FEATURE:
A Musical Icon at Fifty-One
IN THIS PHOTO: Grohl with his Nirvana bandmates, Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic
this time last year when he celebrated his fiftieth birthday but, as he prepares to enter his fifty-second year of life, I wanted to revisit this titan of music. Although Grohl has not recorded a lot recently, he has been out on the road and bringing the classics to the people. Whether he is speaking with NME about the Reading & Leeds Festivals or chatting about some of his best tracks, you are never too far away from a brilliant Dave Grohl interview – which is a good thing! When it comes to the young having access to music and music education, Grohl is a passionate supporter. Schools in the U.K. and U.S. are not providing music lessons the same as they did years ago, and so many are suffering because it:
“Grohl advocates for being resourceful when it comes to learning how to play because the public school system in the US is so lacking in financial support for music. “You have to be imaginative and do things on your own,” he says. “Making music is everybody’s right. Fucking pick up a harmonica and blow the shit out of it. See what happens.” For this track, Grohl played piano. It wasn’t easy. What instrument is he going to attempt next? “I’ll try anything, baby,” he smirks. “I’ll fake it till I make it!”
From his brilliant period as the drummer with Nirvana through to his leadership of Foo Fighters and work with Them Crooked Vultures and Queens of the Stone Age, Grohl has inspired so many people to go into music. It is no exaggeration that Grohl is one of the nicest people in the industry. He is one of these people you want to keep making music and be around forever. It seems like we might see a new Foo Fighters record soon:
“Dave, how is the new Foo Fighters record going to differ from 2017’s Concrete and Gold?” asked Eric Blair, host of the insanely named Blairing Out With Eric Blair Show, in a recent interview with the musician.
“You’ll hear. It’s fucking weird,” replied Grohl.
That was about all he offered, though. Asked about the “lyrical themes” of the upcoming album, Grohl wasn’t sharing any more hints: “I don’t want to give away too much, but … we’re, like, right in the middle of it right now.”
The Foo Fighters frontman has been teasing fans with incremental updates on the progress of Concrete and Gold’s follow-up since September, when the Foos finally finished their tour. “We go home next week and we start making a new Foo Fighters record,” said Grohl at a September 28 show in Rio. “It’s good, it’s good.”
Later in the Eric Blair interview, Grohl spoke about his experience interviewing Ringo Starr for a recent piece in Rolling Stone: “The best part about interviewing him is he’s real. If you talk to him about Lennon or if you talk to him about George Harrison, you know, those were his friends, and his family. So when you start talking about that stuff, he gets emotional”.
I wonder where Grohl will head this year and what he has in store. Maybe there is a new Foo Fighters album coming soon. Perhaps he will be at some of the biggest festivals, producing a typically epic set. As he is fifty-one today (14th January), I wanted to end with a playlist that collects together his work with Foo Fighters, Nirvana; Queens of the Stone Age and Them Crooked Vultures. It now left to me to wish Dave Grohl…
PHOTO CREDIT: Gina Wetzler/Redferns
THE happiest of birthdays.