“They’re so f*cking good”: The band Dave Grohl was scared to follow live
Dave Grohl has done things that he could not have imagined when just another ten-year-old dreamer with posters of Kiss and Rush on his wall. He’s helped spread the message of hardcore punk, defined a generation with Nirvana, and since that band’s sad end in 1994, has continued to write his own story as a songwriter in Foo Fighters.
Regardless of being Nirvana’s drummer, Grohl had always written songs. This included penning the resounding, hardcore-influenced riff of ‘Scentless Apprentice’ and the mellow ‘Heart-Shaped Box’ B-side, ‘Marigold’, on which he also sang and performed most instruments. Following frontman Kurt Cobain’s suicide, this meant there was light at the end of the tunnel for his career.
When Grohl was in the Irish countryside trying to find peace following the end of Nirvana, he met a hitchhiker who was a big fan of the defunct trio. Following that surreal experience, he realised he could not escape the recent past. He had to get back to music. He returned to America and recorded what became the 1995 Foo Fighters debut. Resoundingly showing that he was not to be defined as purely the drummer of Nirvana, he surprised many with his songwriting ability, and the band’s 1997 follow-up, The Colour and the Shape, went several steps further. It became a defining moment in alternative rock, setting Foo Fighters up as one of the most popular bands on the planet.
Since that moment, Grohl hasn’t looked back. Following their second album, Foo Fighters have continued to bolster their status as one of the biggest bands on earth. While the early 2000s was an exceptional period for them, succeeding their sophomore effort with 1999’s There Is Nothing Left to Lose and 2002’s One by One, they cemented their status beyond any doubt in 2005 with the double album, In Your Honor.
With the first side containing heavier rock cuts in the band’s traditional style and the second comprised of mellow acoustic songs, it displayed their scope and showed that, unlike many outfits of their size, they were not one-dimensional. This range, emotive and sonic, has seen Foo Fighters appeal to so many. They’ve continued pushing themselves into new areas on their ensuing albums.
Although the band had been on an upward trajectory since 1997, In Your Honor proved that they were here to stay, and their follow-up show at Hyde Park on June 17th, 2006, marked it as a crowning juncture. It was an epic 80-minute set performed to 100,000 people, and following it, there was no question that Grohl and his group were among the most influential of their generation.
Naturally, it was a moment to remember for Grohl. Although the group got to call on their friends to appear on the bill – Queens of the Stone Age, Juliette Lewis, Angels & Airwaves, and even members of Queen – and Grohl fondly remembers the barbeque atmosphere backstage, it was still humbling going on stage after a band that he credits among his heroes: Motörhead.
Speaking to Kerrang!, Grohl reflected on the dichotomy of feelings prompted by going on after Lemmy’s band: “There’s a good side and a bad side to being on the same bill as Mötorhead. The good side is you get to watch one of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll bands of all time! They’re just the fucking best and I think they might be better now than they’ve ever been! Honestly they’re so fucking good! The bad side is we’ve gotta fucking go on after them! I’d like to think that maybe 40,000 people are coming to see us and the other 40,000 are coming to see Motorhead.”
It’s one thing playing to 100,000 people, but getting the chance to book your heroes, who happily sign on, must have given Grohl feelings of satisfaction that few ever experience. He was no longer the former drummer of Nirvana but Dave Grohl, the frontman of Foo Fighters. 1991 was just a distant memory.
