The musician Dave Grohl called “the best” at everything
Dave Grohl has always prided himself on being a well-rounded fan of all kinds of music. Throughout his career, it was never out of the question that Grohl would jam with everyone from Tom Petty to Pearl Jam to The Strokes, depending on where fate brought him. Although Grohl may have enjoyed working with rock legends, he maintains that one artist was one of the most well-rounded musicians of them all.
When Grohl started in music, all roads led back to The Beatles. Before he knew how to put together a basic melody, Grohl was known for singing the songs he heard in a Beatles songbook, crediting the Fab Four with teaching him how to write melodies. Once he got interested in the drums, though, Grohl was into the thunderous power that could come out of his kit, playing the most extravagant drum fills from the likes of Neil Peart and John Bonham.
As Grohl started working in his local rock scene, he started to find the power of listening to punk rock. Instead of relying on the complicated melodic runs of the kings of rock, many of punk’s foundational rock acts were interested in making songs that cut to the bone with just a handful of chords. Once Grohl was brought up in the local DC hardcore scene, bands like Minor Threat were already tearing down the layers of pretension from every act on the radio.
At the same time, another artist was starting to make a name for himself playing an entirely different kind of music out of Minneapolis. Quickly becoming known as a local legend, Prince had started marrying together every single genre that would suit his needs, creating songs that were as indebted to rock as they were to funk, R&B, and soul. With the advent of MTV around the corner, Prince’s defining moment would come with Purple Rain, featuring a fantastic variety of music that anyone could get hooked on.
Although the extravagance may have gone against everything Grohl stood for as a punk, he couldn’t help but get swept up in it. When talking about his influences, Grohl would eventually tell the Grammys that Prince was one of the all-time greatest in his field, saying, “I grew up listening to his music. He was the best singer, best guitar player, best bass player, best drummer, and best dancer. He was just the best, and you could never imagine that one person could be that talented”.
Despite being perfectly fine behind the drumkit, Grohl would ultimately take a few pages out of Prince’s playbook when putting together Foo Fighters. Not wanting to draw attention to himself after Nirvana’s demise, Grohl would play every note on the first Foo Fighters record save for one guitar player, much like Prince had done on his first records before bringing in The Revolution.
Years later, Grohl would also have his musical dreams come true, getting to jam with Prince before a show playing the song ‘Whole Lotta Love’. Even though Foo Fighters and Prince have two distinct genres of music that they crib from, both have always emphasised the power of the song rather than the genre of music it fits into.
