WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.580 Welcome back to the deep dive. Today we are we're 00:00:05.580 --> 00:00:08.580 unpacking the career of a man who has become 00:00:08.580 --> 00:00:11.500 a sort of ubiquitous cultural furniture. It's 00:00:11.500 --> 00:00:13.160 a great way to put it. Cultural furniture. You 00:00:13.160 --> 00:00:15.919 know, you turn on the radio. He's there. You 00:00:15.919 --> 00:00:18.100 watch a documentary about the history of a recording 00:00:18.100 --> 00:00:20.559 studio and oh, he's directing it. You check the 00:00:20.559 --> 00:00:23.280 credits of a Muppets movie and somehow he's the 00:00:23.280 --> 00:00:25.219 guy playing drums on a track. He's everywhere. 00:00:25.519 --> 00:00:28.760 We are talking, of course, about Dave Grohl. 00:00:29.199 --> 00:00:32.060 It is genuinely, I mean, it's almost impossible 00:00:32.060 --> 00:00:35.390 to navigate the landscape of the last. 30, maybe 00:00:35.390 --> 00:00:38.109 even 40 years of rock music without tripping 00:00:38.109 --> 00:00:40.109 over Dave Grohl. He's like the connective tissue 00:00:40.109 --> 00:00:42.210 for an entire era. But that's the thing. He's 00:00:42.210 --> 00:00:44.390 so present that I think we almost take him for 00:00:44.390 --> 00:00:46.329 granted. You know, we see the nice guy smile, 00:00:46.570 --> 00:00:49.030 the coffee commercials, the viral moments, and 00:00:49.030 --> 00:00:52.390 we forget just how improbable his actual career 00:00:52.390 --> 00:00:54.689 path is. Absolutely. Because usually when we 00:00:54.689 --> 00:00:56.850 do these deep dives, we're looking at a specific 00:00:56.850 --> 00:00:59.689 event or a breakthrough. Today, the mission is 00:00:59.689 --> 00:01:01.990 to look at a statistical anomaly. That is the 00:01:01.990 --> 00:01:05.069 perfect way to frame it. Statistically, Dave 00:01:05.069 --> 00:01:07.769 Grohl's career should not exist. OK, so let's 00:01:07.769 --> 00:01:10.469 unpack that a bit. He was the drummer for Nirvana, 00:01:10.590 --> 00:01:13.670 arguably the defining band of the 1990s. Full 00:01:13.670 --> 00:01:16.349 stop. No argument there. When that ended in the 00:01:16.349 --> 00:01:19.370 most horrific way possible, the standard script 00:01:19.370 --> 00:01:23.329 for a drummer in that position is to, well, to 00:01:23.329 --> 00:01:25.810 fade away. Maybe you join another band as a drummer. 00:01:25.909 --> 00:01:27.689 Maybe you do the convention circuit. You become 00:01:27.689 --> 00:01:30.920 a session guy. A footnote. Exactly. You certainly 00:01:30.920 --> 00:01:33.400 don't step out from behind the kit, pick up a 00:01:33.400 --> 00:01:35.239 guitar, which, by the way, nobody really knew 00:01:35.239 --> 00:01:38.400 you could play, and then front a band that becomes 00:01:38.400 --> 00:01:40.840 an arena -filling monster for the next three 00:01:40.840 --> 00:01:43.159 decades. It's the drummer curse. It really is. 00:01:43.500 --> 00:01:46.379 In the history of rock, the list of drummers 00:01:46.379 --> 00:01:48.480 who successfully transitioned to being the primary 00:01:48.480 --> 00:01:50.519 songwriter and frontman of the globally massive 00:01:50.519 --> 00:01:54.579 act is incredibly short. Who's on it? You've 00:01:54.579 --> 00:01:56.650 got Phil Collins, obviously. Right. maybe don 00:01:56.650 --> 00:01:59.150 henley from the eagles okay and you have dave 00:01:59.150 --> 00:02:02.170 grohl that's pretty much the list and that second 00:02:02.170 --> 00:02:04.870 act is what we really want to dissect today because 00:02:04.870 --> 00:02:08.289 there is this public narrative of grohl as the 00:02:08.289 --> 00:02:10.750 nicest guy in rock and it's a great brand don't 00:02:10.750 --> 00:02:13.090 get me wrong it's a fantastic brand but when 00:02:13.090 --> 00:02:14.990 i was reading through the source material for 00:02:14.990 --> 00:02:17.650 this the biographies the studio logs the timelines 00:02:18.439 --> 00:02:20.539 I started to get a different vibe, a very different 00:02:20.539 --> 00:02:23.379 vibe. I saw a guy who is incredibly calculated, 00:02:23.719 --> 00:02:27.139 relentlessly driven, and frankly, a bit ruthless 00:02:27.139 --> 00:02:29.199 when it comes to his vision. You don't get to 00:02:29.199 --> 00:02:31.539 headline Wembley Stadium twice with two completely 00:02:31.539 --> 00:02:33.919 different fans just by being a nice guy who tips 00:02:33.919 --> 00:02:36.000 well. Right. You get there by being an absolute 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:39.199 perfectionist. So our goal today is to sort of 00:02:39.199 --> 00:02:41.680 peel back that cool dad persona and look at the 00:02:41.680 --> 00:02:44.300 engine underneath. We need to reconcile the guy 00:02:44.300 --> 00:02:47.729 who cooks. barbecue for 500 homeless people with 00:02:47.729 --> 00:02:51.189 the guy who will, without telling him, erase 00:02:51.189 --> 00:02:53.330 his own bandmates tracks if they aren't perfect. 00:02:53.490 --> 00:02:55.590 That's the core of it. So let's rewind the tape. 00:02:56.080 --> 00:02:58.360 We need to go back to the beginning to understand 00:02:58.360 --> 00:03:01.960 where this drive, this ambition comes from. He's 00:03:01.960 --> 00:03:04.360 synonymous with Seattle now and maybe D .C., 00:03:04.360 --> 00:03:06.099 but he actually started in the Midwest, right? 00:03:06.340 --> 00:03:09.360 Yeah, born and born in Ohio in 1969. But the 00:03:09.360 --> 00:03:12.419 setting for the story, it really shifts to Springfield, 00:03:12.500 --> 00:03:15.479 Virginia, pretty early on in his life. His parents 00:03:15.479 --> 00:03:17.759 divorced when he was seven, and he was raised 00:03:17.759 --> 00:03:20.099 primarily by his mother, Virginia Grohl. And 00:03:20.099 --> 00:03:22.280 that divorce detail, it seems really important. 00:03:22.460 --> 00:03:24.919 In the reading, it felt like it created this 00:03:24.919 --> 00:03:27.680 very tight, almost us against the world dynamic 00:03:27.680 --> 00:03:30.719 between him and his mom. It absolutely did. His 00:03:30.719 --> 00:03:32.819 mother was a public school teacher, very open 00:03:32.819 --> 00:03:34.800 minded, and she really became the bedrock of 00:03:34.800 --> 00:03:37.599 his confidence. But if we are looking for the 00:03:37.599 --> 00:03:41.280 musical patient zero moment, the spark. It didn't 00:03:41.280 --> 00:03:43.460 happen in Virginia. It happened in Evanston, 00:03:43.460 --> 00:03:45.879 Illinois. Ah, the cousin story. Cousin Tracy. 00:03:46.060 --> 00:03:49.719 This is 1982. Dave is 13 years old. He goes to 00:03:49.719 --> 00:03:52.560 visit his cousin Tracy for the summer. Now, you 00:03:52.560 --> 00:03:54.819 have to picture this. Up until this point, Dave 00:03:54.819 --> 00:03:57.099 is a classic rock kid. He likes, you know, whatever's 00:03:57.099 --> 00:03:59.460 on the radio. But Tracy is different. She's punk. 00:03:59.699 --> 00:04:02.500 And she takes him to a show. A real show. She 00:04:02.500 --> 00:04:04.139 takes him to a club called the Cubby Bear in 00:04:04.139 --> 00:04:06.560 Chicago, right across from Wrigley Field, to 00:04:06.560 --> 00:04:09.419 see a band called Naked Raygun. Naked Raygun. 00:04:09.699 --> 00:04:11.800 That is a name that just sounds like it belongs 00:04:11.800 --> 00:04:14.300 on a dive bar bathroom wall. Which is exactly 00:04:14.300 --> 00:04:16.980 the vibe. You have to imagine this from his perspective. 