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Foo Fighters:

NO matter what he does as the leader of the Foo Fighters, Dave Grohl will forever remain best known for being Nirvana's drummer. Over the course of two and a half brilliant years between the late-1991 release of Nevermind and the gunshot with which Kurt Cobain ended his turbulent life in April of 1994, Nirvana turned the rock music world upside down. The trio almost single-handedly dragged alternative music from the underground to the mainstream, and that achievement, coupled with Cobain's icon-making death, created a legacy for Nirvana that will only grow more celebrated over time.

But that's not to say that the future of Grohl's new band isn't bright in its own right. Released in the summer of 1995, the Foo Fighters' self-titled debut album offered a distinctive, seamless mix of crunchy, somewhat grunge-like guitars and breezy, power-pop melodies. And although Foo Fighters are now a full-fledged band, Grohl recorded the first album entirely on his own, not only singing the songs, but playing every instrument, save for a brief guitar contribution by the Afghan Whigs' Greg Dulli. It was only when it came time to tour that he tapped former Germs guitarist (and touring Nirvana second guitarist) Pat Smear and onetime Sunny Day Real Estate members Nate Mendel and William Goldsmith on bass and drums, respectively. For a man most had seen only as a drummer and background vocalist, the Foo Fighters' debut revealed Dave Grohl as something of an alternative-rock Renaissance man.

In a sense, Grohl had been preparing himself for the front of the stage for much of his life. Born January 14, 1969, in northern Virginia, he started fooling around on guitar by age ten, and joined a neighborhood cover band at twelve. The next summer, he visited his cousin in Evanston, Illinois, and his life was forever changed. Cousin Tracey was a full-on punk rocker, and she not only took young Dave to his first rock concert (Naked Raygun at the Cubby Bear), more importantly, she presented him with a firsthand sense of what being a punk was all about.

Over the next few years, Grohl played in several different bands. In the first, the fledgling punk outfit Freak Baby, he made his initial foray into a real recording studio, working with Barrett Jones, who has recorded every Grohl project since. In the next, hard-core punkers Mission Impossible, he made the switch from guitar to drums. With Dain Bramage — which blended rock, art punk, and hardcore — he was able to record his first album before his seventeenth birthday. The following year, Grohl hooked up with Scream, the legendary D.C. punk band whose records had provided practice fodder for him several years earlier. Although leery of joining the band full-time, he ultimately made the jump, and he was soon touring the U.S. and Europe. The steady gig as a hired player afforded Grohl the freedom to put his creativity to work on his own songs. With Barrett Jones' help, he experimented in the studio whenever he could, recording full backing tracks (guitar, bass, and drums) for his compositions. One song from this era, "Marigold," would later become a Nirvana B-side.

In 1990, Scream started to disintegrate. Fortuitously, Buzz Osborne, of early grunge vets the Melvins, told Grohl that his friends' band, Nirvana, was looking for a permanent drummer. Osborne knew Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic from their shared hometown of Aberdeen, Washington, and they had told him of their appreciation for Grohl's playing with Scream. The Virginia native took a chance and flew to Seattle. Soon after, Nirvana went into the studio and recorded Nevermind, and the rest is history.

During the next few years, whenever he had time away from Nirvana's busy schedule, Grohl worked with Jones on songs at the latter's Virginia studio, including some material that would appear on the Foo Fighters' first album. The rest of the record was finished in Seattle after Cobain's death, but that catastrophic event left Grohl questioning his desire to continue playing music at all. He was finally spurred to move on by a letter from 7 Year Bitch, another Seattle band who had lost a member. According to Grohl, "that fucking letter saved my life." The full Foo Fighters lineup is just completing work on a second album, which is expected in May of 1997. A summer tour is sure to follow.

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Andy Alty

Punk Rock Palace

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Page Updated Thu Apr 19, 2001 1:28pm EDT