The band that made Dave Grohl fall back in love with music: “The greatest in the world”
There isn’t anyone in the music industry who lives and breathes music more than Dave Grohl.
Even though he can be a little too overbearing sometimes, whenever he’s onstage looking like an absolute goofball, it’s always worth it to hear him on any track because you know you’re going to get one of the best performances he can possibly deliver. He was never going to half-ass any song he ever played on, but there were more than a few times when he felt like his inspiration was starting to wane a little too much for his taste.
Granted, the fact that Grohl could have found time to make any sort of music after the dissolution of Nirvana is commendable in and of itself. No one would have had the same kind of drive to make music after losing a friend like Kurt Cobain, and even when losing Taylor Hawkins in 2022, Grohl knew that Foo Fighters needed to continue because his music was going to help him through all of that grief.
But around the turn of the millennium, being in a band wasn’t the first thing on everyone’s minds anymore. Grohl was happy to have survived the baby steps that the band were taking during The Colour and the Shape, but even when working as a trio on There Is Nothing Left to Lose, there were times when Grohl felt like he was spinning his wheels a little too much. The album became one of the best records they ever made, but when drafting in Chris Shiflett, things started to get too boring around One by One.
Grohl has no problem saying that the record is one of the worst things that he has ever put out, but the reason why we got that record at all is because of Queens of the Stone Age. He was already a big fan of the stoner rockers all the way back when Josh Homme was still in Kyuss, and since he couldn’t get inspired working with Hawkins and Nate Mendel, he figured the next best thing was to jam with the band on Songs for the Deaf and see what happens with it.
That decision would have been divisive for any rock band, but Grohl wouldn’t have traded his time on that record for anything, saying, “The Foo Fighters were in our seven-year itch phase. We were trying to make One By One but there didn’t seem to be any passion involved. I’d go rehearse with Queens and be in the greatest band in the world. Then I’d go back to our studio, where everyone was ordering sushi and saying, I have an acupuncture session, so I’ll finish the track when I get back.”
His batteries were recharged, but he wasn’t going to be greeted with open arms once he came back to the band, either. This was the rock and roll equivalent of Grohl seeing another woman behind his friends’ backs, but even if Hawkins was beyond pissed when Grohl returned to the fold, no one could deny that it gave him a new perspective on how to serve the song when they started playing together again.
Some of that may have been the pent-up frustration that Grohl had during that time, but his work on Songs for the Deaf is still some of the most inventive drumming of his career. He was already looking to make something other than by-the-numbers rock, and hearing him barrel through different time signatures was the closest that he ever got to being in a band with the same kind of power of Led Zeppelin.
And while a lot of fans like to treat Grohl as this mythic figure that is going to keep rock and roll alive and well for years to come, his work with Queens is the first time he had a completely accurate amount of praise. He was either a god or a caricature in the eyes of rock fans, but it’s easy for everyone to meet in the middle and agree that this album completely kicks ass.
