The song Dave Grohl once said he wants played at his funeral
The dreary notion of funerals shouldn’t be given too much thought, but all music fans are likely guilty of pondering the soundtrack of their final farewell. As much as it’s a morbid subject to consider, there’s a song appropriate for every occasion, as Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl knows well.
Hearing a track at the funeral of a loved one instantly changes a person’s relationship with a particular song, which they’ll likely never be able to hear the same again. Whether in a bar or airport lobby, if that track is heard, emotions of their fallen friend will wash over them unexpectedly.
Grohl has tragically suffered this feeling first-hand and now struggles to listen to ‘In My Life’ by The Beatles without being reduced to tears because it was played at the memorial of his former Nirvana bandmate Kurt Cobain.
During an interview with Q in 2011 about a selection of the most pivotal songs in his life, Grohl named ‘In My Life’ the one track that makes him cry every time he hears it played. “It’s such a beautiful song, and that’s what was played at Kurt’s memorial. That really gets me,” he explained.
“That day, after everyone had said their piece, this next song came over the speakers, and everyone got to celebrate Kurt’s love of The Beatles one last time together,” he said of the song during another interview with BBC Radio 2. He added: “Still to this day when I hear it, it touches a place in me that no other song ever will. It’s called ‘In My Life’ and knowing how much of a fan Kurt was of The Beatles, and how much of an influence they were, to everything we’ve done ever done… I’d like to play this one for him.”
When it comes to his own funeral, Grohl told Q of his selection:” ‘Why Can’t We Be Friends?’ by War [laughs]. That came off the top of my head, but I like it. I’m going to have to keep that.”
The positive ode for peace was released in 1975 and penned by War during a tour of Japan. While on the run of shows, it struck the band how similar we all are despite the geographical boundaries that separate us, inspiring them to write ‘Why Can’t We Be Friends?’.
Drummer Harold Brown told Songfacts: “We’re all connected by language, and by our food, and by our culture. Most racists don’t know why they’re racist.”
“But you pick them up and take them over and drop them in a country, like India or Pakistan, guess what? ‘Why can’t we be friends?’ Because all of a sudden, you find out we’re more alike inside than we are on the outside. We started realising that that’s really important. You travel all over the world; you can’t speak a lot of their language. But one thing they do know, they know your body language, how you may react.”
The message in ‘Why Can’t We Be Friends?’ is one that we should all support, and although it’s almost half a century old, the song feels as poignant today as ever.
Listen to Dave Grohl’s funeral song below.
