The collaboration that would allow Dave Grohl to “die a happy man”
Aside from his work with Nirvana and the Foo Fighters, Dave Grohl has performed with Paul McCartney, Queens of the Stone Age, David Bowie, Cat Power, Garbage and his own daughter, to name but a few. That’s an assortment that most musicians could only dream of. However, part of the reason that Grohl has become such a defining figure in modern music is that he has always retained a drive to push things forward.
Grohl could have retired after the tragic end of Nirvana and still been considered a music legend, but he was determined to contribute to developing an art form that has given him so much over the years. One band, in particular, shepherded him away from stilted suburban life towards more bohemian horizons. That band was the mighty Led Zeppelin.
“Heavy metal would not exist without Led Zeppelin, and if it did, it would suck,” Grohl once wrote. “Led Zeppelin were more than just a band – they were the perfect combination of the most intense elements: passion and mystery and expertise. It always seemed like Led Zeppelin were searching for something. They weren’t content being in one place, and they were always trying something new.”
Eulogising his heroes, he continues: “They could do anything, and I believe they would have done everything if they hadn’t been cut short by John Bonham’s death. Zeppelin served as a great escape from a lot of things. There was a fantasy element to everything they did, and it was such a major part of what made them important. Who knows if we’d all be watching Lord of the Rings movies right now if it wasn’t for Zeppelin.”
The thunderous British outfit arrived in Grohl’s life when he was just a kid in catholic school. It was the immensely popular ‘Stairway to Heaven’ that first turned his head when he was around seven years old. While the song has been maligned by many fans over the years, including by the band themselves, it shouldn’t be forgotten how the track serves as a pivotal entry point for millions. It certainly planted the seed for Grohl, but he wasn’t quite ready to venture fully into the dark side of rock just yet.
“It wasn’t until I was a teenager that I discovered the first two Zeppelin records, which were handed down to me from the real stoners,” he wrote in Rolling Stone. “We had a lot of those in the suburbs of Virginia, and a lot of muscle cars and keggers and Zeppelin and acid and weed. Somehow they all went hand in hand. To me, Zeppelin were spiritually inspirational. I was going to Catholic school and questioning God, but I believed in Led Zeppelin“.
Continuing: “I wasn’t really buying into this Christianity thing, but I had faith in Led Zeppelin as a spiritual entity. They showed me that human beings could channel this music somehow and that it was coming from somewhere. It wasn’t coming from a songbook. It wasn’t coming from a producer. It wasn’t coming from an instructor. It was coming from somewhere else.”
In time, he would take the stage with Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones for a jam and even form Them Crooked Vultures alongside the bassist, but he still longs for the day that they fully reunite with Robert Plant in the fold, leaving the throne of the late John Bonham free for him to start swinging his sticks.
As he concludes: “I believe Zeppelin will come back and prove themselves to once again be the greatest rock band of all time. It will happen. They’ll find someone to play the drums and I’ll be right there, front row at every goddamn show. Then I could finally die a happy man.”
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