Dave Grohl is the Swiss Army Knife of Rock

 By Jami Morain

    From "just Nirvana's drummer" to Foo Fighters' front man, Dave Grohl has more than established his place as a music legend.

   After teaching himself to play drums by listening to punk music and drumming along on pillows, he dropped out of high school at 17 to join the band Scream. In chapter six of Grohl's autobiography, The Storyteller, he writes about the band members being older than him and prepping to leave on tour, so he lied about his age to ensure his place as their new drummer. 

My copy of his book

    By 1990, Scream was falling apart at the seams when bassist Skeeter abandoned the group. Fortunately for Grohl, Krist Novoselic and Kurt Cobain had recently attended a Scream concert looking for Nirvana's new drummer. Novoselic called Grohl and asked if he would join. He was hesitant at first to leave behind the men he now considered family, but knew he couldn't wait any longer. He packed his drums in a box then flew to Seattle to join the band that would be the defining sound of the 90s.

    In three chapters of his book and in multiple interviews, Grohl discussed what being in Nirvana was like. From sharing a single bedroom apartment with Cobain and living off A&P's 3 corndogs for 99 cents, to becoming so popular venues had to change due to crowd overflow and making millions off an album they wrote in a barn. 

    Sadly, in 1994 Cobain would take his own life, silencing the band. At first Grohl was devastated and decided to quit music. He flew to Ireland to figure out what would come next. As he drove down backroads, he saw a hitchhiker (12 min in) wearing a Kurt Cobain t-shirt and knew he would never be able to escape.

    A few months later Grohl created the Foo Fighters self-titled debut album (3 min-4 min) where he played all of the instruments except for one guitar part. He didn't want people to think "the drummer from Nirvana is trying to do something," so he chose the name Foo Fighters, not only because he's interested in aliens, but also because he didn't want his name on it, he wanted it to be a group project. 

    He made about 100 cassettes and passed them around to family and friends to let them know he was doing alright, but then labels started pursuing him. He created a band with Pat Smear, Nate Mendel and William Goldsmith then went on tour. 

    For the second album, but first group album, The Color and the Shape, Grohl wasn't satisfied with Goldsmith's drumming, so he recorded over his parts and told him later. Goldsmith decided to quit the band which led the Foos to beloved Taylor Hawkins. However, Smear quit after Hawkins joined which brought in Chris Shiftlett as the lead guitarist. The lineup stayed that way for a few years before Smear came back and keyboardist Rami Jaffee joined.

    Even though Grohl's band has been making music for 29 years with 11 studio albums, he can't escape Nirvana's shadow. I haven't found a single interview where Nirvana or Kurt Cobain isn't mentioned. He is not "just Nirvana's drummer;" he is self taught on bass, drums, guitar, even piano; was briefly Tom Petty's drummer; front man and founder of Foo Fighters; briefly Queens of the Stone Age drummer, author, music video director and, not to mention, made his own Foo Fighters horror movie. 

     Although he is appreciative of his time in Nirvana and being noticed as the drummer, what will it take for people to accept Dave Grohl as just Dave Grohl? When will he stop being asked if his songs are about Cobain? At what point does four years of music and three albums stop shadowing almost three decades of music?

    Go listen to a Foo Fighters song today. Try closing your eyes with headphones on while taking in the lyrics and hearing how gifted the band is. 

    Here are some of my favorites (each one a different sound because Grohl doesn't like to be "put in a box")

"Aurora" -1999

"Walking After You" -1997

"Walk" -2011

"Alone + Easy Target" -1995

"Times Like These" -2002

    Happy 55th Birthday to my favorite musician, who I find to be incredibly humble and generous.