Dave Grohl names his “proudest musical achievement”
The list of achievements that Dave Grohl has accomplished in the music industry is endless, which is why he’s one of the few double inductees in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
For the last 35 years, Grohl has been putting his stamp on rock music and has done everything there is to achieve. He’s played, just about, every stage, whether this be toilet venues on the way up, all the way to headlining Glastonbury Festival and Wembley Stadium.
Therefore, due to the illustrious career that he has carved, it would be reasonable to expect his proudest achievement to directly relate to a particular performance he delivered or recording a classic album like Nevermind. After all, Grohl has lived a life that would fill about a dozen memoirs, performed with everyone from David Bowie to Paul McCartney, yet it was Prince who created the crowning moment in his career.
The life-affirming occasion occurred when Prince headlined the Super Bowl halftime show in 2007. For many, the highlight was either the jaw-droppingly brilliant finale, ‘Purple Rain’, or his wondrous cover of ‘Proud Mary’. However, for Grohl, who was watching from home, he was hearing Prince take on Foo Fighters’ ‘Best of You’.
“As my tears hit the keyboard like the Miami rain that night, I realized that this was without a doubt my proudest musical achievement,” he later wrote in his memoirs, Dave’s True Stories. “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.”
Grohl then described Prince as “the greatest living performer known to man” and shared his glee at watching him perform “my song to 1000 million people as if it were his own”. He then not only called it “the best halftime show in history”, but also labelled it “my life’s greatest compliment.”
It was several years until Grohl finally had an opportunity to meet Prince and share his gratitude for a cover. Upon meeting, Prince proposed a jam, which Grohl didn’t have to think twice before accepting.
Even though he received no confirmation from Prince, Grohl headed down to the LA Forum and waited to see if the meeting was taking place or whether it was all a dream. “And then… just like Fred Armisen’s infamous ‘Prince Show’ skit on SNL… he appeared. (This is no exaggeration, folks. I swear the dude moved like a Navy SEAL. He just… materialised),” Grohl wrote.
Grohl then stepped behind the drum kit and got to live out his dream as Prince menacingly started to play before his band slowly joined them on stage. The moment is one that Grohl will hold tight in his box of precious memories until he draws his final breath, and the afternoon was so perfect that he chose not to return the following week for another jam after Prince left the offer on the table.
“In a strange way, I didn’t need to,” Grohl explained of his decision to end the partnership on a high note. “I had fulfilled a life dream, with no evidence of it to share with anyone, other than a memory that will stay with me forever. I only saw Prince once after that. We just smiled and said hello. And when I heard he had passed, I sat in my car alone, crying, feeling both blessed to have shared these moments with him, and heartbroken that there would be no more. There will never be another like him. We were lucky to have him while we did. I miss him dearly.”
As Grohl notes, Prince was a one-off who also didn’t hand out stamps of approval for free; therefore, it understandably meant everything to the Foo Fighters frontman. While performing the ‘Best of You’ gives him a kick no matter where he is in the world, the joy of seeing Prince make it his own was a source of unrivalled joy that will never be topped.
