Dave Grohl on the impact of Melvins: ‘They were the kings of bratty punk’
Many music fans consider Dave Grohl among the last of a dying breed of old-school rock stars. Although he rose to prominence in the 1990s as the drummer of Nirvana, his influences recede faithfully to rock’s classic era. To this day, he brings raw energy and unrivalled passion to the stage and studio as the frontman of Foo Fighters.
If you trudge back through 20th-century history, you will find that many rock stars were somewhat challenging to interview. Lou Reed, for example, was famously prickly throughout the 1970s and ‘80s, and as an interviewer, you would be considered lucky if he didn’t call you a two-bit schmuck. In stark contrast, Dave Grohl has always brought a smile, a bucketful of enthusiasm and a shedload of anecdotes to his interviews.
Over the past three decades, Grohl has outed himself as a fan of music from all corners of the stylistic map. As a teenager, he was entranced by Prince and deemed the Purple One’s cover of ‘Best of You’ at the Super Bowl in 2007 the proudest moment of his career. “All of those years spent in my bedroom practising alone to Beatles records, sleeping in cold, infested squats on winter fan tours across Europe, battering my drums until my hands literally bled… it all paid off in this moment,” he wrote in Dave’s True Stories.
Besides his affection for pop artists like Prince and ABBA, Grohl is more commonly associated with the heavier rock genres. As a youngster, he became enveloped by the collective virtuosity and explosiveness of Led Zeppelin. As a drummer, he was particularly fascinated by John Bonham and had the Brit’s symbol tattooed on his arm.
Led Zeppelin had their fingers in the pies of prog rock and heavy metal. There are very few subsequent rock bands the band hasn’t inspired from such a broad base, whether directly or indirectly. The punk wave may not have aligned with Zeppelin’s propensity for long, complicated compositions, but with the aggressive, attacking sound, they certainly did.
As a proponent of grunge, Grohl’s associative cleft was influenced by classic rock bands like Led Zeppelin, bands of the punk and post-punk waves and the fuzzy distortion of Neil Young’s Crazy Horse. In the late 1980s, grunge bands began to sprout across the US, but Seattle was the genre’s epicentre and spiritual home.
The largest city in Washington state was home to such eminent groups as Pearl Jam, Mudhoney, Nirvana, Melvins, Alice in Chains and Soundgarden. This loosely defined bunch of rockers were bound as much by their fashion choices as their fuzzy, energetic sound. As Kurt Cobain, Chris Cornell and Buzz Osbourne took to the stage, their fashion choices would ordinarily sit closer to homeless chic than Fab Four suits.
Within the grunge scene, bands approached rock from slightly different angles. For instance, Pearl Jam is associated with a somewhat lighter, melodic tone, while Alice in Chains was a touch heavier and more associated with heavy metal in some of their releases. Osbourne’s Melvins resided heavily on the Alice in Chains side of this spectrum.
When they set out in 1984, Melvins first turned Cobain’s head with a fast-paced take on hardcore punk. Over time, they joined the grunge wave, bringing fuzz and creative eclecticism to some of their early records, such as Ozma and Bullhead, which Nirvana was particularly fond of. “The Melvins started off as this fast, hardcore punk rock band, but then turned into this sludgy Black Sabbath metal militia that they knew everyone would hate,” Grohl recalled in 2000 while picking some of his all-time favourite albums for Melody Maker.
The Foo Fighters frontman was a fan of Melvins from the start and appreciated the band’s disregard for current trends. “They started playing as slow as they could because everyone screamed for them to play faster – just to piss everyone off,” Grohl said. “They were the kings of that whole bratty nature of punk.”
As a long-time friend of the band, Grohl found it difficult to pick just one favourite from the Melvins catalogue to date. Ultimately, he picked out their 1987 sludge metal offering, Gluey Porch Treatments. “It’s kind of a basement production job, but it sounds heavier than any fuckin’ Dio or Slayer record I ever heard,” Grohl praised.
