Dave Grohl: 'I assume everyone I know doesn’t like my band'

Tonight on Beats 1, Zane Lowe had the first interview with Dave Grohl in the wake of this new release and video.

This is the first talk about the new ‘Run’ video, their Glasto upcoming show, his broken leg and recovery, Them Crooked Vultures, and more. Some really good stuff in here!!

on what Dave wanted to do on the Foo Fighters two year break:
When we took this last break, this 2 year break I came off the road, I hadn’t really started walking yet I was still recovering from a broken leg i was like I’m gonna take a year off and get my pilot’s license and my high school diploma. I didn’t do either, but I wrote a song.

on the ‘Run’ video:
Hopefully we don’t look like that when we’re older. We’re lucky because we do a lot of stuff on our own. This video began with Taylor saying ‘we’re getting old. What are we gonna do about promo photos we’re so ugly now? and I was like ‘let it go it doesn’t really matter’ and Taylor said in our next video we should be 100 years old thrashing to this song and i laughed about it and was like what if we ended up in this Senior Citizen Home. Let me write up a treatment and that stuff just comes out you think of the most ridiculous stuff and it just comes out on paper. The Sonic Highways any of that stuff I have to sell it to them and am like this is what i think we should do. i wrote up this treatment and everyone thought it was funny so we sent it to our producers who did Sound City and Sonic Highways and come back with the reality of prosthetics and the budget and how we’re gonna pull it off and it became a crazy melee of pulling off the craziest fiasco ever.



on directing the ‘Run’ video in prosthetcis:
We had to get our faces cast - it’s claustrophobic. Once you’ve done that and you send the makeup to the guy he’s Tony he was IN the Thriller video he’s the dude who’s arm falls off. He starts making the makeup and we tried to tell him what we thought we should look like and Pat sent him a picture of Frederick Douglass and it looks exactly like him. I thought it would be funny if Taylor had a skullet. Rami looks the greatest our keyboard player. i hope he looks like that when he gets older. Shifty looks a little angry. Nate looks pretty pathetic, he doesn’t look old he just looks ill, like he’s not got much time.

on staying true to their sound and Rami being an official member of the band
It's so easy when the 5 of us, 6 of us now. Rami’s been a part of the band for 14 years he’s such a big part of the band. If you’ve eever hung out with him he’s one of the most talented people I ever met. He’s this floaty Los Angeles dude. When we get together and play it sounds the way it sounds. Of course i grew up loving and l listening to artists that constantly evolved - Bowie, so many bands that would weave their way through their career going right and left etc. It’s strange when I hear the song ‘Run’ when we started playing it for people some people said it wasn’t like us and some said it did. I think it sounds exactly like us. Every record we go into make we go in thinking we’re gonna make Dark Side of the Moon or The White Album but at the end of the day we end up with a Foo Fighters record there’s nothing we can do.

on when he broke his leg and the recovery
At the end of that run, from the time I broke my leg to the time we were done we did 53 more shows. We were cooked. Our manager John was like are you sure you wanna do this and we said yeah man let’s do it. The first show we did with the throne thing, I’d never sat in it before and it was a stadium show and at the end of that show I was like ok this is gonna be great. By the end of it we were cooked and I thought I don’t want to touch an instrument for a year. I had a little studio in my house. After 3/4 months i went up and sat down at the drums and set up some microphones and got a drum sound then I stepped away for a few weeks then I went back and refined the sound a little and then I just started coming up with all these crazy riffs and recorded 20 songs or something and sent it to the guys. I think everyone was relieved like, ok we’re gonna keep the ball rolling. One of the reasons we’re still a band is we know when to stop and when to go.

you learned that the hard way
Honestly all the stuff i’ve been through from 16/17 years old i learned how to tour when i was 17 and learned how to survive being in a big band when i was 21/22 then learned how to carry on years after that so you learn all of these ways to survive and i think all of those lessons come into play with the foo fighters. We’re like brothers and family and cherish and respect this thing that we have. You gotta give it a little water and put it in the sun sometimes and let it go for a bit.

on switching it up by returning to the studio:
The last record we did in 8 different cities and it was to tell the stories of those cities. It was deeper conceptually than just going into the record, then before that we did it in my garage and made that documentary and it was all about analog, and the last EP we did we recorded in a hotel lobby in Austin TX so we thought if we were to record again and were like how are we gonna switch it up? And for us to switch it up right now was to go back to the studio and make a record like a normal band. That became the focus.

on bringing someone else into the fold:
We worked with Butch Vig a lot, Gil Norton, Adam Kasper, but I remember ages ago for our third record we were trying to figure out who should produce our record and sent our stuff to this one big producer and he basically said the Foo Fighters aren’t produceable. You guys do your own thing no one’s gonna step in and change it. One of my biggest jobs is to protect the aesthetic of the band. i know what we’re like and I know us as people. I know what we do musically. I kind of huddle around it to make sure nothing gets twisted or messed up. I love working with people who are brilliant and have great ideas - Butch Vig, we’re such old friends. It doesn’t feel like work. When you work with people who are hyper incredibly brilliant you just await their approval. I don’t think I’m a Beatle or John Lennon I don’t think I’m a great songwriter. I have to write something and play it for someone and say ‘is that ok?’ I kinda second guess everything we do.

