Dave Grohl’s favourite guitar soloist ever
Although he made his name as the drummer with the grunge outfit Nirvana during the 1990s, Dave Grohl has cemented himself as a certified guitar hero fronting Foo Fighters. Often hailed as one of the most impressive live bands, the Foo Fighter combatants have been around for nearly two decades. During this time, they have managed to record 11 studio albums, headline Glastonbury Festival, and even make a feature-length horror movie.
With Grohl’s band having such a vast and dedicated fanbase, it is no surprise that he has been asked to expand upon his influences and his own musical heroes. The frontman has been open about his eclectic range of influences and listening habits; he seems to be constantly appearing in documentaries and interviews, eager to talk about rock history, his favourite bands and, in particular, his endless love of Led Zeppelin.
When it comes to drumming, Grohl has repeatedly listed John Bonham of Led Zeppelin and Neil Peart of Rush – who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Grohl in 2013 – as his most prominent influences. When it comes to guitar playing, he told Classic Rock in 2011 that Minnesota punks and umlaut enthusiasts Hüsker Dü were his “biggest songwriting influence”.
Punk guitar playing, like that of Hüsker Dü, was very different to what had come before it. Gone were the long, complicated riffs and difficult chord progressions, and in came power chords, buzzsaw strumming and lots of distortion. Another thing that was missing from a lot of punk music was one of the most supercilious aspects of rock and roll guitar playing: solos.
Guitar solos are a staple of rock and metal guitar playing, and for fans of classic rock like Grohl, nothing gets the music nerd juices flowing more than a good solo. Asked to pick his favourite guitar soloist during an interview with GQ, the Foo Fighters frontman was torn between two wildly different options.
The first of his picks will come as no shock to fans of Grohl, who has been very vocal about his love of Led Zeppelin, “Jimmy Page, I think, is my favourite soloist,” he said. “I love the way that he was always teetering on the edge of total chaos, but he knew how to place every note in a space that really drew emotion”.
Although Page is widely accepted to be one of the all-time great guitarists, it is not his technical ability that Grohl finds so attractive, as he explained: “He’s just going for it. It’s that sort of fearlessness that I respect most in musicians, not perfection or any sort of clean technical proficiency. I really like to see musicians right on the edge of falling apart. He did that in the most beautiful way”.
Grohl’s second choice will perhaps come as more of a surprise. He picks out American slide guitar legend Ry Cooder and, more specifically, his work on scoring the 1984 cult classic Paris, Texas: “The soundtrack to that film is my favourite album of all time,” explains Grohl.
“It sort of paints this sort of barren desert landscape, but he does it with a slide guitar. It’s just so simple and emotive, and amazing,” he added before concluding, “So one of those two”.