00:04:17.079 --> 00:04:20.180 He's 13. He walks into this club. It's dark. 00:04:20.259 --> 00:04:22.339 It smells like stale beer and sweat. People are 00:04:22.339 --> 00:04:25.060 slamming into each other in a mosh pit. It is 00:04:25.060 --> 00:04:28.920 visceral. And the band on stage, they aren't 00:04:28.920 --> 00:04:31.560 playing perfect scales. They aren't prog rock 00:04:31.560 --> 00:04:34.660 heroes. They are just loud and fast and aggressive. 00:04:35.060 --> 00:04:36.920 And for a lot of kids, that would be terrifying. 00:04:37.720 --> 00:04:40.420 But for Grohl, it was... What, an invitation? 00:04:40.800 --> 00:04:44.899 It was the aha moment, the light bulb. He realized 00:04:44.899 --> 00:04:46.980 that the barrier to entry he always imagined 00:04:46.980 --> 00:04:49.620 was gone. He looked at them and thought, I don't 00:04:49.620 --> 00:04:51.360 need to be a virtuoso. I don't need to study 00:04:51.360 --> 00:04:53.639 music theory for 10 years. I just need to mean 00:04:53.639 --> 00:04:56.500 it. It made music feel accessible. So he goes 00:04:56.500 --> 00:04:58.139 home to Virginia. He's got the punk bug. He wants 00:04:58.139 --> 00:05:00.139 to play drums. But there's a logistical problem, 00:05:00.220 --> 00:05:02.180 a big one. He doesn't have any drums, zero drums, 00:05:02.319 --> 00:05:04.259 not even a snare. They lived in a small house. 00:05:04.379 --> 00:05:06.540 They didn't have the money or, frankly, the space 00:05:06.540 --> 00:05:09.259 for a full kit. So explain this to me, because 00:05:09.259 --> 00:05:12.000 this is the part I find fascinating. He becomes 00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:14.660 one of the hardest hitting, most powerful drummers 00:05:14.660 --> 00:05:17.920 in rock history. How do you develop that skill 00:05:17.920 --> 00:05:21.180 without the actual instrument? He improvised. 00:05:21.420 --> 00:05:24.240 He built a kit in his bedroom using his furniture. 00:05:24.720 --> 00:05:27.879 He set up a designated pillow for a snare drum. 00:05:28.319 --> 00:05:32.379 a bedpost for a ride cymbal, a chair for a tom 00:05:32.379 --> 00:05:35.720 -tom. And he sat there with these thick, heavy 00:05:35.720 --> 00:05:38.759 marching band sticks. Wait, marching band sticks? 00:05:38.980 --> 00:05:40.680 Yeah, much heavier and thicker than what you'd 00:05:40.680 --> 00:05:43.180 use for a standard rock kit. And he just played 00:05:43.180 --> 00:05:45.519 along to records for hours and hours. Okay, that's 00:05:45.519 --> 00:05:47.360 a fun image, the kid beating up his pillows. 00:05:47.620 --> 00:05:49.759 But from a technical standpoint, does that actually 00:05:49.759 --> 00:05:51.959 translate? Does hitting a pillow really teach 00:05:51.959 --> 00:05:53.899 you how to hit a drum? It teaches you something 00:05:53.899 --> 00:05:55.720 very specific, and this is absolutely crucial 00:05:55.720 --> 00:05:58.250 to what we now call the Dave Grohl sound. Think 00:05:58.250 --> 00:06:00.649 about the physics of it. When you hit a real 00:06:00.649 --> 00:06:03.149 drum skin with a stick, what happens? It bounces 00:06:03.149 --> 00:06:05.850 back. You get rebound. Exactly. The drum does 00:06:05.850 --> 00:06:07.769 half the work for you. It pushes the stick back 00:06:07.769 --> 00:06:10.250 up, which allows you to play fast, to do rolls 00:06:10.250 --> 00:06:12.730 with less physical effort. Now, hit a pillar. 00:06:12.829 --> 00:06:15.329 What happens? Nothing. It just thuds. It absorbs 00:06:15.329 --> 00:06:18.920 all the energy. There's zero rebound. Zero. So 00:06:18.920 --> 00:06:20.879 to get the stick back up for the very next hit, 00:06:21.019 --> 00:06:23.319 you have to physically pull it up with your own 00:06:23.319 --> 00:06:26.000 muscle. You are doing all the work every single 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:28.139 time. So it's basically resistance training for 00:06:28.139 --> 00:06:31.000 drumming? It is intense resistance training for 00:06:31.000 --> 00:06:33.899 his wrists and forearms. He did this for hours 00:06:33.899 --> 00:06:36.540 a day for years. He was building these fast twitch 00:06:36.540 --> 00:06:39.399 muscle fibers that were designed to fight a dead 00:06:39.399 --> 00:06:42.319 surface. So when he finally sits down at a real 00:06:42.319 --> 00:06:44.800 drum kit... He nearly puts the stick through 00:06:44.800 --> 00:06:47.839 the drum head. He is so used to fighting the 00:06:47.839 --> 00:06:50.240 pillow that when he hits a surface that actually 00:06:50.240 --> 00:06:53.740 gives energy back to him, the power is just, 00:06:53.839 --> 00:06:57.220 it's explosive. That cannon fire snare sound 00:06:57.220 --> 00:06:59.680 you hear on Nevermind, that isn't just studio 00:06:59.680 --> 00:07:02.180 magic or a producer's trick. That is the sound 00:07:02.180 --> 00:07:04.339 of a guy who learned to play by beating a mattress 00:07:04.339 --> 00:07:06.519 into submission. That makes so much sense. It 00:07:06.519 --> 00:07:08.319 explains why he looks like he's trying to murder 00:07:08.319 --> 00:07:10.589 the kit every time he plays. He's an incredibly 00:07:10.589 --> 00:07:12.970 physical player. Right. But we have to layer 00:07:12.970 --> 00:07:14.829 something else on top of that. Yeah. It wasn't 00:07:14.829 --> 00:07:16.730 just brute force he was developing. He was listening 00:07:16.730 --> 00:07:19.629 to very specific records while he did this. Right. 00:07:19.709 --> 00:07:21.490 Because he wasn't just listening to punk. He 00:07:21.490 --> 00:07:25.029 was a massive Rush fan. 2112 by Rush. Which is 00:07:25.029 --> 00:07:27.329 pretty much the musical opposite of punk rock. 00:07:27.470 --> 00:07:30.209 It's mathematical. It's complex, high concept, 00:07:30.310 --> 00:07:33.810 progressive rock. It is. But he discovered 2112 00:07:33.810 --> 00:07:35.730 when he was about eight years old. And he said 00:07:35.730 --> 00:07:39.170 it just rewired his brain. He idolized Neil Peart. 00:07:39.610 --> 00:07:41.930 the drummer for Rush, who is famously known as 00:07:41.930 --> 00:07:45.430 The Professor. So you have this fascinating duality 00:07:45.430 --> 00:07:48.149 developing in his teenage brain. You do. On one 00:07:48.149 --> 00:07:51.189 side, he wants the raw, dirty, emotional energy 00:07:51.189 --> 00:07:54.670 of bad brains and the DC punk scene. On the other 00:07:54.670 --> 00:07:56.870 side, he wants the technical precision of Neil 00:07:56.870 --> 00:07:59.389 Peart and the heavy, deep groove of John Bonham 00:07:59.389 --> 00:08:01.009 from Led Zeppelin. He's got a Bonham tattoo, 00:08:01.129 --> 00:08:03.550 right? He did. The three -ring symbol on his 00:08:03.550 --> 00:08:05.959 wrist. So he's sitting in his bedroom trying 00:08:05.959 --> 00:08:08.959 to execute rush -level complexity with punk rock 00:08:08.959 --> 00:08:11.160 ferocity. While hitting pillows. While hitting 00:08:11.160 --> 00:08:13.680 pillows. That is the recipe for Dave Grohl. So 00:08:13.680 --> 00:08:15.759 let's talk about the hustle part of this origin 00:08:15.759 --> 00:08:17.860 story. Because he's not just sitting in his room 00:08:17.860 --> 00:08:21.199 dreaming. He's actively trying to get out there. 00:08:21.360 --> 00:08:24.040 And let's just say he's creative with the truth 00:08:24.040 --> 00:08:26.439 sometimes. He was a total hustler. In high school 00:08:26.439 --> 00:08:28.860 at Thomas Jefferson High, he was actually voted 00:08:28.860 --> 00:08:32.379 class vice president. Oh, wait. Yes. And he used 00:08:32.379 --> 00:08:35.039 that role to play snippets of the circle jerks 00:08:35.039 --> 00:08:38.379 and bad brains over the school's PA system during 00:08:38.379 --> 00:08:41.019 morning announcements. Just force -feeding hardcore 00:08:41.019 --> 00:08:44.279 punk to the entire suburban student body at 8 00:08:44.279 --> 00:08:46.230 a .m. He couldn't help himself. He just needed 00:08:46.230 --> 00:08:49.269 to share the noise. But his academics were, they 00:08:49.269 --> 00:08:52.110 were tanking. Too much cannabis, too much drumming. 