“There’s no question”: Dave Grohl on the heaviest album Foo Fighters ever made
Foo Fighters are never the first band anyone thinks of when it comes to making face-melting rock and roll. Most people are just happy to listen to Dave Grohl sing his traditional brand of stadium rock as legions of fans pump their fists into the air. They did have a heavier side to them, and for Grohl, everything came to a head when they started putting together the basis for Wasting Light.
But considering where they had been, there was no reason for Foo Fighters to change things up if they didn’t want to. Half of their albums had become vehicles for stadium-rock staples like ‘The Pretender’ and ‘Learn to Fly’, and if they wanted to, they could have easily pulled an AC/DC and spent the rest of their lives trying to capture that same magic on every subsequent album.
That was never how Grohl operated, though. He wanted the chance to make something that no one had ever touched on before, and while the studio presented a bit of a challenge, Grohl got his greatest idea by doing away with the cushy studios and trendy producers to make an album in his garage.
Since they also had the help of Nevermind producer Butch Vig, a lot of the performances on Wasting Light feel like the band cutting loose in the middle of Grohl’s house. He already had a bedrock of great material, but since everyone had to play absolutely perfectly, no one was just getting a run-of-the-mill Foo Fighters jam. This was a performance, and when listening back, you can feel the tension as they are playing as well.
Looking through some of the individual songs, this was probably the most eclectic they had ever been in the studio. The previous albums had seen them flirt with the occasional ballad here and there and then go back to the heavy rock, but ‘I Should Have Known’ is among their absolute best belters, and ‘White Limo’ is the kind of aggressive punk song that most had been waiting for them to do since ‘Weenie Beenie’ and ‘Stacked Actors’.
When talking to Kerrang about the album, Grohl thought it stood up as one of their heaviest offerings, saying, “It is [our heaviest], there’s no question about that. We haven’t made a really heavy, full-on 11-song rock record in a long time. There are a few bands that later in their career have made one album that kinda defines the band. It’s like you take all of the things that people consider your band’s signature characteristics and just amplify them and make one simple album with that. And that’s sorta what I thought we could do with Butch, and I think that’s what he’s done with this shit.”
Outside of the raw performances, the album is one of their heaviest lyrically, too. As much as people dwelled on Grohl’s every word following the death of Kurt Cobain, ‘I Should Have Known’ is one of the most naked confessions that he ever made about his time with his former bandmate. Foo Fighters could have easily spent the rest of their career playing the hits and counting their money, but judging by where they went after this with Sonic Highways, Grohl will most likely never be satisfied just taking the easy route.
