by Mick Wall
and Nirvana’s contracts
and punk rock image
and Axl Rose
at Reading Festival 1992
bond with Kris Novoselic
Anton Brookes on KC
Charles Cross on KC
death
deprived childhood
dissatisfied with Sub Pop
drugs
first songs
hires Pat Smear
hospitalized
musical ability
on grunge
on ‘hairspray’ bands
on his sexuality
on Top of the Pops
police incident
post Neverland
problems, see also drugs
seeks divorce
trashes drums onstage
Corgan, Billy
Crash, Darby (Paul Beahm)
Cross, Charles
on Kurt Cobain
on Foo Fighters
on Dave Grohl
on Nirvana
on Pat Smear
Crover, Dale
Daily Telegraph
Dain Damage
I Scream Not Coming Down
Detroit Free Press
DGC record label
Dinosaur Jr
Dirty Rotten Imbeciles
Drummer
Dü, Hüsker
Entertainment Weekly
Everman, Jason
Fecal Matter
Illiteracy Will Prevail
Flipside
Foo Fighters
album problems
and Paul McCartney
and Prince
as arena rock band
as evolving circus of musicians
at Grammy Awards
at MTV Europe Awards Show
Anton Brookes on FF
Charles Cross on FF
early success
formed
Dave Grohl on FF’s 2008 songs
on FF as arena rock band
on FF at Wembley Stadium
on FF’s success
tensions within
APPEARANCES/TOURS
RELEASES/VERSIONS/DOCUMENTARY
‘Ain’t It the Life’
‘All My Life’
‘Alone + Easy Target’
Back and Forth
‘Back in the Doghouse’
‘Before and After’
‘Best of You’
‘Big Me’
‘Breakout’
‘Cheer Up Boys’
‘Disenchanted Lullaby’
‘Doll’
‘Enough Space’
‘Erase/Replace’
‘Everlong’
‘Exhausted’
Foo Fighters
‘For All the Cows’
‘Fraternity’
‘Friend of a Friend’
Greatest Hits
‘Headwires’
‘Hey, Johnny Park!’
‘Home’
‘I’ll Stick Around’
‘I’m Eighteen’
In Your Honour
‘Learn to Fly’
‘Let It Die’
‘Lonely as You’
‘Long Road to Ruin’
‘Monkey Wrench’
‘My Hero’
‘My Poor Brain’
‘New Way Home’
One by One
‘Petrol CB’
‘Rope’
‘School’s Out’
‘See You’
Skin and Bones
Sonic Highways (TV series/album)
‘Stacked Actors’
‘Statues’
‘Stranger Things Have Happened’
‘The Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners’
The Colour and the Shape
‘The Pretender’
There is Nothing Left to Lose
‘This is a Call’
‘Throwing Needles’
‘Times Like These’
‘Tired of You’
‘Walk’
‘Walking a Line’
‘Walking After You’
Wasting Light
‘Wattershed’
‘Wheels’
‘White Limbo’
‘Word Forward’
‘Young Man Blues’
Freak Baby/Mission Impossible
Friedman, Glen E.
