Dave Grohl
David Eric Grohl (born January 14, 1969) is an American musician. He is the founder of the rock band Foo Fighters, for which he is the lead singer, guitarist, and principal songwriter. Prior to forming Foo Fighters, he was the drummer of the rock band Nirvana from 1990 to 1994.
This article is about the American musician. For the American actor, see David Groh. For the password cracker, see DaveGrohl.
Dave Grohl
- Musician
- singer
- songwriter
- record producer
1986–present
3, including Violet
- Vocals
- guitar
- drums
- Scream
- Nirvana
- Backbeat Band
- Queens of the Stone Age
- Mondo Generator
- Sound City Players
At 17, Grohl joined the punk rock band Scream after the departure of their drummer Kent Stax. Grohl became the drummer for Nirvana after Scream broke up in 1990. Nirvana's second album, Nevermind (1991), was the first to feature Grohl on drums and became a worldwide success. After Nirvana disbanded following the death of Kurt Cobain in 1994, Grohl formed Foo Fighters as a one-man project. The first Foo Fighters album was released in 1995, and a full band was assembled to tour and record under the Foo Fighters name; they have released 11 studio albums.
Grohl is the drummer and co-founder of the rock supergroup Them Crooked Vultures, and has recorded and toured with Queens of the Stone Age and Tenacious D. He has also participated in the side projects Late! and Probot. Grohl began directing Foo Fighters music videos in 1997 and released his debut documentary, Sound City, in 2013. It was followed by the documentary miniseries Sonic Highways (2014) and the documentary film What Drives Us (2021). In 2021, Grohl released an autobiography, The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music.[1][2] In 2022, he and the Foo Fighters starred as themselves in the comedy horror film Studio 666.
In 2010, Grohl was described by the Classic Rock Drummers co-author Ken Micallef as one of the most influential rock musicians of the previous 20 years.[3] Grohl was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of Nirvana in 2014 and as a member of Foo Fighters in 2021.[4]
Early life[edit]
David Eric Grohl was born in Warren, Ohio, on January 14, 1969,[5][6] the son of teacher Virginia Jean (née Hanlon) and newswriter James Harper Grohl.[7] He is of German, Slovak (on father's side), Irish and English (on mother's side) descent.[8][9] In addition to being an award-winning journalist, James had also served as the special assistant to Senator Robert Taft Jr. and was described as "a talented political observer who possessed the ability to call every major election with uncanny accuracy".[10] When he was a child, Grohl's family moved to Springfield, Virginia. When he was seven, his parents divorced,[11] and he was subsequently raised by his mother. At the age of 12, he began learning to play guitar. He grew tired of lessons and instead taught himself, eventually playing in bands with friends.[5][12] He said, "I was going in the direction of faster, louder, darker while my sister, Lisa, three years older, was getting seriously into new wave territory. We'd meet in the middle sometimes with Bowie and Siouxsie and the Banshees."[13]
At 13, Grohl and his sister spent the summer at their cousin Tracey's house in Evanston, Illinois. Tracey introduced them to punk rock by taking the pair to shows by a variety of punk bands. His first concert was Naked Raygun at The Cubby Bear in Chicago in 1982.[14] Grohl recalled, "From then on we were totally punk. We went home and bought Maximumrocknroll and tried to figure it all out."[12] In Virginia, he attended Thomas Jefferson High School as a freshman and was elected class vice-president. In that capacity, he managed to play pieces of songs by punk bands like Circle Jerks and Bad Brains over the school intercom before his morning announcements. His mother decided he should transfer to Bishop Ireton High School in Alexandria because his cannabis use was lowering his grades. He stayed there for two years, beginning with a repeat of his first year. After his second year, he transferred yet again to Annandale High School.[12] While in high school, he played in several local bands, including a stint as guitarist in a band called Freak Baby. During this period, he taught himself to play drums.[5] When Freak Baby fired its bass player and reshuffled its lineup, Grohl switched to drums. The reconstituted band renamed itself Mission Impossible.[12]
Grohl said he did not take formal drumming lessons and instead learned by listening to Rush and punk rock.[15] Rush drummer Neil Peart was an early influence: "When I got 2112 when I was eight years old, it fucking changed the direction of my life. I heard the drums. It made me want to become a drummer."[16] During his developing years as a drummer, Grohl cited John Bonham as his greatest influence, and eventually had Bonham's three-rings symbol tattooed on his right shoulder.[17] Mission Impossible rebranded themselves Fast before breaking up, after which Grohl joined the hardcore punk band Dain Bramage in December 1985.[18][19] Dain Bramage ended in March 1987 when Grohl quit without warning to join Scream,[19] having produced the I Scream Not Coming Down LP. Many of Grohl's early influences were at the 9:30 Club, a music venue in Washington, D.C. He said, "I went to the 9:30 Club hundreds of times. I was always so excited to get there, and I was always bummed when it closed. I spent my teenage years at the club and saw some shows that changed my life."[20]
Other work[edit]
Musical projects and contributions[edit]
Apart from his main bands, Grohl has been involved in other music projects. In 1992, he played drums on Buzz Osborne's Kiss-styled solo-EP King Buzzo, where he was credited as Dale Nixon, a pseudonym that Greg Ginn adopted to play bass on Black Flag's My War. He also released the music cassette Pocketwatch under the pseudonym Late! on the now-defunct indie label Simple Machines.