What kind of people do you look to on that?
I assume everyone I know doesn’t like my band. My friends, family, it’s not required. You don’t have to like the Foo Fighters.

on Them Crooked Vultures:
I have a lot of friends in bands that I’m really good friends with. I don’t have to like their band, but it’s not required. Like Josh Homme. I LOVE Queens of the Stone Age and he’s brilliant. If I play him something I really want Josh to like it, because I really look up to him, and when we play music together, it’s so easy and so much fun. We just laugh. If you listen to Them Crooked Vultures, that’s like me John Paul Jones and Josh goofing on everyone.

On if there will be another Them Crooked Vultures reunion:
We talk about it every once in a while we’re off in our own directions but we’ll be up drinking wine by yourself and watching some Crooked Vultures live thing on YouTube and text each other and say I miss you man and then I don’t hear anything for 5 months. Alan was the secret weapon in that band. I can’t say that because it’ll make everybody else mad but it was not a sloppy bunch.

on recently playing Bottle Rock:
We did this Bottle Rock festival in Napa. We hadn’t done a big show in two years so we were kinda nervous. You kind of get used to getting on stage in front of a stadium, you get comfortable. I haven’t worn the cape in a long time I’ve been driving a mini van and going to California Pizza Kitchen. We practiced. We wrote a a set list and prated a bunch. We run out on stage within two songs all of that crap went out the window. I started my standup routine, the jams got 6 minutes longer - first song we played was 'All My Life.’ We had to come back strong. Plus everyone was in their Mid-50s drinking Chardonnay and eating brie sandwiches

on playing the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury coming up:
We played on that stage on 1997 right as some big Euro Cup final was happening and it was pissing down rain there was a big audience as we were about to play then at 2pm the minute we hit the stage all of a sudden it was 365 people it was like oh my god where did everyone go? It was not our shining moment, but we were supposed to play it a couple years ago. I broke my leg maybe a week beforehand. Florence and the Machine took our place. We promised we’d be back and this just seemed like the right time to do it. When you rehearse every show is different you can’t treat Glastonbury like any other show. Every gig is different in that the vibe determines the music. If you show up to a crazy vodka drenched festival in Finland in the mountains it’s gonna go off. It’s gonna be weird, it’s gonna be awesome, when you show up somewhere like Bottle Rock you’re like ok this is a little more civilized. Somewhere like Glastonbury has such a huge history behind it and then personally it’s almost like a part of my recovery. I’m making up for something I couldn’t do when I was just completely broken. The vibe is already kinda there, for me personally. It’s something personal to me now. I know there’s gonna be a million people there. I can walk. When this happened my doctor said - it’s a lot worse than you think it is. If you do what i tell you you’ll be able to walk and run around with your kids after you’re outta here. If you don't do what I tell you to do you’ll walk with a cane the rest of your life. I messed itup so bad. This whole thing to me is i’m coming back and I’m standing up and I’m gonna kick their ass for 2 hours or more. I can’t wait. I’m already psyched it’s gonna be amazing.

on new music:
We have our own studio and we actually like each other and hang out when we’re not on tour. we’ve been writing and recording a bunch of stuff and eventually we’ll let everyone know what we’ve been up to but what we’d like to do is kind of let it happen in a way that would be most exciting. we’re looking forward to the next phase. we’re ready when we’re ready you’ll know when it happens

on how he couldn’t sleep last night:
It's crazy when you work really hard on a song or album we didn't just do this a couple weeks ago we’ve been doing stuff for a while and it’s really exciting to keep that a secret for so long and give it to the world. but it’s great because you watch your friends do the same thing - watch QOTSA make their new record, you just can’t wait for everyone to hear it but because your’e holding this secret in your back pocket. thats the best feeling.

any projects outside of the band you want to go back into directing, docs etc
When we got off the road i was approached to make a movie. We got into the pre production phase but it realized it was going to take a lot longer than we would. foo fighters is my main gig. the rewrites, casting, the whole deal. it was an amazing script and incredible story. it would be a great movie. when i was approached i needed to tell people i’ve never done this before and they said you’re perfect for it. there’s a lot in the future. other songs, videos, i get approached to do other docs all the time, as long as it works in the food schedule i’m down. The guys are my first priority.