00:08:52.149 --> 00:08:53.909 He bounced around a couple of different schools. 00:08:54.009 --> 00:08:56.529 And eventually he sees an ad for a band called 00:08:56.529 --> 00:08:58.889 Scream. Now Scream wasn't a high school band. 00:08:59.149 --> 00:09:01.970 They were a legitimate D .C. hardcore act. They 00:09:01.970 --> 00:09:05.049 toured. They had albums out. They were the real 00:09:05.049 --> 00:09:07.370 deal in the D .C. scene. A very respected band. 00:09:07.730 --> 00:09:10.789 And they needed a drummer. Grohl is 17 years 00:09:10.789 --> 00:09:12.730 old. He calls them up to set up an audition. 00:09:13.159 --> 00:09:15.460 But he doesn't tell them he's 17. Of course not. 00:09:15.820 --> 00:09:19.259 He lies and says he's 20. He knew that if he 00:09:19.259 --> 00:09:20.659 said he was a junior in high school, they wouldn't 00:09:20.659 --> 00:09:22.940 even let him in the room. So he walks in, destroys 00:09:22.940 --> 00:09:24.919 the audition with that pillow power drumming, 00:09:24.940 --> 00:09:27.899 and gets the gig. And this leads to the first 00:09:27.899 --> 00:09:30.840 major fork in the road moment of his life. He 00:09:30.840 --> 00:09:33.480 gets the job, but the job means touring Europe. 00:09:33.879 --> 00:09:35.820 He can't do that and finish high school. He has 00:09:35.820 --> 00:09:38.360 to drop out. And this is where we really see 00:09:38.360 --> 00:09:40.940 that risk tolerance, that all or nothing drive. 00:09:41.440 --> 00:09:43.759 Most kids, or at least their parents, would say, 00:09:43.779 --> 00:09:46.240 look, finish your diploma, then go play music. 00:09:47.080 --> 00:09:49.600 Grohl's quote on this is perfect. He said, I 00:09:49.600 --> 00:09:52.039 was 17 and extremely anxious to see the world, 00:09:52.100 --> 00:09:55.389 so I did it. He dropped out in his junior year. 00:09:55.529 --> 00:09:58.029 And his mom let him. Virginia Grohl is the unsung 00:09:58.029 --> 00:10:00.190 hero of this entire story. I really believe that. 00:10:00.309 --> 00:10:02.289 She saw that this wasn't just a phase for him. 00:10:02.309 --> 00:10:04.370 She saw he had a vocation. So she let him go. 00:10:04.509 --> 00:10:06.710 He got in a van with a bunch of older guys and 00:10:06.710 --> 00:10:08.610 spent the next four years basically starving. 00:10:09.429 --> 00:10:11.370 We should clarify what starting means in this 00:10:11.370 --> 00:10:13.690 context. This was not the glamorous tour bus 00:10:13.690 --> 00:10:17.149 life. Oh, God, no. This was sleeping on floors 00:10:17.149 --> 00:10:20.289 in squats in Italy life. This was eating corn 00:10:20.289 --> 00:10:23.419 dogs from gas stations for every meal life. But 00:10:23.419 --> 00:10:25.720 this was his conservatory. This is where he learned 00:10:25.720 --> 00:10:28.000 how to manage a crowd, how to play through sheer 00:10:28.000 --> 00:10:30.200 exhaustion, how to keep a band together when 00:10:30.200 --> 00:10:32.159 everyone smells terrible and is hungry and broke. 00:10:32.419 --> 00:10:35.019 But all good things, even starving in a van, 00:10:35.220 --> 00:10:38.860 come to an end. Scream implodes in 1990, the 00:10:38.860 --> 00:10:41.639 bassist quits mid -tour, and Grohl is stranded 00:10:41.639 --> 00:10:44.500 in Los Angeles. He's 21, he's broke, and he's 00:10:44.500 --> 00:10:46.580 stuck. And this is where the network kicks in. 00:10:46.639 --> 00:10:49.129 It's all about who you know. Buzz Osborne, the 00:10:49.129 --> 00:10:50.889 singer for the Melvins, a hugely influential 00:10:50.889 --> 00:10:54.049 sludge metal band. He knows Dave. And he also 00:10:54.049 --> 00:10:55.950 knows a couple of guys up in Seattle who are, 00:10:56.009 --> 00:10:58.889 coincidentally, looking for a drummer. Kurt Cobain 00:10:58.889 --> 00:11:01.429 and Chris Novoselic. Nirvana. At this point, 00:11:01.490 --> 00:11:03.750 Nirvana had released their first album, Bleach. 00:11:04.070 --> 00:11:06.450 It was cool. It was underground. But they were 00:11:06.450 --> 00:11:08.490 burning through drummers. They wanted someone 00:11:08.490 --> 00:11:11.070 who hit harder. Buzz connects the dots. He gives 00:11:11.070 --> 00:11:13.330 Chris Dave's phone number. Now, Dave had seen 00:11:13.330 --> 00:11:15.669 Nirvana before this, hadn't he? He had seen them 00:11:15.669 --> 00:11:18.429 on a record cover first. And his description 00:11:18.429 --> 00:11:20.870 of them is just perfect. He said they look like 00:11:20.870 --> 00:11:22.850 psycho lumberjacks. Which, if you look at the 00:11:22.850 --> 00:11:26.570 photos from 1989 and 1990, is 100 % accurate. 00:11:26.789 --> 00:11:30.289 Flannel shirts, unwashed hair, just staring blankly 00:11:30.289 --> 00:11:33.009 at the camera. And then he saw them live. And 00:11:33.009 --> 00:11:35.509 he was really confused by the visual. He said, 00:11:35.570 --> 00:11:37.690 what, that little dude and that big motherfucker, 00:11:37.870 --> 00:11:40.529 you're kidding me? He's talking about Kurt. who 00:11:40.529 --> 00:11:43.029 was slight and small, and Christ, who was this 00:11:43.029 --> 00:11:45.610 towering six foot seven giant. It looked like 00:11:45.610 --> 00:11:47.529 a total mismatch. But he gets the invitation 00:11:47.529 --> 00:11:50.509 to audition. He flies up to Seattle. And again, 00:11:50.629 --> 00:11:53.250 we see the reality of the situation, the poverty. 00:11:53.330 --> 00:11:55.750 He moves into Kurt Cobain's apartment in Olympia, 00:11:55.750 --> 00:11:58.240 Washington. And apartment is a very generous 00:11:58.240 --> 00:12:01.899 word. It was a tiny, squalid space. Grohl talks 00:12:01.899 --> 00:12:04.220 about living on corn dogs and dealing with these 00:12:04.220 --> 00:12:06.080 turtle tanks that Kurt had everywhere. It was 00:12:06.080 --> 00:12:08.179 grim. These were not guys living like rock stars. 00:12:08.399 --> 00:12:10.000 But they go into a room to play, and this is 00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:11.580 the moment. This is where everything changes. 00:12:11.860 --> 00:12:14.179 It was instant combustion. Grohl said they played, 00:12:14.259 --> 00:12:17.539 and within 30 seconds, they just knew. Kurt and 00:12:17.539 --> 00:12:19.299 Kreest had a very unique rhythm. It was kind 00:12:19.299 --> 00:12:22.480 of sludgy, kind of behind the beat. Grohl came 00:12:22.480 --> 00:12:24.519 in with that pillow training power and that punk 00:12:24.519 --> 00:12:26.700 precision, and he tightened the whole thing up. 00:12:26.759 --> 00:12:28.679 He was the engine that the car had been missing. 00:12:29.000 --> 00:12:32.299 He joins in September of 1990. They go into the 00:12:32.299 --> 00:12:35.820 studio to record Nevermind in May of 1991. I 00:12:35.820 --> 00:12:38.039 mean, talk about timing. He jumps on the train 00:12:38.039 --> 00:12:40.320 right before it goes supersonic. We don't need 00:12:40.320 --> 00:12:42.679 to re -litigate the success of Nevermind. It 00:12:42.679 --> 00:12:45.840 changed the world. But I want to focus on Dave's 00:12:45.840 --> 00:12:48.639 role inside the band, because obviously he's 00:12:48.639 --> 00:12:51.340 the drummer. Kurt is the visionary, the songwriter. 