Geffen Records
Gersh, Gary
Glastonbury Festival
Goldsmith, Will
replaced on Foo Fighters’ album
Grohl, Dave Eric
Steve Albini on DG
album problems
and Dave Barrett
and Kurt Cobain
and drugs
and Foo Fighters
and Taylor Hawkins
fights with
and In Utero
and Courtney Love
and Led Zeppelin
and Live Earth
and John McCain
and Melissa Auf Der Maur
and Melvins, the
and Nate Mendel
and Metallica
and MTV Unplugged in New York
and Nevermind
and Nirvana
first appearances as drummer
and Krist Novoselic
and One by One
and Prince
and rock star status
and Scream, see also Scream
works on Fumble
and Pat Smear
and Sound City
and Franz Stahl
and ‘Teen Spirit’
and The Muppets
as father/family man
as filmmaker
as producer
as songwriter
at 2012 Grammys
at MTV Europe Awards Show
at Reading Festival (2012)
auditioning Chris Shiflett
boyhood
Paul Brannigan on DG
Anton Brookes on DG
Kurt Cobain’s death to Foo Fighters’ launch
Charles Cross on DG
drugs
fake interview with Detroit Free Press
first bands
forms Roswell Records
guests with Jackson United
guests with The Prodigy
Rita Haney on DG
health problems
joins Queens of the Stone Age (QOTSA)
marriage break-up
marries
Bob Mould on DG
on absent father figure
on Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
on Foo Fighters’ 2008 songs
on Foo Fighters as arena rock band
on Foo Fighters at Wembley Stadium
on Foo Fighters’ success
on Hüsker Dü
on ‘I’ll Stick Around’
on In Your Honour
on Live Earth
on Paul McCartney
on playing with Them Crooked Vultures
on rock musicians
on There is Nothing Left to Lose
on Sonic Highways
on Wasting Light
plays at Concert for Sandy Relief
plays at Dimebash
plays on Backbeat
plays on Michael Jackson song
plays with Paul McCartney
plays with Jimmy Page, Paul Jones
plays with Rolling Stones
plays with Rush
post Nevermind
punk rock background
records ‘Lithium’
replaces William Goldsmith
replaces Franz Stahl
sex
stress
violent attack
visits the White House
RELEASES/DOCUMENTARIES
‘Cut Me Some Slack’
‘Marigold’
Pocketwatch
Sound City
Sound City – Real to Real
Grohl, James Harper (father)
Grohl, Lisa (sister)
/>
Grohl, Virginia Jean (mother)
grunge
Guns N’ Roses (GNR)
Haney, Rita
Hanna, Kathleen
Hawkins, Oliver Taylor
at Live Earth
drugs
fights with Dave Grohl
on Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
Hirschberg, Lynn
Hodgkinson, Antony
Hollywood Reporter
Homme, Josh
Hot Press
Howard Stern Show
Irish Independent
Jackson, Michael
Jagger, Mick
Jett, Joan
Jones, Barrett
Jones, Paul
Kelly, Eugene
Kerrang!
Kill Rock Stars
Kilmister, Lemmy
LA Times
Lang, Robert
Late Show with David Letterman
Later
Led Zeppelin
at the
‘Lemmy’
Litt, Scott
Live Earth concerts
Love, Courtney
and Kurt Cobain hospitalised
and Billy Corgan
and Dave Grohl
and Pat Smears leaving Foo Fighters
Kurt Cobain on marriage to CL
daughter taken into care
drugs
police incident
sues Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic
Mail on Sunday
McCartney, Paul
Dave Grohl on PM
McCauley, John
Melvins
Gluey Porch Treatments
Six Songs
Mendel, Nate
leaves Foo Fighters
on album problems
Metal Hammer
Metallica
Master of Puppets
Mojo
Moon, Slim
Mould, Bob
Mudhoney
Anton Brookes on
Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge
Musician
New Musical Express (NME)
New York Times
Nirvana
Anton Brookes on
drug followers
gigs in 1993
in Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
join DGC label
pro punk rock image
response to Nevermind hit
‘reunion’
turmoil in group
APPEARANCES/TOURS
RELEASES
‘About A Girl’
‘All Apologies’
‘Aneurism’
Bleach
‘Breed’
‘Come as You Are’
compilation, ‘history of Nirvana’
‘Downer’
‘Drain You’
‘Endless Nameless’
‘Floyd the Barber’
‘Heart-Shaped Box’
‘Immodium’
‘In Bloom’
In Utero
‘Jesus Doesn’t Want Me for a Sunbeam’
‘Lake of Fire’
‘Lithium’
‘Marigold’
MTV Unplugged in New York
‘Negative Creep’
Nevermind
‘Oh, Me’
‘Paper Cuts’
‘Pay to Play’ (‘Stay Away’)
‘Pennyroyal Tea’
‘Plateau’
‘Rape Me’ (‘Waif Me’)
‘School’
‘Sliver’
‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’
‘Territorial Pissings’
‘The Man Who Sold the World’
‘Where Did You Sleep Last Night’
‘You Know You’re Right’
Norton, Gil
Novoselic, Krist
alcohol
and Nirvana’s finances
and ‘Teen Spirit’
appearance
bond with Kurt Cobain
Anton Brookes on KN
plays with Foo Fighters
Nulle Part Ailleurs
Nylon Guys
Observer
Osbourne, Buzz
Page, Jimmy
Peters, Danny
Petty, Tom
Pezzati, Jeff
Plant, Robert
Prince
Q (magazine)
Queens of the Stone Age (QOTSA)
‘No One Knows’
Songs for the Deaf
Radding, Reuben
Reading Festival
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stones
Rose, Axl
and Kurt Cobain
Rosenblatt, Eddie
Ross, Jonathan
Roswell Records
Rush
Samuels, Brian
Saturday Night Live (SNL)
Scabies, Rat
Scream
APPEARANCES/TOURS
RELEASES
Banging Down the Drum
Fumble
Live at Van Hall – Amsterdam
No More Censorship
Your Choice Live Series Vol.
