Dave Grohl, Times Like His

by Martin James

  There were plenty of fans who agreed with such plaudits. Two months later, There Is Nothing Left To Lose would be certified platinum.

  The album’s release heralded the start of a two-year tour that would take Foo Fighters all over the world a number of times. In the few short months that followed the secret industry gig at New York’s Bowery Ballroom, they would play no less than thirty-nine shows.

  On November 6, the band broke up their tour with an appearance on Saturday Night Live, for which they played ‘Learn To Fly’ and ‘Stacked Actors’. During the performance Grohl wore a shirt that had been bought for him that day by REM’s Michael Stipe!

  “I’ve never worn something like this before,” he told NME’s Victoria Segal before the show. “I called a friend of mine today on her cellphone and said ‘what are you doing?’ and she said ‘shopping with Michael Stipe!’ As a joke I said ‘tell him to pick me out a shirt to wear for Saturday Night Live.’ And he did. It actually fits – he did a really good job. I don’t know if I’m gonna wear it, but it’s pretty comfortable.”

  A few days later the band would extend their previous Queen connections at London’s Brixton Academy. Roger Taylor and Brian May joined the band onstage for a rendition of the Queen song ‘Now I’m Here’ (one of Hawkins’ favourite bands ever).

  On December 9, the band played one of their most unusual sets yet at Seattle’s Key Arena. Mendel had been taken ill and was forced to pull out of the gig. The band played as a trio with Shifflett on bass duties for openers ‘Monkey Wrench’ and ‘Everlong’. Then Justin Medal-Johnson from Beck’s band took over bass for ‘Learn To Fly’. Back as a trio again, Grohl, Hawkins and Shifflett played ‘Ain’t It The Life’ and ‘Breakout’ before being joined onstage by one Krist Novoselic who played bass on ‘Big Me’, a cover of Foghat’s ‘I Just Want To Make Love To You’ and finally ‘I’ll Stick Around’.

  Two subsequent gigs in San Francisco and Phoenix were cancelled due to Mendel’s illness, although they managed to play one date in between at Anaheim Pond in California. The show marked a brief reunion with Pat Smear who guested on ‘Stacked Actors’.

  The millennium closed with Grohl on an all-time high musically. The latest Foos album had remained in charts all over the world and was continually gaining him a new audience. Its on-going organic critical and commercial momentum would see it eventually gaining recognition at the Grammy Awards in 2001, when There Is Nothing Left To Lose was given the coveted award for ‘Rock Album Of The Year’.

  And yet, despite this revered critical acclaim adding to the band’s exponentially expanding commercial success, Grohl was already talking about his retirement from Foo Fighters. “I don’t see myself doing this past one more record,” he said late in 1999. “Playing in a rock band is so fleeting and I’ve been so fortunate with the past ten years of my life. I feel fortunate every day that I get to do this, but there’s a whole lot more to life than rock music, that’s for sure.”

  Yet once again, just when events seemed to be turning to the Foo Fighters’ favour, behind the scenes there were more dramatic twists about to unfold. In the two years that would pass before the band’s fourth album, Foo Fighters would have to face yet another abandoned album session, Grohl’s rumoured departure to join Queens of the Stone Age and finally, Taylor Hawkin’s much-publicised collapse.

  Notes

  1. Foo Man New, author unknown (Maximum Guitar) January 1998

  2. Eat, Drink, Breathe (and Sometimes Sleep) Music An Interview with Dave Grohl by Fish Rock and Tim Holsopple (www.manateebound.com/features/grohl.html) 2001

  3. I’ll Be Home For Christmas, author unkown (CMJ New Music) December 1999

  4. Foo Man New, author unknown (Maximum Guitar) January 1998

  5. Dave Grohl Feature by Eric Brace (www.unomas.com/features/foofighters.html)

  6. When I Think About Rock Stars Today, I Think They’re Arseholes!, author unknown (Metal Hammer) June 1998

  7. ibid

  8. Rocktropolis premiere of the X-Files soundtrack, author unknown

  9. Eat, Drink, Breathe (and Sometimes Sleep) Music An Interview with Dave Grohl by Fish Rock and Tim Holsopple (www.manateebound.com/features/grohl.html) 2001

