The musician Dave Grohl wanted to trade places with: “It’s like a football play! Incredible”
Most artists can only dream of being up onstage with their heroes half the time. Even if they have that same fire in their belly that their inspirations did when they started out, it’s anyone’s guess whether they are going to be the biggest artist in the world or barely make it past playing air guitar in their bedroom. While Dave Grohl is one of the few who have made it to the other side with masterpieces of his own, he said that there are still a few bands that he has yet to check off his bucket list.
Then again, anyone who has completed 10% of what Grohl has done throughout his career would have probably had enough star power to last a lifetime. Despite being one of the most humble people in the industry, Grohl has never stopped being a fan of music even when working with living legends, whether that’s rubbing elbows with John Paul Jones or asking Paul McCartney if he wants to play drums on a Foo Fighters record.
Even if he has technical chops, though, turning music into a sport isn’t how Grohl thought about his music. He could still make drum fills that would do Neil Peart and John Bonham, but it was always in service to the right song and making sure that everything had a firm groove before flying off the handle for any reason.
For instance, look at his performance on Queens of the Stone Age’s Songs for the Deaf. A lot of the drum fills are complicated, but whenever the band decides to tone things down, Grohl knows when to keep things punchy without having to be too grandiose. That’s not someone who’s looking to grandstand. That’s a musical thinker looking at the song from all sides to get to the root of what the tune needs.
Although Grohl has been able to play different facets of rock and roll, it still didn’t get any more meat and potatoes than what AC/DC could do in their prime. While Angus Young is still the unofficial mascot for what a guitar hero is supposed to look like, Grohl always had a massive amount of respect for what his brother Malcolm could do, often pounding away on chords in the background.
It might not be the most glamorous job in the world, but Grohl admitted that he would have happily traded places with Malcolm if he could, saying, “If I could be any other musician in the world, it would have been Malcolm Young in AC/DC – laying it down on the Gretsch, standing in the back, only moving up to the mike when it was time to do the back-up vocals with Cliff [Williams] and then going straight back. It’s like a football play! Incredible.”
Then again, that kind of mentality is what Grohl has been using for decades now whenever Foo Fighters put on a show. Since they now have three guitars at the helm, the head Foo is more liable to play rhythm straight up the middle, so Pat Smear and Chris Shiflett can have their moments to add some flashiness to their sound.
That’s not to discount anything that Malcolm or Grohl brought to the table on their respective records. They might not be the most technical players in the world and bash away on chords half the time, but every single rock and roll band needs its engine, and without both of them steering everything forward, both AC/DC and Foo Fighters would fall apart.
