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The Red Bulletin| Interview with David Grohl, front man of the Foo Fighters
Dave Grohl became world famous in the1990s as the drummer for Nirvana and hasremained stellar ever since. He’s the leadsinger of Foo Fighters (eight albums, 11 million copies sold, many awards and hugeworld tours) and has worked on musicalprojects with, among others, David Bowie,Paul McCartney, Nine Inch Nails andQueens Of The Stone Age. Last year heproduced his first film, Sound City, a documentary about the titular LosAngeles music studio. Now he’s drivingSonic Highways, an ambitious projectmerging the eighth Foo Fighters album,out in November, with an eight-partTV series in which Grohl shows the bandrecording the album in studios acrossAmerica and interviews artists associatedwith those studios, including Dolly Parton,Joe Walsh, Chuck D, Willie Nelson andRick Rubin. There’s also a sit-down withBarack Obama. When he met The Red Bulletin recently, the 45-year-old swappedthe questioning for answer duty.
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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.”
Guy carved out a career in music despite having no education and no money. Echoes of the Dave Grohl story?
Buddy’s the greatest ever as far as I’m concerned. He made his first guitar from wires in his screen porch and wood. I’m a high-school dropout from Springfield, Virginia. I never graduated school and I never had enough money for college. I worked manual jobs and played noisy punk rock music. Now I’m in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame and I get to sit and talk to the President about music. I’m not saying what a great guy I am, but I want everyone to imagine that same opportunity is possible.
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 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.