  10. Get In The Van, author unknown (Metal Hammer) May 1998

  11. ibid

  12. Eat, Drink, Breathe (and Sometimes Sleep) Music An Interview with Dave Grohl by Fish Rock and Tim Holsopple (www.manateebound.com/features/grohl.html) 2001

  13. Foo Fighters Always On the Move, author unknown (Circus)1998

  14. ibid

  15. ibid

  16. Eat, Drink, Breathe (and Sometimes Sleep) Music An Interview with Dave Grohl by Fish Rock and Tim Holsopple (www.manateebound.com/features/grohl.html) 2001

  17. Foo For Thought, author unknown (Spin) December 1999

  18. Eat, Drink, Breathe (and Sometimes Sleep) Music An Interview with Dave Grohl by Fish Rock and Tim Holsopple (www.manateebound.com/features/grohl.html) 2001

  19. ibid

  20. Foo Fighters Always On the Move, author unknown (Circus)1998

  21. Eat, Drink, Breathe (and Sometimes Sleep) Music An Interview with Dave Grohl by Fish Rock and Tim Holsopple (www.manateebound.com/features/grohl.html) 2001

  22. Foo Fighters Always On the Move, author unknown (Circus)1998

  7

  DONE, I’M DONE AND THEN I’M ON TO THE NEXT ONE

  What do you call a drummer who overcomes the premature demise of a world-famous band, launches his own band in the role of singer, songwriter and label owner, shares out the royalties to his band even though they didn’t play on the debut album, produces a well received solo movie soundtrack, watches as his band almost implodes, scraps two albums in their early stages (one after it has been completed), guests on a world tour with a friend’s band, instigates a heavy metal fantasy project, provides drums for one of his favourite bands as a teenager and then gets the satisfaction of watching his own band come back from the brink and deliver an album that would finally put them into the big league of stadium-filling acts?

  Hyperactive.

  As the new millennium dawned, Foo Fighters found themselves facing a barrage of criticism. Not for their music, but for their decision to organise and play a benefit gig at The Palace in Los Angeles for Alive And Well, an “alternative AIDS information group”.

  The sold-out show that was organised by Mendel featured a speech by Alive And Well founder Christine Maggiore, whose theories about the virus have been somewhat controversial. It was her belief that AIDS may be caused by HIV-related medication, anal sex, stress and drug use. Fans of the band were also given free copies of Maggiore’s self-published book, What If Everything You Thought You Knew About AIDS Was Wrong?

  Mendel’s support for Maggiore’s group came after he had read her book and become completely swayed by the arguments. However, there were many opponents of her opinions and this show led to several intensely negative appraisals of both Alive And Well and the Foo Fighters support.

  Mendel was suitably moved to write a letter on the Mojo-Wire website in defence of the band’s actions, in which he explained why he believed the theories of Maggiore (as against much of the established theories about HIV) and why they had played the benefit. Essentially, the band’s support of Maggiore came from their humanitarian stance, something that had been borne out by the amount of benefit gigs they had played over the years.

  Amid the Alive And Well controversy, Foo Fighters launched their Big Day out tour of Australia with the release of ‘Stacked Actors’ as an Australia-only single. The single included ‘Floaty’ and ‘Ain’t It The Life’ from the sessions in Holland in November 1999. Other tracks played at this acoustic performance were ‘Breakout’, ‘Next Year’, ‘My Hero’, ‘Everlong’, ‘Learn To Fly’ and a cover of Elton John’s ‘Tiny Dancer’. The latter found Grohl talking to the audience about how the movie Almost Famous had introduced him to the song. He also talked about his aim to do a performance piece for the song. He then encoura
ged the audience to count him in and sing along with the chorus before shouting over the audience applause, “Hey this is my show!” The Australian tour came to an end on February 6. This was followed by a brief break in which Grohl laid down a number of heavy metal tracks at his Studio 606.

  Following the cancellation of three dates in Brazil under mysterious circumstances, the band would embark on a brief European tour. On Feb 26, however, coinciding with the Brazilian cancellations the band were invited to play on The Dave Letterman Show – the host’s first following heart surgery. Letterman requested ‘Everlong’, introducing the Foos as “my favourite band playing my favourite song”.