00:12:51.899 --> 00:12:54.879 But Dave was writing, wasn't he? He was, but 00:12:54.879 --> 00:12:56.740 he was doing it in the shadows. He was very, 00:12:56.820 --> 00:12:59.820 very aware of the dynamic. Nirvana was Kurt's 00:12:59.820 --> 00:13:01.919 vision. You don't walk into a room with a generational 00:13:01.919 --> 00:13:04.419 songwriting genius and say, hey, guys, check 00:13:04.419 --> 00:13:06.840 out my old pop song. So Dave kept his head down. 00:13:06.940 --> 00:13:09.399 But he recorded a cassette tape. the pocket watch 00:13:09.399 --> 00:13:12.279 cassette he released it in 1992 under the pseudonym 00:13:12.279 --> 00:13:15.600 late with an exclamation point at the end and 00:13:15.600 --> 00:13:17.200 if you go back and listen to that tape today 00:13:17.200 --> 00:13:20.559 it is shocking you can hear the blueprint for 00:13:20.559 --> 00:13:23.139 the first foo fighters album it wasn't like he 00:13:23.139 --> 00:13:24.860 suddenly learned to write these melodic rock 00:13:24.860 --> 00:13:27.960 songs in 1995 he was writing them in 1990 and 00:13:27.960 --> 00:13:31.519 1991. did kurt know about this did he know dave 00:13:31.519 --> 00:13:33.919 was writing these songs he did and this is a 00:13:33.919 --> 00:13:37.570 really touching and kind of tragic detail Kurt 00:13:37.570 --> 00:13:41.110 heard a demo of a song Grohl wrote called Alone 00:13:41.110 --> 00:13:43.950 Plus Easy Target. Kurt listened to it in the 00:13:43.950 --> 00:13:46.330 bathtub, apparently. He loved it so much that 00:13:46.330 --> 00:13:49.090 he kissed Dave on the face. Wow. A literal kiss 00:13:49.090 --> 00:13:51.909 of approval. A literal kiss. Kurt told him, I'm 00:13:51.909 --> 00:13:53.649 so excited that you and Chris are going to contribute 00:13:53.649 --> 00:13:56.330 more songwriting in the future. He didn't see 00:13:56.330 --> 00:13:59.389 it as a threat. He saw it as a relief. He wanted 00:13:59.389 --> 00:14:01.350 to share the creative burden. They even officially 00:14:01.350 --> 00:14:04.710 recorded a Grohl song, right? Marigold. Yes. 00:14:05.129 --> 00:14:07.529 Marigold was recorded during the in -utero sessions 00:14:07.529 --> 00:14:10.570 and ended up as a B -side on the Heart -Shaped 00:14:10.570 --> 00:14:13.529 Box single. It's the only Nirvana song where 00:14:13.529 --> 00:14:16.509 Dave Grohl sings lead vocals. So the door was 00:14:16.509 --> 00:14:18.850 cracking open for him to be more than just the 00:14:18.850 --> 00:14:23.230 drummer. And then, April 1994. The wall comes 00:14:23.230 --> 00:14:25.990 down. The world stops. Kurt Cobain takes his 00:14:25.990 --> 00:14:28.210 own life. We have to sit with this for a moment. 00:14:28.289 --> 00:14:30.490 This isn't just the band broke up. This is a 00:14:30.490 --> 00:14:34.629 profound trauma event. Grohl is 25 years old. 00:14:35.049 --> 00:14:37.210 His friend, his roommate, his musical partner 00:14:37.210 --> 00:14:40.389 is dead. And the media storm that follows is 00:14:40.389 --> 00:14:43.049 just insane. Grohl has said in interviews that 00:14:43.049 --> 00:14:45.110 he didn't just quit music. He couldn't even listen 00:14:45.110 --> 00:14:48.769 to the radio. He said music equaled death. Every 00:14:48.769 --> 00:14:50.789 single time he heard a song, it just reminded 00:14:50.789 --> 00:14:52.870 him of what he had lost. So he did what a lot 00:14:52.870 --> 00:14:54.509 of people do when they're confronted with immense 00:14:54.509 --> 00:14:56.750 grief. He ran. He went to Ireland. The Ring of 00:14:56.750 --> 00:14:59.350 Kerry. One of the most remote, beautiful, and 00:14:59.350 --> 00:15:02.139 desolate places on earth. He just wanted to disappear. 00:15:02.200 --> 00:15:04.360 He was driving a rental car around these tiny 00:15:04.360 --> 00:15:06.639 country roads thinking, maybe I'm done. Maybe 00:15:06.639 --> 00:15:08.519 I'll just be a regular guy. And this is where 00:15:08.519 --> 00:15:10.759 the story gets almost cinematic. I mean, if you 00:15:10.759 --> 00:15:12.740 wrote this in a screenplay, a caduceus would 00:15:12.740 --> 00:15:14.759 tell you it's too on the nose. It really is. 00:15:14.879 --> 00:15:17.360 He's driving down a back road in rural Ireland. 00:15:17.600 --> 00:15:20.580 Not another car in sight. He sees a hitchhiker 00:15:20.580 --> 00:15:23.399 up ahead. He slows down, thinking he'll give 00:15:23.399 --> 00:15:26.840 the guy a lift. As he gets closer, he looks at 00:15:26.840 --> 00:15:29.360 the hitchhiker's T -shirt. It's a Kurt Cobain 00:15:29.360 --> 00:15:33.700 T -shirt. Kurt's face just staring right back 00:15:33.700 --> 00:15:36.039 at him on a lonely road in the middle of nowhere. 00:15:36.200 --> 00:15:38.419 It's just chilling. It completely freaked him 00:15:38.419 --> 00:15:40.600 out. But it also clarified everything in that 00:15:40.600 --> 00:15:43.779 one instant. He realized, I can fly to the ends 00:15:43.779 --> 00:15:46.500 of the earth and I cannot outrun this. The shadow 00:15:46.500 --> 00:15:48.820 of Nirvana is going to follow him forever. So 00:15:48.820 --> 00:15:51.080 he had a choice. Let it haunt him and define 00:15:51.080 --> 00:15:53.460 him as a tragic figure or turn around and face 00:15:53.460 --> 00:15:55.840 it. So he didn't pick up the hitchhiker? No, 00:15:55.860 --> 00:15:58.519 he stepped on the gas and drove off. But he flew 00:15:58.519 --> 00:16:01.299 home to Seattle immediately. He realized the 00:16:01.299 --> 00:16:03.019 only way through the grief was to push through 00:16:03.019 --> 00:16:05.559 it. He had to exercise the demon by making music 00:16:05.559 --> 00:16:08.279 again. He books time at Robert Lang Studios in 00:16:08.279 --> 00:16:11.440 Seattle. This is October 1994, so only about 00:16:11.440 --> 00:16:14.779 six months after Kurt died. And he has a very 00:16:14.779 --> 00:16:17.259 specific mission. He's going to record the songs 00:16:17.259 --> 00:16:19.460 he's been hoarding for years. But he doesn't 00:16:19.460 --> 00:16:21.700 want to form a band. He doesn't want the pressure 00:16:21.700 --> 00:16:24.820 of the drummer from Nirvana's new band. He wants 00:16:24.820 --> 00:16:28.100 to do it alone. So when we say alone, let's be 00:16:28.100 --> 00:16:30.460 really specific about what that means. How does 00:16:30.460 --> 00:16:34.019 one guy record a full rock album in a week? It's 00:16:34.019 --> 00:16:36.000 a feat of endurance and meticulous planning. 00:16:36.179 --> 00:16:38.659 He booked the studio for five or six days. He 00:16:38.659 --> 00:16:41.059 would come in, visualize the song in his head, 00:16:41.120 --> 00:16:43.120 and play the drum track from start to finish 00:16:43.120 --> 00:16:45.799 with no other music to guide him. Just to a click 00:16:45.799 --> 00:16:47.580 track? Not even always a click track, just a 00:16:47.580 --> 00:16:49.490 song in his head. Then he'd run into the control 00:16:49.490 --> 00:16:51.409 room, listen back to it, make sure it was good. 00:16:51.710 --> 00:16:54.029 Then he'd run back out, pick up a bass guitar, 00:16:54.269 --> 00:16:56.870 and record the bass part over the drums he just 00:16:56.870 --> 00:16:59.730 played. Then the rhythm guitar. Then the lead 00:16:59.730 --> 00:17:02.230 guitar. And finally, he'd do the vocals. He's 00:17:02.230 --> 00:17:04.230 like painting a picture one color at a time. 00:17:04.430 --> 00:17:06.910 Exactly. And you have to remember, this is on 00:17:06.910 --> 00:17:09.509 analog tape. This isn't digital pro tools where 00:17:09.509 --> 00:17:12.670 you can just copy -paste a good chorus or fix 00:17:12.670 --> 00:17:15.069 a mistake. He had to play it right. All the way 00:17:15.069 --> 00:17:17.730 through. He recorded 15 songs in one week. And 00:17:17.730 --> 00:17:20.549 the result of that one week was the