Publications
Partners
Cape Town - Dave Grohl became world famous in the 1990s as the drummer for Nirvana and has remained stellar ever since.
He’s the lead singer of Foo Fighters (eight albums, 11 million copies sold, many awards and huge world tours) and has worked on musical projects with, among others, David Bowie, Paul McCartney, Nine Inch Nails and Queens Of The Stone Age.
Last year he produced his first film, Sound City, a documentary about the titular Los Angeles music studio. Now he’s driving Sonic Highways, an ambitious project merging the eighth Foo Fighters album, which was recently released, with an eight-part TV series in which Grohl shows the band recording the album in studios across America and interviews artists associated with those studios, including Dolly Parton, Joe Walsh, Chuck D, Willie Nelson and Rick Rubin.
There’s also a sit-down with Barack Obama. When he met The Red Bulletin recently, the 45-year-old swapped the questioning for answer duty.
The Red Bulletin: You were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame this year as part of Nirvana. Why did you only have female singers for your performance at the ceremony?
Grohl: Because Kurt [Cobain] was a feminist. And someone suggested Joan Jett. I mean, Joan Jett she’s the first lady of rock ’n’ roll. She’s the one. Then it was like: "What about Kim Gordon?" She and Kurt were great friends, they loved each other and Sonic Youth were our heroes. "Yeah, let’s get Kim."
And you had Lorde from New Zealand.
Lorde was my idea. Her song Royals is its own little revolution in the sea of bullshit.
Is that sea what you referred to recently as 'stripper pop'?
Pop music in America right now is so superficial. It’s fun to listen to, to turn up in your car when you’re in traffic, but there’s no substance at all. It’s devoid of any meaning. I’m not just saying that as a 45-year-old rock musician, I’m saying that as a human being. If the number one song is about your butt, that’s a problem. So when I heard Royals in the middle of all of these other songs, I thought, "Thank God! Someone’s singing something that actually has a little bit of something."
What do you do with all your money?
It goes straight into my bank account, where it turns all mouldy and smelly.
No investments, nothing like that?
I don’t waste my time thinking about how I could make more when I’ve already got enough. I’m not a banker, I’m a musician. However, at the same time it buys me freedom, of course. It allows me to do what I want to do and not having to worry about anything at all.
No houses, no big, fat cars?
I drive a family car – not a monster SUV, but a family car that fits five people. I’ve got a house that is just big enough, too. My only status symbol would be 606, my studio in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. I’ve invested a fortune to make it look exactly like Abba’s legendary Atlantis studio. I’m not kidding: that's what I was after and it cost me a lot to have that dream come alive.
Is making music the analogue way becoming a lost art?
I hope I don’t sound like a boring old fart here, but let’s be honest: it never hurt nobody to practise your instrument, to develop an ear for rhythm and melody.
So what do you think of EDM?
What the heck are you talking about? Don’t speak in riddles, man!
Electronic dance music. Skrillex, Deadmau5, etc.
That’s what that is called? It’s simply not my kind of music. What’s more, it’s nothing new. Artists like Suicide or Atari Teenage Riot have been doing it for decades and are still doing it way better.
What do your kids listen to? (Grohl has three daughters, aged eight, five and three months.)
I’m damned lucky on that front. The worst thing they impose on me is Katy Perry’s latest album.
Katy doesn’t make you happy?
No, not at all. Her music is a real test in terms of loyalty towards your kids. But at the same time I can still make them listen to good stuff. I got my eldest two, Harper and Violet, a turntable and The Beatles box set. So they listen to Magical Mystery Tour and the White Album. Give a six-year-old a turntable and all of the Beatles records and I guarantee that within one hour they will be doing what you did when you were six years old, too. Records on the floor, dancing, singing; it’s great
What kind of relationship do you have with social networking?
Honestly, I haven’t got a clue. I’m not on Facebook or on Instagram and it’s because I don’t care. If I want to talk to people I just call them up or text them. Yet, for my 75-year-old mother, it makes perfect sense, simply because she doesn’t have too many people to talk to anymore, she hardly leaves the house and she is lonely. She’s like, ‘You’re living in the past, dear. Let me show you how to Twitter.’ Maybe if I reach her age then I’ll launch my first personal website, by Dave Grohl, retired rock star.
Courtney Love wants to make a Nirvana biopic. Who should play Dave Grohl?
I guess Robert Rodriguez would be my favourite, just because he’s so cool, but I just don’t think it’s going to happen.
Click here to read the full interview on The Red Bulletin.
*Foo Fighters will be playing in Cape Town on Wednesday 10 December and in Johannesburg on Saturday 13 December.
