The album that made Dave Grohl become a drummer: “An innovative, legendary drumming god”
Foo Fighters leader Dave Grohl now wields a guitar on stage, but famously, he started life out as a drummer, first in the punk scene with Scream before being recruited by Nirvana. Although he’s no longer associated as heavily with the drums, Grohl thanks the discovery of one album as the reason for his career.
Most people have a particular person to thank for indoctrinating them into music and shaping their tastes at a pivotal age. For Grohl, his cousin was responsible for teaching him about bands that had a transformative effect on the musician as a child. Although Grohl wouldn’t start drumming for several years after this eye-opening moment, he’ll never forget when he first heard Neil Peart drumming on the Rush album 2112.
The album was released in 1976 by the prog-rock giants and helped put Rush back on the map following the commercial failure of their third record, Caress of Steel. Instead, the band decided to double down on the complexity of their previous progressive sound by crafting an epic 20-minute sci-fi extravaganza with every intention of breaking up once the resulting album failed to connect. Scores of new fans were enchanted by the Side-A suite that remains one of the benchmarks for technical rock music.
Peart was at the heart of the operation, and when Grohl first heard the record, thanks to his cousin, he was transfixed by the drummer. During an interview with NME in 2013, the Foo Fighters frontman thanked his cousin Trip for bringing 2112 into his life and changing his perspective on the role of the drummer.
When asked about the record that made him become a drummer, Grohl replied: “I think I was in third grade, maybe nine years old, and I have a cousin who lived in Chicago. His name is Trip, and Trip gave me ‘2112’. I went up to his bedroom – I think he was smoking weed, I could smell incense – and I saw this record cover and I listened to this album.”
The former Nirvana member added: “It was really the first time I ever heard a drummer in the forefront of the band. Neil Peart was such an innovative, legendary drumming god that I took it home and it just made me fall in love. When you see his drum set it just looks like a fucking spaceship. I’m sure that was probably the record.”
After Peart passed away in 2020, Grohl led the tributes, stating: “An inspiration to millions with an unmistakable sound who spawned generations of musicians (like myself) to pick up two sticks and chase a dream. A kind, thoughtful, brilliant man who ruled our radios and turntables not only with his drumming but also his beautiful words.”
Grohl also spoke again about the moment he discovered Rush, recalling: “I still vividly remember my first listen of ‘2112′ when I was young. It was the first time I really listened to a drummer. And since that day, music has never been the same. His power, precision, and composition was incomparable. He was called ‘The Professor’ for a reason: we all learned from him.”
When asked by Rolling Stone in 2015 what he would say if such an offer to replace Peart for a show did come his way, he replied: “I’d say ‘I’m not physically or musically capable, but thanks for the offer.’ Neil Peart, that’s a whole other animal, another species of drummer”.
While Grohl and Peart’s drumming styles aren’t exceptionally comparable, the former Nirvana sticksman never forgot the lesson he learned from 2112, which re-arranged his perspective of what a drummer could be by proving it didn’t need to hide in the background of a song.
Without Neil Peart we, of course, wouldn’t have had the increidble work of Rush, but thereis also a very good chance that we wouldn’t have the work of Dave Grohl either.