debut album 00:17:20.549 --> 00:17:23.450 Foo Fighters. And let's talk about the name Foo 00:17:23.450 --> 00:17:25.869 Fighters. Why did he choose that name? It's a 00:17:25.869 --> 00:17:28.609 UFO term from World War II, right? Right. For 00:17:28.609 --> 00:17:32.230 unidentified flying objects. It is. But he chose 00:17:32.230 --> 00:17:33.990 it because it sounded like a group. It sounded 00:17:33.990 --> 00:17:36.230 plural. He wanted people to pick up the cassette 00:17:36.230 --> 00:17:38.390 and think, oh, who are the Foo Fighters? Is it 00:17:38.390 --> 00:17:40.920 the gang? He was hiding in plain sight. He was 00:17:40.920 --> 00:17:43.299 terrified of being a solo artist, of having his 00:17:43.299 --> 00:17:45.740 name on the cover. But the tape gets out. Eddie 00:17:45.740 --> 00:17:48.400 Vedder plays it on his radio show. Record labels 00:17:48.400 --> 00:17:51.440 go absolutely crazy for it. It's a hit. And suddenly, 00:17:51.599 --> 00:17:54.700 Dave has a good problem. He has a hit record, 00:17:54.819 --> 00:17:56.759 but he has no band to play it live. He needs 00:17:56.759 --> 00:17:59.039 bodies. He needs a lineup. And interestingly, 00:17:59.240 --> 00:18:01.319 one of the first people he talked to was Chris 00:18:01.319 --> 00:18:03.980 Novoselic. They almost reunited. They discussed 00:18:03.980 --> 00:18:07.119 it. Chris apparently asked to join. But they 00:18:07.119 --> 00:18:09.660 both had this moment of clarity. They realize 00:18:09.660 --> 00:18:12.000 that if Chris joined, everyone would just see 00:18:12.000 --> 00:18:14.559 it as Nirvana 2 .0 without Kurt. The ghost would 00:18:14.559 --> 00:18:17.400 be too big. The pressure on Dave to fill Kurt's 00:18:17.400 --> 00:18:19.519 shoes would be crushing. That feels like a very 00:18:19.519 --> 00:18:22.240 mature and self -aware decision for two young 00:18:22.240 --> 00:18:24.759 guys to make in that situation. They'd probably 00:18:24.759 --> 00:18:27.480 save their friendship, to be honest. So instead, 00:18:27.759 --> 00:18:30.859 Grohl recruits Pat Smear. who had been the touring 00:18:30.859 --> 00:18:32.660 guitarist for Nirvana, so there was a comfortable 00:18:32.660 --> 00:18:35.039 link there. And then he raids a band called Sunny 00:18:35.039 --> 00:18:37.319 Day Real Estate. He poaches their entire rhythm 00:18:37.319 --> 00:18:40.160 section, Nate Mendel on bass and William Goldsmith 00:18:40.160 --> 00:18:42.759 on drums. And this brings us to the next critical 00:18:42.759 --> 00:18:45.160 chapter, the transition from Dave the drummer 00:18:45.160 --> 00:18:48.200 to Dave the frontman, and maybe more importantly, 00:18:48.400 --> 00:18:51.140 Dave the boss. Because that nicest guy in rock 00:18:51.140 --> 00:18:53.000 persona, it starts to get a little complicated 00:18:53.000 --> 00:18:54.779 here. Yeah. We have to talk about the recording 00:18:54.779 --> 00:18:56.960 of The Color and the Shape. This is the second 00:18:56.960 --> 00:19:00.869 album. This is 1996 going into 1997. The band 00:19:00.869 --> 00:19:03.529 is toured. They're a real unit. They go into 00:19:03.529 --> 00:19:05.670 the studio to record the official follow -up, 00:19:05.690 --> 00:19:08.289 and the pressure is on. The first album was basically 00:19:08.289 --> 00:19:11.230 a demo he made by himself. This is the real test 00:19:11.230 --> 00:19:13.829 of Foo Fighters as a band. And Dave isn't happy 00:19:13.829 --> 00:19:16.309 with how it's going. He's not. He's listening 00:19:16.309 --> 00:19:18.569 back to the recordings and he's deeply frustrated. 00:19:19.109 --> 00:19:21.369 Specifically with the drum tracks. Which has 00:19:21.369 --> 00:19:23.910 to be an incredibly awkward position. You have 00:19:23.910 --> 00:19:26.269 arguably the world's most famous rock drummer 00:19:26.269 --> 00:19:29.029 standing at the microphone judging the guy who 00:19:29.029 --> 00:19:31.289 is currently sitting at the drums. It's a nightmare 00:19:31.289 --> 00:19:33.309 scenario for William Goldsmith. He's a great 00:19:33.309 --> 00:19:35.890 drummer. Sunny Day Real Estate is a legendary 00:19:35.890 --> 00:19:39.190 emo band for a reason. But he's not Dave Grohl. 00:19:39.770 --> 00:19:42.170 Dave was hearing a specific cadence, a specific 00:19:42.170 --> 00:19:45.670 power, a specific snap in his head. He felt Goldsmith 00:19:45.670 --> 00:19:48.150 wasn't hitting hard enough that the takes weren't 00:19:48.150 --> 00:19:50.549 locking in with the grid he imagined. So does 00:19:50.549 --> 00:19:52.450 he mentor him? Does he sit down and say, hey, 00:19:52.470 --> 00:19:54.430 well, let's try it like this? He tries a bit, 00:19:54.549 --> 00:19:56.910 but he's not a great communicator in that way. 00:19:56.970 --> 00:20:00.309 He's conflict averse. So eventually he chooses 00:20:00.309 --> 00:20:02.410 the nuclear option. He tells the band, hey, we're 00:20:02.410 --> 00:20:04.990 going to take a little break. Then, without telling 00:20:04.990 --> 00:20:08.029 Goldsmith, He flies to Los Angeles, goes into 00:20:08.029 --> 00:20:11.890 a different studio and secretly rerecords all 00:20:11.890 --> 00:20:14.490 the drum parts himself. He wiped the track. He 00:20:14.490 --> 00:20:16.910 erased Goldsmith's work. He planned the drums 00:20:16.910 --> 00:20:19.869 on Eva Long, Monkey Wrench, My Hero, pretty much 00:20:19.869 --> 00:20:21.930 the entire album, except for maybe one or two 00:20:21.930 --> 00:20:24.910 tracks. How does Goldsmith find out? He basically 00:20:24.910 --> 00:20:27.769 hears the final mixes and realizes it's not him 00:20:27.769 --> 00:20:31.109 playing. And he feels rightfully so completely 00:20:31.109 --> 00:20:34.069 betrayed. He quit the band immediately. He was 00:20:34.069 --> 00:20:37.579 devastated. I mean. That is cold. That is corporate 00:20:37.579 --> 00:20:40.339 level ruthlessness. It is. It's conflict avoidance 00:20:40.339 --> 00:20:42.299 turned into a weapon. Yeah. He couldn't handle 00:20:42.299 --> 00:20:44.859 the direct confrontation of firing him or endlessly 00:20:44.859 --> 00:20:47.180 correcting him. So he just did the work himself 00:20:47.180 --> 00:20:49.880 behind his back. Grohl later expressed regret, 00:20:50.019 --> 00:20:51.980 but also admitted, I don't know if I'm finished 00:20:51.980 --> 00:20:54.220 playing the drums yet. But here is the uncomfortable 00:20:54.220 --> 00:20:57.500 question we have to ask. Was he wrong to do it? 00:20:58.099 --> 00:21:01.609 This is the central tension of Dave Grohl. Ethically, 00:21:01.730 --> 00:21:03.769 it was a mess. It was a terrible way to treat 00:21:03.769 --> 00:21:06.769 a bandmate. Artistically, he was 100 % right. 00:21:06.950 --> 00:21:08.930 Because the color and the shape is a masterpiece. 00:21:09.369 --> 00:21:12.650 It's a modern rock classic. It is the Foo Fighters 00:21:12.650 --> 00:21:15.190 album. And the drumming on a song like Everlong 00:21:15.190 --> 00:21:18.970 is iconic. It is frantic and precise and powerful. 00:21:19.089 --> 00:21:22.329 And it drives the entire song. If Goldsmith had 00:21:22.329 --> 00:21:24.910 played it, would it be that good? I think we 00:21:24.910 --> 00:21:27.170 know the answer is probably not. Grohl sacrificed 00:21:27.170 --> 00:21:29.829 the relationship to save the song and by extension, 00:21:29.950 --> 00:21:32.250 the album. It establishes right then and there 00:21:32.250 --> 00:21:34.970 that the Foo Fighters is not a democracy. It 00:21:34.970 --> 00:21:37.490 is a benevolent dictatorship with Dave at the 00:21:37.490 --> 00:21:40.210 top. Precisely. And Grohl realized that if he 00:21:40.210 --> 00:21:41.970 was going to be the front man, he needed a drummer 00:21:41.970 --> 00:21:44.569 who could match his intensity. He needed a twin. 00:21:44.730 --> 00:21:47.410 He needed an equal. Enter Taylor Hawkins. Taylor 00:21:47.410 --> 00:21:49.470 was the drummer for Alanis Morissette at the 00:21:49.470 --> 00:21:51.630 time. You have to remember, this is the mid-'90s 00:21:51.630 --> 00:21:53.890 Jagged Little Pill era. Alanis was the biggest 00:21:53.890 --> 00:21:55.809 star on the planet. She was playing stadiums. 