Dave Grohl thanks his pre-show ritual of beer, whiskey and Advil for his live vocal performances
Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl has revealed the unlikely combination that he swears by before each show.
Grohl made the revelation on the latest episode of the Dish Podcast, hosted by BBC 6 Music’s Nick Grimshaw and Michelin-star chef Angela Hartnett, which also saw him talk a lot about his love of all things BBQ food.
“We’ve been a band for a long time, it’s been 30 years. So, we’ve kind of grown up with each other and been through all of this life together,” Grohl initially said when speaking about the pre-show routine, before saying how it can be “the most comforting three hours of an otherwise difficult day.”
He then revealed how they get in the party spirit and ready to rock stadiums, sharing, “The cocktail thing is funny, once, maybe eight years ago, I had to go get my vocal cords checked out, and I’d never done that.”
As he’d never done this before, Grohl was expecting the worst and to leave the medical office being told “I’ve thrashed my vocal cords and I’ll never be able to sing again,” which couldn’t be further from the truth.
“And the guy sticks the camera down into my throat,” Grohl continued, before mimicking the exercise that the doctor had him do. “And he looks at my vocal cords, and he goes, ’Wow, they look great.’ And I said, ‘You’re kidding.’ He said, ‘No, they look amazing. Do you do vocal warm-ups’ I said, ‘No, I don’t.’ And he goes, ‘OK, do you do like vocal cooldowns after a show?’ I said, ‘No’,” he gleefully added.
The doctor then asked to find out his secret, to which Grohl replied, “I said, ’Honestly? An hour before the show, I’ll open a beer, and I’ll start drinking the beer. I might take an Advil because my knees hurt, my ankles hurt, whatever, I’m old.”
He added of his routine, “Then I’ll have a shot of whiskey. And then once the beer is done, I’ll open another beer. Then we’ll maybe have a group shot of whiskey, which we call band prayer. Then someone will say ‘15 minutes’ and I open one more beer and have one more shot and then hit the stage.”
While this isn’t a routine you’d find advised in a medical journal, Grohl’s doctor told him, “‘Just don’t change what you’re doing. It’s working.’ And I was like, ‘OK, great.’”
In the same podcast episode, Grohl also waxed lyrical about his love of David Bowie and revealed the agonising moment he awkwardly made a fool out of himself in front of his hero.
He shared, “The first thing to come out of my mouth, like an idiot, I said, ‘Well, the first thing I noticed was all of your imperfections’. I backpedalled so fast. I don’t know how I got out of that one. But I was like, what did I just… I would never say that to anybody. Isn’t that horrible?”
Foo Fighters are currently in the UK ahead of the release of their new album, Your Favorite Toy, on April 24th and will serve as the musical guests on Saturday Night Live UK this weekend, becoming the first non-British act to have this honour.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Music Newsletter
All the latest music news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.