In 1993, Grohl was recruited to help recreate the music of The Beatles' early years for the movie Backbeat;[73] he played drums in an alternative rock supergroup, the Backbeat Band, that included Greg Dulli of the Afghan Whigs, indie producer Don Fleming, Mike Mills of R.E.M., Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, and Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum in 1993–94.[74] A music video was filmed for the song "Money" while Grohl was with Nirvana on their 1994 European tour, footage of Grohl was filmed later and included.
Later in 1994, Grohl played drums on two tracks for Mike Watt's Ball-Hog or Tugboat?. In early 1995, Grohl and Foo Fighters played their first US tour, the Ring Spiel Tour both opening for Watt and playing with Eddie Vedder as Watt's supporting band.[75]
In 1997, Grohl played a few songs with David Bowie for Bowie's 50th birthday concert, which was recorded and shown on pay-per-view later that year.[76]
During the early 2000s, Grohl spent time in his basement studio writing and recording a number of songs for a metal project. Over the span of several years, he recruited his favorite metal vocalists from the 1980s, including Lemmy of Motörhead, Conrad "Cronos" Lant from Venom, King Diamond, Scott Weinrich, Snake of Voivod and Max Cavalera of Sepultura, to perform the vocals for the songs. The project was released in 2004 under the nickname Probot.[77][78]
Also in 2003, Grohl stepped behind the kit to perform on Killing Joke's second self-titled album.[79] The move surprised some Nirvana fans, given that Nirvana had been accused of plagiarizing the opening riff of "Come as You Are" from Killing Joke's 1984 song "Eighties".[80] However, the controversy failed to create a lasting rift between the bands. Foo Fighters covered Killing Joke's "Requiem" during the late 1990s, and were even joined by Killing Joke singer Jaz Coleman for a performance of the song at a show in New Zealand in 2003.[81] Also in 2003, at the 45th Annual Grammy Awards, Grohl performed in an ad hoc supergroup with Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, and Steven Van Zandt for a performance in tribute of then-recently deceased singer/guitarist Joe Strummer.[82]
Advocacy, philanthropy and views[edit]
In May 2006, Grohl sent a note of support to the two trapped miners in the Beaconsfield mine collapse in Tasmania, Australia, who had survived the initial rockfall. In the initial days following the collapse, one of the men requested an iPod with the Foo Fighters album In Your Honor to be sent to them. Grohl's note read, in part, "Though I'm halfway around the world right now, my heart is with you both, and I want you to know that when you come home, there's two tickets to any Foos show, anywhere, and two cold beers waiting for yous [sic]. Deal?"[146] In October 2006, one of the miners took up his offer, joining Grohl for a drink after a Foo Fighters acoustic concert at the Sydney Opera House.[147] Grohl wrote an instrumental piece for the meeting, which he pledged to include on the band's next album.[148] The song, "Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners", appears on Foo Fighters' 2007 release Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, and features Kaki King.
He has worn a White Knot ribbon, a symbol of support for same-sex marriage, to various events; when questioned about the knot, he responded, "I believe in love and I believe in equality and I believe in marriage equality."[149] Grohl's gay rights activism dates back to the early 1990s, when Nirvana performed at a benefit to raise money to fight Oregon Ballot Measure 9, which forbade governments in Oregon from promoting or facilitating homosexuality.[150] Grohl has also participated in two counter-protests against the Westboro Baptist Church for their anti-gay stance, once by performing "Keep It Clean" on the back of a flatbed truck[151] and most recently by Rickrolling them.[152]
Grohl is an advocate for gun control. Shortly after the 2002 D.C. sniper attacks ended, he stated in an interview that the attacks were "an indication of the direction the country's heading in if we don't get tougher with gun laws". He further stated, "People need to realize that our country has to get tougher on gun laws, it just does, and I grew up in suburban Virginia going hunting in season. I grew up with a firearm myself. But I'd be willing to give it up, if everyone else would."[153]
In a 2008 interview, Grohl said he had never taken cocaine, heroin, or speed, and that he had stopped smoking cannabis and taking LSD at the age of 20. He said, "I've seen people die. It ain't easy being young, but that stuff doesn't make it any easier."[154] He contributed to a 2009 anti-drug video for the BBC. He has described himself as a coffee addict who drinks an average of six cups of coffee every morning; in 2009, he was admitted to a hospital with chest pains caused by a caffeine overdose.[155]
Grohl supported Barack Obama's 2012 presidential campaign and performed "My Hero" at the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.[156] Foo Fighters supported Joe Biden's 2020 presidential campaign and played at the "Celebrating America" concert on the day of Biden's inauguration in 2021.[157]
Personal life[edit]
In 1994, Grohl married Jennifer Leigh Youngblood, a photographer from Grosse Pointe, Michigan. They separated in December 1996 and divorced in 1997.[158] On August 2, 2003, he married Jordyn Blum. They reside in Los Angeles[159] and have three daughters, born in 2006, 2009 and 2014.[160]
With a fortune of $260 million at the time, Grohl was estimated by a 2012 Stereogum article to be the third-wealthiest drummer in the world, behind Ringo Starr and Phil Collins.[161]
In a June 2011 interview, Grohl revealed that he was going deaf in his left ear due to decades of performing on stage.[162] During his appearance on The Howard Stern Show in February 2022, he stated that he suffers from hearing loss and that this has an impact on both his daily life and life as a musician; his tinnitus has forced him to read lips for about 20 years, a situation that became more difficult when people began wearing face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic.[163] As for producing music, he refuses to use in-ear monitors despite their ability to protect his ears because it "removes [him] from the natural atmosphere sound so [he] cannot hear [his] bandmates".[163] He said that his ears are "still tuned in to certain frequencies, meaning [he's] still able to pick up on minute sonic details—even down to the slightest differences between cymbal crashes".[163]