Seconds
Select
Shannon, Chrissy
Shiflett, Chris
competition from Pat Smear
completes new songs
Silva, John
Slayer
Smear, Pat (Georg Albert Ruthenberg)
and Dave Grohl
cool presence
Charles Cross on PS
joins The Adolescents
joins Nirvana
leaves Foo Fighters
regains interest in music
rejoins Foo Fighters
sense of humour
sexuality
Smith, Dave
Sound City
Sound City Players
Spin
Stahl, Franz
on career with Foo Fighters
on Skeeter Thompson
Stahl, Peter
Stax, Kent
Stern, Howard
Sub Pop
Sunny Day Real Estate
Swanson, Jimmy
The Advocate
The Decline of Western Civilization
The Germs (Sophistifuck and the Revlon Spam Queens)
The Last Resort
The Muppets
The Times
The Word
Them Crooked Vultures (TVC)
Dave Grohl on
Thompson, Skeeter
Time
Tonight Show with Jay Leno
Top of the Pops
Unplugged
Vail, Tobi
Vanity Fair
Vig, Butch
Wallace, Andy
Washington Post
Youngblood, Jennifer
Also by Mick Wall
Getcha Rocks Off: Sex & Excess. Bust-Ups & Binges. Life & Death on the Rock ’N’ Roll Road
Love Becomes a Funeral Pyre: A Biography of The Doors
Lou Reed: The Life
Black Sabbath: Symptom of the Universe
AC/DC: Hell Ain’t a Bad Place to Be
Enter Night: A Biography of Metallica
Appetite for Destruction
When Giants Walked the Earth: A Biography of Led Zeppelin
W.A.R.: The Unauthorized Biography of William Axl Rose
Bono: In The Name of Love
John Peel: A Tribute to the Much-Loved DJ and Broadcaster
XS All Areas: The Autobiography of Status Quo
Mr Big: Ozzy, Sharon and My Life as the Godfather of Rock (with Don Arden)
Paranoid: Black Days with Sabbath & Other Horror Stories
Run to the Hills: The Authorised Biography of Iron Maiden
Pearl Jam
Guns N’ Roses: The Most Dangerous Band in the World
Diary of a Madman: The Official Biography of Ozzy Ozbourne
About the Author
MICK WALL is one of England’s best known music journalists: his work has appeared in Classic R
ock, Mojo, the London Times and a variety of other publications, and his books include the rock ‘n’ roll biographies When Giants Walked the Earth and Enter Night. He has also served as a trusted on-camera source for a number of BBC-TV music documentaries. He lives in England. You can sign up for email updates here.
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Acknowledgements
1. Learning to Fly
2. Foo are You?
3. A Loud, Sharp, Piercing Cry
4. The Three Fires
5. Smells Like
6. Dodgy Kebabs
7. Where Did You Sleep Last Night?
8. Death is a Call
9. Grunge Ringo
10. Big High Heels to Fill
11. The Honourable Thing
12. Not Like the Others
13. Wasted
14. For Everlong
Photographs
Index
Also by Mick Wall
About the Author
Copyright
FOO FIGHTERS. Copyright © 2015 by Wallwrite. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
Our e-books may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at (800) 221-7945, extension 5442, or by e-mail at [email protected].
First published in Great Britain by Orion, an imprint of the Orion Publishing Group Ltd, an Hachette UK company
First U.S. Edition: August 2017
eISBN 9781250122346
First eBook edition: August 2017