Dave Grohl on the most historic moment in rock history: “I’ve watched it a thousand times”
Most artists aren’t looking to carve out their place in history whenever they sit down to write a song. Either the inspiration is there to guide you along, or the rest of your bandmates end up coming through with the perfect energy to bring a tune to life. But that’s only as good as being able to translate that energy onstage, and when Dave Grohl saw Queen tearing Wembley Stadium apart at Live Aid, he knew that he had found what rock and roll was all about.
Because if anyone breaks down the core essence of the genre, it is never about just plunking away in the studio in the hopes that someone appreciates the amount of time and care that was put into miking a drum track. No, they’re looking for a sensation that sounds like a band cutting loose in the studio, and despite Queen’s creative ingenuity, they were just as powerful onstage as they were off.
Regardless of who came before or after him, no one can argue that Freddie Mercury was his own unique entity whenever he took to the stage. It was hard rock, it was amateur theatre, and it was even a little bit of vaudeville in some places, but no matter where you fell on the rock spectrum, Mercury was more than willing to let every paying customer in whatever arena they were playing walk out with a smile on their face.
And considering how steeped in rock lore it is today, it’s crazy that Queen wasn’t even supposed to play Live Aid at first. After being talked into performing for 20 minutes, that short timeframe in front of millions of people broadcast around the world was a clinic in how to contain an audience of that size.
Outside of the fact that they tore through some of the biggest hits of their career, Mercury is the real star of the entire day, even playing the audience like an instrument when doing his classic vocal runs. Mercury was just doing what he did best, but in terms of capturing pure charisma onstage, Grohl thought there was no one better.
Even with decades of hindsight, Grohl considered Live Aid to be one of the most monumental gigs any rock act has ever played, saying, “Queen at Live Aid is one of the most historic moments in music. I’ve watched it a thousand times. They went out and played seven of their biggest songs – they opened with ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, and within 30 seconds, Freddie Mercury had that entire place in the palm of his fucking hand, just like that.”
Looking at the way that Grohl approached the same arena years later when playing with Foo Fighters, he had years of practice to understand what made people love rock and roll. That time in the back of Nirvana may have been a good excuse for him to bring his hair over his eyes and fade into the background, but by the time he was out front, he had grown into the frontman anyone would be proud to have in front of them.
But even someone as synonymous with arena rock as Grohl knows not to even try to touch what Queen did that fateful day in 1985. That kind of performance is irreplaceable, and even if someone tries, they’re going to be living in the shadow of Mercury’s hallowed silhouette for the rest of their days.