  The rest of 2000 found the band locked into a relentless touring schedule, punctuated by (band and solo) demo-ing. The tour would include the usual barrage of festival dates, an arena tour in support of the Red Hot Chili Peppers (when they would play in-store and radio acoustic sessions in the afternoons before the gig) and endless club and concert hall dates all over the world. The tour was gruelling to say the least.

  “Sometimes when you’re on the road for a long time, it feels like it doesn’t really matter about going home any more,” Grohl unusually complained mid-way through the Chili Peppers tour. “It’s kinda sad. That’s when depression creeps in…. At this point in time when we go to McDonalds, I don’t need to look at the pictures that go with the number for the Value Meals. I just know what they are. A number 9 is a fish fillet, a number 2 is a double cheeseburger, a number 1 is a Big Mac. Don’t you think that’s scary?” (1)

  The shows themselves weren’t the boring part however. Grohl admitted that the lead up to each gig was a stressful time, while the after-show was totally boring. The gig however was where he and the band could let off steam and give it their best shot… and put up with occasional hecklers!

  “The last time we played ‘February Stars’,” laughed Shifflet, “it was hard for Dave to get his ego big enough to go out and play a beautiful, pretty song like that, but he did it. Afterwards, there was this total silence, until some guy shouted, ‘BORING!’” “I’m never playing that song ever again,” concluded Grohl.

  At another gig, one dissenter decided to throw things at Grohl throughout the show. Eventually, Grohl got him onstage and in front of the entire audience made him sit there as he counted out the guy’s entrance money and gave it back to him.

  It wasn’t all work however. On his days off, Grohl checked out gigs by local bands and even listened to the occasional demo. One he received came with a photo of a lank-haired guy with a bloodied nose. It was his first introduction to Andrew WK, whom he subsequently invited to play with Foo Fighters and helped to get a recording contract.

  “Andrew WK is a true American hero,” says Grohl. “He’s our saviour from the Midwest. It’s hard to explain Andrew – only because you’ve never really seen anything like it before. You know, all I got was the demo and the promo shot which was Andrew with the worst bloody nose you’ve ever seen in your life and, in some bizarre way, it was the sexiest photo I’ve ever seen of a man in my life. My girlfriend immediately had the biggest crush on him. So it was a love-hate relationship with Andrew.

  We had him do a few shows with us and it’s just Andrew with a CD player and a microphone jumping around like a teenager in his bedroom singing along to Sweet songs. There’s no gloom and doom – it’s all about partying until you puke.” (2)

  During this period, Grohl also launched his latest band, the fantasy heavy metal band Probot, which had come about as a direct reaction to the laid-back sounds of There Is Nothing Left To Lose. Or more to the point, the MOR balladry of ‘Learn To Fly’ that he had grown utterly sick of. The only cure for this sickness was a good dose of loud noise.

  “I just felt like, goddamn it, I gotta get back in the studio just to prove to myself that I can do something else other than AM-radio, alternative McDonald’s pop. So, I started writing these things. I didn’t know what I was doing, they didn’t sound like Foo Fighters songs to me.”

  With seven tracks recorded with the help of Adam Kasper, Grohl already knew that he would be the wrong person to sing the songs. He needed a genuine metal singer, or it would all end up sounding too melodic.

  “You know, it’s really strange but in the studio we can come up with something that’s really dark and hard, like a Voivoid tune and I’ll still end up writing a pretty melody. I suppose it’s just me, I can’t help it. It’s what I do,” he laughed.

  The solution to the Probot problem came to him after he was invited to sing ‘Goodbye Lament’ on Black Sabbath guitarist Tommy Iommi’s solo album. Seeing the veteran guitarist enlisting the support of twelve different singers, Grohl decided to use a similar angle for the Probot project. Only his twist on the theme was that he would only use underground heavy metal singers from bands between the years 1984 and 1990.

  “I went about trying to choose my favourite vocalists who happened to be from that genre at that time, I love people like King Diamond and Snake from Voivoids.”

  The proposed album’s twelve tracks would go on to feature among others, Soulfly’s Max Cavalera, Slayer’s Tom Araya, Cathedral’s Lee Dorrian, Mike Dean from Corrosion of Conformity, King Diamond, Celtic Frost’s Thomas Gabriel Warrior and Motörhead’s legendary Lemmy – warts and all.

