The one punk album that changed Dave Grohl’s life forever: “Nobody else blew me away as much”
The world of rock and roll is a tough place to be. A brutal landscape of creatives competing against one another to find out who is the most potent performer means that it is tough to find too much of the kumbaya spirit. Therefore, those who can stake a claim to be honoured by their musical fellowship have done so with the utmost respect. Few people are as widely accredited in the pantheon of rock as Dave Grohl.
Not only was he the drummer for Nirvana, but he has also since led Foo Fighters to be one of the biggest bands in the business. So when Grohl recommends an album, you listen. Of course, you should especially take notice when his recommendation comes with some heavy accolades, even considered by many to be the most influential punk band of all time.
The album in question is R.O.I.R. from Bad Brains, and it is arguably the finest distillation of the D.C. punk scene you’re ever likely to hear. One issue is, however, that as a true punk, securing the record has proven to be hard work, given that it is an obscure punk bootleg. There is nothing more gratifying for a true punk lover than to lay your hands on a scratched-up underground record that hasn’t been heard in years.
The album goes by a few names, but Dave Grohl simply refers to it as R.O.I.R, which may well be an original bootleg. “The Bad Brains studio albums are great, but for me ‘R.O.I.R’, this unofficial bootleg, comes closest to capturing their live sound on tape,” remembered Grohl when speaking with NME.
It would make sense that Grohl was so connected to the band, after all, he was living amidst the bubbling punk scene of Washington D.C. while Bad Brains were becoming icons of the movement. “I was living in DC in the early ‘80s,” says Grohl, “And got into the hardcore scene, but nobody else blew me away as much as Bad Brains.”
“I have never ever, ever, ever, ever seen a band do anything even close to what Bad Brains used to do live,” continues the former Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters frontman. While one might point to the intensity the band were famed for bringing to every show as a key indicator of Grohl’s love for the band, it was, in fact, their connection with the audience that really endeared him to Bad Brains.
“They were connected in a way I’d never seen before,” says Grohl. It seems fitting that this should impact Grohl, a man who is perpetually known as “the nicest guy in rock” and whose connection to his fans is unrivalled. For Grohl, though, there was nobody more inspiring than Bad Brains. “They made me absolutely determined to become a musician, they basically changed my life, and changed the lives of everyone who saw them.”
Happy hunting for the mysterious album, but while you are on the quest for a classic Bad Brains bootleg, we’d suggest also checking out ‘Banned in D.C.’ as quite possibly the greatest hardcore bootleg of all time.
The truth is that without this kind of brutish and blasted punk rock, Grohl may never have made himself into the powerhouse drummer he is today. Bad Brains sense of raw spirit and unbridled dedication to punk passion is what has driven Grohl to become an icon of rock.
