The concert Dave Grohl called “the most momentous occasion of my entire life”
Dave Grohl has earned more accolades in rock and roll than most people can count.
He didn’t get into the business for the trophies, but the idea of getting into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice is the kind of honour that doesn’t come to just anyone when they are making songs in their bedroom. Grohl was willing to put in the work every single time he made a new record, but even for someone with both Nirvana and Foo Fighters hits to his name, there were bound to be a few ‘pinch me’ moments that went above anything else that he would ever do.
Granted, those moments also probably applied to the days when he was first starting to gather some steam with his first band, Scream. No one in their right mind would have thought that joining a hardcore punk band was going to be a ticket to success, but Grohl was just as happy being able to play his drums for anyone and everyone and live off the few paychecks he did manage to get at the end of the night. But Nirvana was something that anyone saw coming, least of all its members.
Grohl was certainly hopeful about Nevermind selling, but when the band graduated to playing stadiums all around the world, it was hard for any of them to grasp what they were doing. They were much more comfortable in a tight-knit room, and while starting back at zero wasn’t what Grohl had in mind when Cobain passed away, he was willing to build himself back up as the frontman, even if it meant getting flak from some fans.
There was no shortage of people who resented him for trying to start another band after Nirvana had ended, but that didn’t stop him from following his heart whenever he performed. He knew that music was going to help him through those dark days, and when the band actually started landing on the festival circuit, he started to realise that he had a much better band on his hands than he had ever planned on.
But even after their breakout albums in the 1990s, every single record saw them pushing themselves a step further. One By One nearly killed them, and In Your Honor managed to show the band from all different angles, but when Grohl got the call to play Wembley Stadium, he was thrilled and mortified all at the same time. He knew he needed to put on a show people would remember, but actually securing John Paul Jones and Jimmy Page for the occasion was like he had died and gone to heaven.
He was already singing the best songs he could muster, but playing John Bonham for a few minutes as his idols played ‘Rock and Roll’ with him was almost too good to be true, saying, “Being a Led Zeppelin freak — you know, I’ve got Led Zeppelin tattoos — I thought ‘Well, we’ve gotta call John Paul Jones.’ We had wound up performing ‘The Pretender’ with him that year at the Grammys and we made friends so I figured, this is the most momentous occasion of my entire life, why not call the band that changed it all for me?”
The band weren’t going to come anywhere close to what Zeppelin did in their prime, but it’s not like Grohl was a slouch behind the drum kit, either. He was a student of Bonham’s since before Scream started, and he had years of practice under his belt as soon as Page kicked off the first few guitar riffs while Taylor Hawkins belted out the tunes.
And since Hawkins is no longer with us now, those moments at Wembley Stadium are a pure moment in time that will never truly be captured again. The band would go on to become even bigger as the years went on, but once you’ve made millions of people in that stadium bounce on command whenever ‘Everlong’ started playing, there’s nothing else that could ever really top that.