00:21:56.089 --> 00:21:58.309 Taylor had the cushiest, best -paying gig in 00:21:58.309 --> 00:22:00.440 the world for a drummer. So why would he leave 00:22:00.440 --> 00:22:03.140 that to join a band that just had a very messy, 00:22:03.279 --> 00:22:06.140 very public drummer firing? Because Taylor Hawkins 00:22:06.140 --> 00:22:08.299 wanted to be in a rock and roll band. He didn't 00:22:08.299 --> 00:22:10.900 want to just be a side man for a pop star. And 00:22:10.900 --> 00:22:13.619 when he met Dave, it was instant chemistry. They 00:22:13.619 --> 00:22:16.200 were like long lost brothers. Same energy, same 00:22:16.200 --> 00:22:18.759 sense of humor, same love for Queen and the police. 00:22:18.960 --> 00:22:20.880 They finished each other's sentences. They did. 00:22:21.160 --> 00:22:23.779 And Taylor was an absolute monster behind the 00:22:23.779 --> 00:22:25.480 kit. He's the only guy who could hit as hard 00:22:25.480 --> 00:22:27.720 as Dave, who had that same explosive energy. 00:22:28.880 --> 00:22:31.319 in the band, Dave finally felt comfortable stepping 00:22:31.319 --> 00:22:33.700 away from the drums for good because he knew 00:22:33.700 --> 00:22:36.660 the engine room was secure. So the classic lineup 00:22:36.660 --> 00:22:39.299 of the band stabilizes. They release hit after 00:22:39.299 --> 00:22:41.960 hit. There is nothing left to lose one by one 00:22:41.960 --> 00:22:44.319 in your honor. They graduate from playing theaters 00:22:44.319 --> 00:22:47.099 to arenas to stadiums all over the world. And 00:22:47.099 --> 00:22:50.240 Grohl's reputation as this unstoppable, almost 00:22:50.240 --> 00:22:53.240 superhuman force of nature really cements itself. 00:22:53.500 --> 00:22:56.319 And absolutely nothing illustrates that better 00:22:56.319 --> 00:22:58.059 than the Broken Leg Tour. Gothenburg, Sweden. 00:22:59.349 --> 00:23:01.849 2015. He's running around the stage, hyping the 00:23:01.849 --> 00:23:04.809 crowd up during the second song. Yeah. He miscalculates 00:23:04.809 --> 00:23:07.150 a jump and falls 12 feet into the security pit. 00:23:07.569 --> 00:23:11.190 Snap. His fibula is completely broken. Now 99 00:23:11.190 --> 00:23:14.009 .9 % of performers would be in an ambulance within 00:23:14.009 --> 00:23:17.509 two minutes. The show is over. Refunds are issued. 00:23:17.809 --> 00:23:21.049 Tour is canceled. Dave Grohl grabs a microphone 00:23:21.049 --> 00:23:22.809 while he's lying on a stretcher in the dirt. 00:23:22.910 --> 00:23:25.509 He tells the crowd, I think I just broke my leg. 00:23:25.809 --> 00:23:28.509 Then he looks at them and promises. I will be 00:23:28.509 --> 00:23:31.670 back. And he does it. The medics drag him backstage. 00:23:31.829 --> 00:23:34.650 They set the bone, put a temporary cast on him. 00:23:34.690 --> 00:23:37.369 And 20 minutes later, he's carried back onto 00:23:37.369 --> 00:23:39.630 the stage. He finishes the entire two and a half 00:23:39.630 --> 00:23:41.569 hour concert sitting in a chair with his leg 00:23:41.569 --> 00:23:44.009 propped up while a medic holds it in place. That 00:23:44.009 --> 00:23:46.730 is pure adrenaline and just stubbornness. It 00:23:46.730 --> 00:23:49.589 is the show must go on ethos taken to its absolute 00:23:49.589 --> 00:23:52.369 extreme. But the tour was just starting. They 00:23:52.369 --> 00:23:54.609 had a massive North American stadium run booked. 00:23:55.079 --> 00:23:57.039 Canceling it would cost millions in insurance 00:23:57.039 --> 00:23:59.259 claims and crew salaries and promoter fees. So 00:23:59.259 --> 00:24:01.960 he designs the throne. He's high on painkillers 00:24:01.960 --> 00:24:04.519 in the hospital after surgery, and he draws a 00:24:04.519 --> 00:24:08.720 sketch on a napkin. A giant Game of Thrones -style 00:24:08.720 --> 00:24:11.519 chair made of guitar necks with lights and a 00:24:11.519 --> 00:24:14.200 motor and a seatbelt. He got his crew to build 00:24:14.200 --> 00:24:16.940 it, and he toured the entire summer sitting in 00:24:16.940 --> 00:24:19.440 that ridiculous, amazing throne. It became this 00:24:19.440 --> 00:24:22.500 symbol of rock and roll resilience. Axl Rose 00:24:22.500 --> 00:24:24.400 even borrowed it later when he broke his foot. 00:24:24.519 --> 00:24:26.539 It just proves that the machine does not stop. 00:24:26.859 --> 00:24:29.440 For anything. But speaking of machines not stopping, 00:24:29.500 --> 00:24:33.079 we have to talk about his musical ADHD. Because 00:24:33.079 --> 00:24:35.180 being the front man of one of the biggest bands 00:24:35.180 --> 00:24:37.299 on Earth apparently isn't enough work for him. 00:24:37.339 --> 00:24:39.819 He is constantly moonlighting. He seems to have 00:24:39.819 --> 00:24:42.799 a compulsive need to collaborate. And I think 00:24:42.799 --> 00:24:45.180 it comes from a deep -seated fear of stagnation. 00:24:45.440 --> 00:24:47.680 If he sits still for too long, he gets bored. 00:24:47.799 --> 00:24:50.079 The machine has to keep moving. So let's look 00:24:50.079 --> 00:24:52.839 at Queens of the Stone Age. This is 2002. The 00:24:52.839 --> 00:24:54.480 Foo Fighters are having a rough patch internally. 00:24:54.619 --> 00:24:56.839 They're not getting along. Grohl takes a break 00:24:56.839 --> 00:24:58.839 to go play drums on their album Songs for the 00:24:58.839 --> 00:25:01.220 Deaf. And this is a really critical moment for 00:25:01.220 --> 00:25:03.759 music nerds because the drumming on Songs for 00:25:03.759 --> 00:25:06.319 the Deaf is totally different from his drumming 00:25:06.319 --> 00:25:08.839 in Nirvana or even early Foo Fighters. How so? 00:25:09.200 --> 00:25:11.799 What's the difference? Josh Holm, the leader 00:25:11.799 --> 00:25:14.539 of Queens of the Stone Age, loves a very specific 00:25:14.539 --> 00:25:17.519 style called motoric. It's a German concept. 00:25:17.720 --> 00:25:20.460 Think of bands like Kraftwerk and New. It's robotic, 00:25:20.519 --> 00:25:23.779 it's repetitive, it's incredibly driving. Holm 00:25:23.779 --> 00:25:27.200 famously hates splashy cymbals washing over everything. 00:25:27.500 --> 00:25:29.700 He wants the drums to sound dead and dry and 00:25:29.700 --> 00:25:32.720 tight. So Grohl had to completely change his 00:25:32.720 --> 00:25:34.759 style to fit that mold. He had to strip away 00:25:34.759 --> 00:25:37.359 all the flashy fills, all the Bonham -esque cymbal 00:25:37.359 --> 00:25:39.940 crashes. He had to be a machine. If you listen 00:25:39.940 --> 00:25:41.839 to a song like No One Knows, the drums are so 00:25:41.839 --> 00:25:43.500 tight and dry they sound like they were recorded 00:25:43.500 --> 00:25:45.920 in a vacuum. The Grohl said it was the most fun 00:25:45.920 --> 00:25:47.960 he'd had in years because he didn't have to be 00:25:47.960 --> 00:25:50.359 the face or the leader. He just had to shut up 00:25:50.359 --> 00:25:52.400 and drive. And then he swings to the complete 00:25:52.400 --> 00:25:54.680 other end of the spectrum with the project, them 00:25:54.680 --> 00:25:57.500 crooked vultures. The super group to end all 00:25:57.500 --> 00:25:59.839 super groups. You have a damn Grohl on drums. 