Dave Grohl thinks the Foo Fighters was born out of heartbreak and survival.
The rock band was formed by the 46-year-old in 1994 following the death of his Nirvana band mate Kurt Cobain. While Dave is the Foo Fighters frontman, in his former band he was the drummer and Kurt took the vocals, an agreement that he was more than happy with.
“I was in a band with Kurt Cobain, who was the greatest songwriter of our generation. I didn’t want to pollute that process,” he explained when asked by Deadline why he never tried to showcase his vocals in Nirvana. “The whole time I was in Nirvana, I was recording stuff in my basement. But I didn’t let anyone hear it, because I didn’t need to. Because I heard it. I didn’t feel like I was keeping this incredible secret. That was the beginning of the Foo Fighters. It was like a coming out, like, “OK, I also do this.” The Foo Fighters is a band that was born out of … just survival.”
Dave was devastated by the premature death of Kurt at 27, after he took his own life. With Foo Fighters, it was a chance for him and his new band mates to continue with their passion after their previous efforts were cut short.
“These were all musicians who’d been in bands that ended prematurely, and we weren’t done yet,” he continued. “There was some really heartbreaking history behind us, but we had a lot to look forward to. And so that was really our greatest motivation. It wasn’t that we wanted to become the biggest band in the world. We just wanted to continue playing music.”
The Foo Fighters have gone on to become one of the biggest bands in the world, while Dave has also branched out, directing the triple Emmy nominated series Sonic Highways. It’s just another example of how the star will try anything and work out the logistics as he goes along.
“When you accomplish something like that, you do feel a bit of pride because nobody told you what to do,” he said. “I remember my first trip to Ikea, I brought the furniture home and threw the instructions away. I wanted to figure this out.”