  “Lemmy. What more is there to say? He is God,” genuflected Grohl to Kerrang! Online. “He is the reason. He is the last man standing, and no one even comes close. That guy is a true rock ’n’ roller. Everyone else is just trying. I can’t even begin to explain how fucking life-altering a day in the studio with Lemmy really is. He walks in, kicks the shit out of a song, and then he’s gone… like the goddamned Lone Ranger. He is the coolest person I’ve ever recorded with in my entire life.”

  The Lemmy collaboration, ‘Shake Your Blood’, would be recorded early in 2001. “He said he always hated it when people called (Motörhead) a heavy metal band because he felt they were a rock band. He loves Little Richard. We talked about Little Richard a bunch. After meeting him, I don’t think I’ve ever met a rock ’n’ roller in my life. He’s just so fucking great, man… just the total lack of pretension. Absolute genuine rock ’n’ roll. It was like my make-a-wish foundation with Lemmy.

  He comes in wearing this Civil War coat with long tails, the tightest black jeans possible, and these white boots. He’s just like, ‘Hey man, let’s have a drink.’ We sat down. I had a couple Jack and Cokes with him, before lunchtime. He’s like, ‘Here’s the lyrics.’ He had three different versions and having Lemmy singing this stuff in my ear was just so great. He went into the studio and went through the vocals like that.” (3)

  Despite rumours that the album would be released through either Roadrunner or Grohl’s own Roswell Records (through RCA), Probot initially remained in the can with no concrete plans for its issue. Early in 2003 however, underground metal imprint Southern Lord Records announced that they had signed Probot with a release schedule and super-cool underground marketing campaign. “There’s a certain kind of person that will like the Probot record and there aren’t that many of those people…. I mean, it’s not meant to, like, make money,” Grohl said of the album. More later.

  During 2000, Foo Fighters would issue three more singles from There Is Nothing Left To Lose, although they were already growing tired of the album’s mellow atmosphere and longed to release some heavier material. In March they issued ‘Generator’. The limited edition single was coupled with ‘Ain’t It The Life’ and ‘Floaty’ from the 2 Meter Sessions, and ‘Breakout’ recorded live by the BBC at Glasgow’s Barrowlands in 1999.

  The next single was ‘Breakout’ which appeared as a two CD set on September 11. Part 1 was backed with studio outtake ‘Iron & Stone’ and a live version of ‘Learn To Fly’ recorded in Australia. Part 2 featured ‘Monkey Wrench’ and ‘Stacked Actors’ from the same Australian gig.

  The final single of the year came in December with ‘Next Year’, another two CD set. Part 1 was backed with two mo
re tracks, ‘Big Me’ and ‘Next Year’. Part 2 on the other hand came with ‘Baker Street’ (again) and an enhanced portion containing the video for the ‘Next Year’.

  On January 3, 2001, Foo Fighters continued their gradual rise to critical approval by receiving no less than three Grammy nominations. There Is Nothing Left To Lose was shortlisted for ‘Best Rock Album’, while the brilliant ‘Learn To Fly’ was nominated for ‘Best Short Form Music Video’, and for ‘Best Rock Performance by A Duo or Group With Vocal’. And this despite the fact that Grohl was sick of the song! A month later at the actual award ceremony, the first two nominations succeeded in bagging the Foos a brace of Grammys.

  The ‘Learn To Fly’ video was indeed deserving of the award and is typical of the hilarious videos the band often shoot – yet somehow Grohl does this in a way that never dilutes the seriousness of his band or makes them look like a novelty act (Madness had perfected this approach back in the early 1980s). The video for ‘Learn To Fly’ was shot in the cabin of an aeroplane, featuring the band in a number of cameo roles with Tenacious D planting drugs in the in-flight coffee percolator. Grohl played a flight captain, a very camp attendant, a large blonde woman, a pig-tailed girl, an FBI officer and himself.

  The twist in the video is that the crew and passengers all get stoned from drinking the coffee – except the rock band who turned down caffeine in favour of alcohol. As a consequence, the band is forced to find the plane’s manual, take up the controls and “learn to fly back home”!