00:26:00.259 --> 00:26:03.299 You have Josh Holm on guitar. And on bass guitar, 00:26:03.559 --> 00:26:06.619 you have John Paul Jones. From Led Zeppelin. 00:26:06.799 --> 00:26:09.380 I mean, can you even imagine? You're Dave Grohl. 00:26:09.630 --> 00:26:11.670 You have a John Bonham Three Rings tattoo on 00:26:11.670 --> 00:26:13.829 your arm. You learn to play drums by listening 00:26:13.829 --> 00:26:17.490 to Zeppelin records over and over. And now you 00:26:17.490 --> 00:26:20.009 are looking across the stage, and the guy who 00:26:20.009 --> 00:26:23.309 wrote the bass line for Black Dog and the Lemon 00:26:23.309 --> 00:26:26.819 song is waiting for you to start the song. The 00:26:26.819 --> 00:26:29.539 pressure must have been absolutely suffocating. 00:26:29.619 --> 00:26:32.160 But he stepped up to it. And musically, this 00:26:32.160 --> 00:26:34.359 is so interesting because Zeppelin has a swing. 00:26:35.000 --> 00:26:37.400 John Bonham famously played slightly behind the 00:26:37.400 --> 00:26:39.740 beat. It's loose, it grooves, it breathes. Grohl 00:26:39.740 --> 00:26:41.640 had to learn that feel. He couldn't just hammer 00:26:41.640 --> 00:26:43.740 it like a punk rocker. He had to learn to dance 00:26:43.740 --> 00:26:46.140 with it, to play with that legendary feel. It 00:26:46.140 --> 00:26:48.220 really seems like these side projects are his 00:26:48.220 --> 00:26:50.900 form of continuing education. He goes away, he 00:26:50.900 --> 00:26:53.119 learns a new musical language, and then he brings 00:26:53.119 --> 00:26:55.059 that knowledge back to the Foo Fighters. Absolutely. 00:26:55.140 --> 00:26:58.200 He's a musical sponge. Probot, his middle project 00:26:58.200 --> 00:27:00.500 where he wrote all the music and got his 80s 00:27:00.500 --> 00:27:03.019 metal heroes like Lemmy to sing on it. Playing 00:27:03.019 --> 00:27:06.180 with Paul McCartney, Tenacious D. He just never 00:27:06.180 --> 00:27:08.660 stops learning. He's also a historian in a way. 00:27:08.680 --> 00:27:10.859 We have to mention Sound City. He didn't just 00:27:10.859 --> 00:27:12.960 participate in a documentary about a recording 00:27:12.960 --> 00:27:15.400 studio. He directed it. But it wasn't just about 00:27:15.400 --> 00:27:18.440 the building itself. It was about a very specific 00:27:18.440 --> 00:27:21.640 piece of equipment inside that building. The 00:27:21.640 --> 00:27:25.980 Neve 8028 mixing console. Okay, ELI 5 time. Explain 00:27:25.980 --> 00:27:28.980 it like I'm 5. Why does a mixing console matter 00:27:28.980 --> 00:27:31.339 so much? Isn't it just a bunch of knobs and faders? 00:27:31.539 --> 00:27:34.460 In the digital age, maybe. But in the analog 00:27:34.460 --> 00:27:36.660 age, the console was an instrument in itself. 00:27:38.160 --> 00:27:41.140 The Neve 8028 is famous because of its internal 00:27:41.140 --> 00:27:44.339 wiring and transformers. It adds a specific harmonic 00:27:44.339 --> 00:27:46.880 distortion to the sound. It makes things sound 00:27:46.880 --> 00:27:49.599 warm and thick and punchy. So when you plug a 00:27:49.599 --> 00:27:51.420 guitar or a microphone into it, it just sounds 00:27:51.420 --> 00:27:53.259 better than plugging it directly into a computer. 00:27:53.480 --> 00:27:55.640 Much better. It sounds human. It has character, 00:27:55.779 --> 00:27:58.819 and that is Grohl's personal crusade. He hates 00:27:58.819 --> 00:28:00.960 the cold perfection of digital recording. He 00:28:00.960 --> 00:28:03.579 hates autotune. He hates when producers use computers 00:28:03.579 --> 00:28:06.700 to snap drums to a perfect robotic grid. He wants 00:28:06.700 --> 00:28:08.660 to hear the mistakes. He wants to hear the tempo 00:28:08.660 --> 00:28:11.180 speed up and slow down naturally. Which is pretty 00:28:11.180 --> 00:28:14.079 ironic, considering he erased William Goldsmith's 00:28:14.079 --> 00:28:16.359 drums for not being perfect enough for his vision. 00:28:16.539 --> 00:28:19.880 It is deeply ironic. But Grohl... would argue, 00:28:19.920 --> 00:28:22.559 I think, that he wants human perfection, not 00:28:22.559 --> 00:28:25.039 computer perfection. He wants the perfect feel, 00:28:25.200 --> 00:28:28.019 not the perfect grid. So let's give it to the 00:28:28.019 --> 00:28:29.720 man himself. We've talked about the musician, 00:28:29.859 --> 00:28:33.000 but who is Dave Grohl when the amps are turned 00:28:33.000 --> 00:28:35.279 off? We have the nice guy narrative, but there 00:28:35.279 --> 00:28:37.019 are some real complexities there. Well, first 00:28:37.019 --> 00:28:39.640 of all, there is a very real physical cost to 00:28:39.640 --> 00:28:42.000 everything we've been talking about. Dave Grohl 00:28:42.000 --> 00:28:45.200 is significantly hearing impaired. He's going 00:28:45.200 --> 00:28:48.539 deaf. He has terrible tinnitus, a constant ringing, 00:28:48.720 --> 00:28:50.480 especially in his left ear, which is the ear 00:28:50.480 --> 00:28:52.839 that's closest to the snare drum and the onstage 00:28:52.839 --> 00:28:55.900 monitor wedge. He has admitted in interviews 00:28:55.900 --> 00:28:59.400 that he has been reading lips for 20 years. If 00:28:59.400 --> 00:29:01.539 he's in a crowded restaurant, he says he can't 00:29:01.539 --> 00:29:04.079 hear a word you're saying. And yet he refuses 00:29:04.079 --> 00:29:06.420 to wear the in -ear monitors on stage that all 00:29:06.420 --> 00:29:09.039 the other musicians use. Right. Most pros wear 00:29:09.039 --> 00:29:11.599 in -ears now. They're like custom molded earbuds. 00:29:12.019 --> 00:29:14.640 They block out the dangerous stage volume and 00:29:14.640 --> 00:29:16.720 let you hear a perfect mix at a safe volume. 00:29:17.420 --> 00:29:20.220 Grohl refuses to use them. He still uses old 00:29:20.220 --> 00:29:23.180 school floor wedges that just blast sound at 00:29:23.180 --> 00:29:26.099 his face all night. But why? That seems completely 00:29:26.099 --> 00:29:28.660 self -destructive. He says in -ears remove him 00:29:28.660 --> 00:29:30.839 from the natural atmosphere. He wants to hear 00:29:30.839 --> 00:29:32.880 the crowd screaming. He wants to feel the air 00:29:32.880 --> 00:29:35.579 moving from the amplifiers. He prioritizes that 00:29:35.579 --> 00:29:38.019 raw connection with the audience over his own 00:29:38.019 --> 00:29:40.970 physical health. incredibly stubborn, but it's 00:29:40.970 --> 00:29:43.609 also very on brand for him. What about his politics? 00:29:43.950 --> 00:29:46.390 Rock stars can be very divisive. Grohl seems 00:29:46.390 --> 00:29:48.609 to thread a needle pretty well, but he's definitely 00:29:48.609 --> 00:29:51.589 not neutral. No, he's not. He's a classic liberal. 00:29:51.750 --> 00:29:53.849 He grew up with a public school teacher mom in 00:29:53.849 --> 00:29:56.609 the D .C. area. He supported John Kerry, Obama, 00:29:56.950 --> 00:29:59.490 Biden. He played at the 2012 Democratic National 00:29:59.490 --> 00:30:02.329 Convention. But he doesn't usually get on a soapbox 00:30:02.329 --> 00:30:05.089 and preach. He tends to use music and humor. 00:30:05.230 --> 00:30:07.599 Like the Westboro Baptist Church incident. This 00:30:07.599 --> 00:30:09.859 is a perfect example of how he operates. The 00:30:09.859 --> 00:30:12.579 Westboro Baptist Church, this infamous hate group 00:30:12.579 --> 00:30:15.480 that pickets soldiers' funerals, decided to picket 00:30:15.480 --> 00:30:18.039 a Foo Fighters concert in Kansas City. Because 00:30:18.039 --> 00:30:20.920 rock and roll is the devil's music or something. 