Dave Grohl names his “favourite soloist”
The affable figurehead of Foo Fighters, Dave Grohl, has rarely passed up the opportunity to venerate his peers over the past four decades. Beyond his more apparent influences in heavy rock styles and the punk lineage, Grohl proudly recalls a 1980s infatuation with Prince and a blissful youth drumming along to Beatles records until his fingers bled.
As a past member of Nirvana and the frontman of Foo Fighters, Grohl has been lucky enough to perform alongside some of his musical idols. In 2021, Paul McCartney inducted the Foo Fighters into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and joined them on stage for a rendition of ‘Get Back’. Ten years prior, Grohl found himself jamming with Prince in the empty Los Angeles Forum to Led Zeppelin’s ‘Whole Lotta Love’.
Although Grohl began his career behind a drum kit, his admirable return following Kurt Cobain’s death and Nirvana’s disbandment saw him take up the guitar in earnest. Today, he’s a competent rhythm guitarist as the frontman of Foo Fighters and often gives lead solos an accomplished stab.
When it comes to virtuosity, however, Grohl would be the first to admit that drumming is his true forte, but that doesn’t mean he can’t tell a great guitarist when he hears one. As Grohl and Prince’s unique performance at the Los Angeles Forum hints, Led Zeppelin has been one of his favourite bands since their early 1970s heyday.
Of course, as a drummer, Grohl was first transfixed by John Bonham’s expertise. “You have no idea how much he influenced me,” Grohl once told Rolling Stone. “I spent years in my bedroom — literally fucking years — listening to Bonham’s drums and trying to emulate his swing or his behind-the-beat swagger or his speed or power. Not just memorising what he did on those albums but getting myself into a place where I would have the same instinctual direction as he had.”
Showing just how devoted a Led Zeppelin fan he is, Grohl described the ink exploits of his youth. “I have John Bonham tattoos all over my body — on my wrists, my arms, my shoulders. I gave myself one when I was 15. It’s the three circles that were his insignia on Zeppelin IV and on the front of his kick drum.”
“It kind of taught me how to learn, so in a way, I almost saw them as more than human — which, of course, they’re not,” he said. “They’re wonderful, generous people that walk the earth as we do, but to me, they just meant so much more that I almost didn’t want to impose any sort of personal relationship on them.”
Speaking to GQ in 2018, Grohl revealed that while Jimmy Page’s guitar command had also dumbfounded him. “Jimmy Page, I think, is my favourite soloist. 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.”
“So when you watch a movie like The Song Remains the Same, or any live footage from 1971 or 1973, or 1975,” he continued, “Even the earlier stuff, 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.”
Watch Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins perform alongside Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones at Wembley Stadium in 2008 below.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Led Zeppelin Newsletter
All the latest stories about Led Zeppelin from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.