The metal album that changed Dave Grohl’s life: “I’ve been listening to your music ever since”
Sending or receiving fan mail is probably pretty much a relic consigned to the past now. What with the proclivities of the social media age, access to our favourite stars comes at the touch of a button, and the character limit of an Instagram caption curtails the good old-fashioned art of letter-writing. However, what’s rare under both these circumstances is for rock stars to openly fawn over their idols – but it seems Dave Grohl never had any reservations.
The Foo Fighters frontman and former Nirvana drummer is, after all, no stranger to hero worship himself. Being at the helm of two of the most seismic bands of the genre is no mean feat, but it’s testament to Grohl’s other-worldly musicality and fierce persona that he has mastered this career trajectory with aplomb, leaving millions from both within the industry and outside it revelling in his wake.
However, much as he may protest otherwise, being a rock god is not an in-built genetic trait. Instead, it took Grohl countless years of hard graft and worshipping his own heroes to finesse that status – but it seems there was one band he looked to as his North Star more than most.
Metallica are, of course, longstanding stalwarts of the cause, being one of the biggest blazing battalions to the heavy metal world ever since the turn of the early 1980s. Grohl’s been enraptured by their spirit from the moment they first thrashed on to the airwaves, making his fanatical reverence more than apparent in a famous 2008 ‘open letter’ to the band.
He said: “Yeah, I’m the guy that’s been listening to your band faithfully since 1983. I bought your first album Kill ‘Em All from a mail order catalogue called Under The Rainbow, I think. Actually, I can’t remember. It was 1983, for Christsakes! But that album changed my life, and I’ve been listening to your music ever since (even St Anger!).”
Casting his mind back to his formative days, it’s clear that the band’s debut effort struck so many of the right chords for Grohl that it created a symphony, and ultimately led him on the path towards rock and roll stardom. He can also lay claim to having been there quite literally from the very beginning, as Kill ‘Em All garnered Metallica a devoted underground following from the get-go, soon snowballing them into a mainstream mammoth.
Of course, Grohl was riding atop the stratosphere with the Foo Fighters in 2008, but he confessed that if those metal masters ever needed a hand, he would be more than happy to lend it. He continued in his letter: “I can’t wait to hear the new shit, and no matter what you guys do, I’ll always be the first one at the shop waiting to hear it. I’m sure you’ll come out and blow everybody’s fuckin’ minds, because you’re fuckin’ Metallica! Good luck. And don’t release it until it’s kickass.”
Whether those were charming or completely unnerving words for the band to hear, there’s no disputing the fact that the last 40 years of rock have been dominated by the forces of Metallica, with Grohl’s two outfits coming in not too far behind them. It must be a bizarre experience for your heroes to become your counterparts, but if there’s anyone who would play this off with a nonchalant ease, we know exactly which man it would be.
