So many frontmen in the modern era have
fully embraced the full-on rockstar mentality
and all the BS and bravado it comes with.
But not Grohl.
In a 2014 interview with 60 Minutes, he
said, “Listen—any fucking rockstar that calls
themselves a rockstar is a complete asshole.
There’s no fucking way I’ll say, ‘Oh yeah, I’m
a rockstar.’ You just can’t do that.”
And the thing is: I have absolutely no reason
not to believe him.
worldwide over the last two decades.
Stunning.
And to go back to the William Goldsmith
stuff, I have to sort of give him a pass on
that now. For someone who was one of
the most respected rock drummers on the
planet at that point, I sort of get why he did
what he did. Having everything “just right”
was of the utmost importance—even if it
meant going back and doing it himself. Was
it a nice thing to do? Absolutely not. But I’m
guessing he learned from it.
Watch any interview with him and he seems
like a fairly normal guy. Somebody you’d
want to hang out and jam with. One of my
favorite glimpses into the Grohl persona
is the black-and-white Off Camera session
he did with Sam Jones. You can find clips
on YouTube, but he talks about how he
approaches the guitar, the industry and the
musical process in an open, honest and
refreshing way. He just loves it.
Not to mention—and this hits home for
me in a new way now—he comes off as a
caring dad, as well. In that same 60 Minutes
interview he talks about his family and quips
toward the end, “I just want to get home
safe now. I just want play my music and go
home.” Then there’s the early goofball music videos,
the Probot, Tenacious D and Queens of the
Stone Age experiments, the polarizing Foo
Fighters double album, the politicization
of his music—and most recently—the
development of Sonic Highways, a musical
journey that took Grohl and Co. across the
country to soak up and record the influences
of several historic musical regions on the
spot.
And during a different interview from 2015
with Anderson Cooper, he puts it all in
perspective: “All I do is shuttle kids around
in a minivan and then come down here and
be in the Foo Fighters. That’s it. And I’m not
lying.”
Consider for a moment though, that that’s
a statement from a 46-year-old drummer
with more than 100 million records sold
If look back across the expanse of the
Foo Fighters legacy, you’ll see some fairly
significant risks.
First and foremost, there’s Grohl making
the leap from drummer to frontman.
It’s something he says took years to get
comfortable with, but at this point I think it’s
safe to say that the move paid off.
In all of that, he shows off what a creative
force he is. But watching Grohl perform, it’s
easy for me to see just how passionate he is,
too.
I mean, name another rockstar (yeah, I’ll
call him that, even if he won’t say it about
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