00:30:21.079 --> 00:30:23.299 Something like that. Now, most bands would either 00:30:23.299 --> 00:30:26.339 ignore them or issue a stern press release condemning 00:30:26.339 --> 00:30:28.960 them. Grohl put the entire band on the back of 00:30:28.960 --> 00:30:31.380 a flatbed truck, drove it out into the parking 00:30:31.380 --> 00:30:33.779 lot right in front of the protesters, and played 00:30:33.779 --> 00:30:37.000 a disco song called Keep It Clean Hot Buns. He 00:30:37.000 --> 00:30:40.039 Rickrolled them in person. He drowned out their 00:30:40.039 --> 00:30:43.039 hate speech with high -volume, homoerotic disco 00:30:43.039 --> 00:30:46.299 dancing. It was weaponized joy. He made them 00:30:46.299 --> 00:30:48.440 look completely ridiculous without ever getting 00:30:48.440 --> 00:30:51.160 angry or engaging them on their level. But the 00:30:51.160 --> 00:30:53.539 St. Dave armor, as we've called it, took a massive 00:30:53.539 --> 00:30:55.619 hit recently. We have to address the elephant 00:30:55.619 --> 00:30:59.869 in the room. the 2024 scandal. We do. For 20 00:30:59.869 --> 00:31:02.049 years, Dave Grohl was the ultimate family man, 00:31:02.190 --> 00:31:05.369 married to Jordan Blum since 2003, three daughters. 00:31:05.690 --> 00:31:08.450 He was the rock star dad who drove a minivan 00:31:08.450 --> 00:31:10.609 and coached his daughter's soccer team. And then 00:31:10.609 --> 00:31:13.789 in September of 2024, an Instagram post. A simple 00:31:13.789 --> 00:31:16.640 black screen with white text. He announced that 00:31:16.640 --> 00:31:18.859 he had fathered a daughter outside of his marriage. 00:31:19.039 --> 00:31:21.759 It was a shock, a genuine shock to his fan base. 00:31:21.940 --> 00:31:24.000 It broke the Internet for 24 hours. People were 00:31:24.000 --> 00:31:26.980 genuinely devastated. I think it's because we, 00:31:27.099 --> 00:31:29.819 the public, projected so much virtue onto him. 00:31:29.859 --> 00:31:31.700 We wanted him to be the one guy who was perfect. 00:31:31.920 --> 00:31:34.480 And the reality is he's a guy who spends 10 months 00:31:34.480 --> 00:31:37.130 a year on the road. who has a history of infidelity. 00:31:37.250 --> 00:31:39.369 He's admitted to cheating in his first marriage 00:31:39.369 --> 00:31:42.849 back in the 90s and who made a massive life -altering 00:31:42.849 --> 00:31:44.970 mistake. He asked for his family's forgiveness 00:31:44.970 --> 00:31:47.670 publicly and said he would be a loving parent 00:31:47.670 --> 00:31:50.549 to the new child. But it definitely shattered 00:31:50.549 --> 00:31:53.400 the pedestal. It reminded all of us that nice 00:31:53.400 --> 00:31:56.140 guy is a brand, but Dave Grohl is a complex, 00:31:56.339 --> 00:31:59.279 flawed human being just like everyone else. And 00:31:59.279 --> 00:32:01.759 that brings us really to the current era of his 00:32:01.759 --> 00:32:04.660 life, because just like in 1994, he is currently 00:32:04.660 --> 00:32:07.279 navigating a world that has been completely redefined 00:32:07.279 --> 00:32:09.559 by a massive loss. The death of his best friend, 00:32:09.660 --> 00:32:12.720 Taylor Hawkins, in March of 2022. If losing Kurt 00:32:12.720 --> 00:32:14.839 Cobain was the defining trauma of his youth, 00:32:15.019 --> 00:32:17.220 losing Taylor Hawkins is the defining trauma 00:32:17.220 --> 00:32:19.779 of his middle age. It might be even worse in 00:32:19.779 --> 00:32:22.569 some ways. He knew Kurt for about three years. 00:32:23.150 --> 00:32:25.750 He knew Taylor for 25 years. They were inseparable. 00:32:26.029 --> 00:32:29.109 He was the best man at his wedding. Taylor died 00:32:29.109 --> 00:32:31.329 in a hotel in Columbia while they were on tour. 00:32:31.529 --> 00:32:34.089 I think everyone, myself included, thought that 00:32:34.089 --> 00:32:36.549 was the end of the Foo Fighters. How do you possibly 00:32:36.549 --> 00:32:39.150 replace your soulmate? But Grohl did what Grohl 00:32:39.150 --> 00:32:41.809 always does. He processed the grief through work. 00:32:42.170 --> 00:32:44.670 He went into a studio and made a record. They 00:32:44.670 --> 00:32:47.789 released the album. But here we are in 2023. 00:32:48.400 --> 00:32:50.759 It is a heavy, heavy record. It's devastating. 00:32:51.259 --> 00:32:53.779 It's explicitly about the grief of losing Taylor 00:32:53.779 --> 00:32:56.440 and also about his mother, Virginia, who passed 00:32:56.440 --> 00:32:59.779 away in the same year. A one -two punch of unimaginable 00:32:59.779 --> 00:33:02.759 loss. And musically, what did he do on that album? 00:33:02.980 --> 00:33:05.200 He got back behind the drums. He played all the 00:33:05.200 --> 00:33:07.240 drum tracks on the album himself as a full circle 00:33:07.240 --> 00:33:09.859 moment, just like in 1994 when his world fell 00:33:09.859 --> 00:33:12.599 apart. His fourth instinct was to go into a studio 00:33:12.599 --> 00:33:14.599 by himself and start hitting things. It's his 00:33:14.599 --> 00:33:17.299 therapy. So as we wrap this up, what is the ultimate 00:33:17.299 --> 00:33:19.680 takeaway? We've looked at the punk kid hitting 00:33:19.680 --> 00:33:22.160 pillows, the grunge engine, the ruthless CEO, 00:33:22.559 --> 00:33:25.680 the super collaborator, and the grieving friend. 00:33:26.000 --> 00:33:28.799 The takeaway for me is momentum. Dave Grohl is 00:33:28.799 --> 00:33:31.059 a shark. If he stops swimming, he feels like 00:33:31.059 --> 00:33:33.500 he'll die. His entire life, his entire career 00:33:33.500 --> 00:33:35.720 is a reaction against stasis. He keeps moving 00:33:35.720 --> 00:33:38.619 forward just to survive. Exactly. When Scream 00:33:38.619 --> 00:33:41.680 died, he immediately joined Nirvana. When Nirvana 00:33:41.680 --> 00:33:43.539 died, he built the Fee Fighters from the ashes. 00:33:44.309 --> 00:33:46.190 When the Foo Fighters got stale in the early 00:33:46.190 --> 00:33:49.750 2000s, he jumped ship to play with QKSA. When 00:33:49.750 --> 00:33:52.710 Taylor died, he made a fock. But here we are. 00:33:53.289 --> 00:33:55.750 He fundamentally refuses to let tragedy be the 00:33:55.750 --> 00:33:57.549 end of the story. And now they have a new drummer, 00:33:57.650 --> 00:34:00.170 the great Josh Fries. The machine is back on 00:34:00.170 --> 00:34:02.950 a road, playing stadiums again. But the dynamic 00:34:02.950 --> 00:34:05.609 has changed, hasn't it? He's no longer the young 00:34:05.609 --> 00:34:08.750 guy in rock. He's the elder statesman. He's the 00:34:08.750 --> 00:34:11.320 ultimate survivor. And so the real question is, 00:34:11.460 --> 00:34:14.179 will he keep this massive stadium machine running 00:34:14.179 --> 00:34:17.920 forever? Or given the immense personal turmoil 00:34:17.920 --> 00:34:20.659 and the loss of his best friend, will we see 00:34:20.659 --> 00:34:23.820 him eventually return to that 1994 mode? Just 00:34:23.820 --> 00:34:26.719 a guy alone in a room making music for himself 00:34:26.719 --> 00:34:29.199 away from the spotlight. Knowing Dave Grohl, 00:34:29.300 --> 00:34:31.119 he'll probably try to do both at the same time. 00:34:31.260 --> 00:34:32.800 They'll probably pull it off somehow. It's been 00:34:32.800 --> 00:34:35.659 a fascinating ride from hitting pillows in a 00:34:35.659 --> 00:34:38.199 bedroom in Virginia to the Rock and Roll Hall 00:34:38.199 --> 00:34:41.289 of Fame. Twice. Not bad for a high school dropout. 00:34:41.369 --> 00:34:43.329 Thanks for listening to this deep dive into the 00:34:43.329 --> 00:34:45.809 life and career of Dave Grohl. We'll catch you 00:34:45.809 --> 00:34:46.730 on the next one. See you then.