Dave Grohl’s favourite English bands: “My two favourite bands ever”
Dave Grohl might be inextricable from the story of American rock, but his trajectory would likely not have been so meteoric without the lessons he learned from English bands. This statement is not meant to be a weird display of musical nationalism, but the Foo Fighters leader has always maintained that some of his most treasured influences hail from this tiny country.
Grohl has made a tremendous impact on modern music. As the drummer of Nirvana, leader of Foo Fighters, and the man who played on Queens of the Stone Age’s most influential record, his legacy is a tremendous one, with it likely that he is the last in the long line of undisputable rock stars in both his status and the indelible impact he’s had on the world.
While music still has world-famous heavyweights that are culturally significant, today, pop stars have taken the baton from their rock counterparts in pushing boundaries and galvanising the masses. This is something that even The Who’s Pete Townshend believes, one of guitar music’s OG’s.
Throughout his career, Grohl has consistently emphasised that much of his musical influence stems from the classic rock era, especially from the contributions of English bands. While he may have been rooted in the DC hardcore scene as a teenager, it was the classic rock legends who first ignited his passion for music and inspired him to dedicate his life to it—a common thread among many of his peers, given the more linear progression of music during that time.
His two favourite groups hail from England: The Beatles and Led Zeppelin. Both had the most impact on him developing his ear and sound.
When asked in an interview what Britain brings musically to the rest of the world, the Foo Fighters leader said: “Personally, for me, everything from my two favourite bands ever, my whole life, The Beatles and Led Zeppelin, to some of my favourite punk rock bands, from the Sex Pistols to GBH, to some of my favourite current bands, like Supergrass and uh, god, remember Daisy Chainsaw? You know, you can go on for ages?”
Despite his long connection to punk and its antithetical nature to groups such as The Beatles and Led Zeppelin, Grohl has never shied away from praising both the Fab Four and Jimmy Page’s group who knocked them off their perch. While melodically and in terms of their guitars, The Beatles and Led Zeppelin made a tremendous impact on Grohl, for him, both bands are extra special because of their drummers.
From rejecting the mainstream thought that The Beatles’ rhythmic lynchpin Ringo Starr was a terrible drummer by calling him “the king of feel” to openly explaining that John Bonham is his favourite drummer of all time, a powerhouse who fused technical nouse and elemental power, just like Grohl would later do, it is clear that without both bands and their drummers, the former Nirvana man wouldn’t be the force we know.
He’s even confirmed it himself. When Grohl started drumming in the 1970s, he originally thought that technical peacocking qualified people as good drummers, but after hearing Bonham, he realised that keeping a good groove is far more impressive than fill after fill. Offering a concise description of his own style, he said: “John Bonham played drums hard but kept the groove.”
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