Hero’ was written as a celebration of the common man and his extraordinary potential,” the band said in a statement. “To have it appropriated without our knowledge and used in a manner that perverts the original sentiment of the lyric just tarnishes the song.”
Later, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Grohl performed ‘My Hero’from his Hawaii studio as part of the Living Room Concert For America, a benefit concert broadcast on Fox to raise money and morale during the lockdown. It was certainly the right choice. ‘My Hero’ is by far one of Foo Fighter’s most euphoric offerings, not least because of his thunderous drums, which set the whole track in motion. Though Hawkins appears in the video, it was Grohl who recorded the drums in the studio, recording one track using the kick, hi-hat, snare and crash, and then another using kick, snare, rack and floor toms. As you can hear, the double-tracked drums are incredibly rich and complex. As a result, Hawkins was forced to play a simplified beat during live performances.
