Dave Grohl on Why Nandi Bushell is ‘The True Meaning of Rock & Roll’
Dave Grohl had a playful drum battle with viral child rockstar Nandi Bushell during the pandemic that culminated in her joining the Foo Fighters on stage in August at The Forum in Los Angeles.
Grohl thinks very highly of the 11-year-old multi-instrumentalist and said in a new interview withĀ Rolling Stone, “If you want to see the true meaning of rock & roll, watch Nandi play the drums. That is as inspiring as any Beatles record, any Zeppelin record, any AC/DC record, any Stones record.”
Grohl added, “To watch her play the drums and see her passion and belief in this music ā¦ if that doesnāt inspire you, I donāt know what will. So, the fact that we got to share a moment with her onstage makes all of this worthwhile. And the funniest thing is, after jamming with Nandi, ‘Everlong’ went back on the charts.”
The Foo Fighters frontman is very optimistic about the future of rock and said, “Thereās so many f—ing great bands out there that hopefully will start getting more attention, because I think the dial is starting to turn back to guitar-based music. And to me, itās really exciting. My love of music is really diverse ā I like everything from jazz to K-pop. Iām down; Iām into it. But when I see the younger artists picking up guitars and turning them up, it shines a little light inside of me. It makes me feel happy.”
Grohl will be picking up his guitar and heading out on stage with the Foo Fighters this Friday (October 22) at the Shaky Knees Festival in Atlanta. The following weekend on October 30, the band will be in Cleveland to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2021. As previously reported, Paul McCartney will be doing the honors of inducting the band.
Foo Fighters: Their 40 Best Songs
The song starts out as a solo Dave Grohl acoustic folk tune before erupting into a Queen-level production -- even as he sings, āI donāt want to be Queenā -- with one of the many great Foo Fighters guitar riffs. And then it goes back to folk. It does all of this in one minute and twenty-three seconds. It also has one of Grohlās sage bits of advice: āThere's one thing I have learned/If it gets much better/It's going to get worse.ā In other words: try to make peace with where you are in life.
Rick Neilsen of Cheap Trick guesting on guitar (as if the three-guitar band need any more six-stringers), Rami Jaffeās funk keyboards and the riff from Dioās āHoly Diverā make this song the easy highlight of the uneven āSonic Highwaysā album.
Itās no surprise that a band named after flying saucers would have an affinity for ā90s UFO/conspiracy theory-obsessed sci-fi drama āThe X-Files.ā The Foo Fightersā cover of the 1979 song by Tubeway Army (Gary Numanās former band) may have been a surprising choice, but it worked incredibly well. Itās one of the best of the Foos many covers.
The song starts abrasively with a distorted guitar riff, and then another one, before the band kicks in and Grohl screams, āThese are my famous last woooooords!!!ā Happily, that wasnāt true -- Dave Grohl has written and sung many more tunes in the past decade. āBridges Burningā kicked off one of the bandās best albums, one they havenāt topped since. But note that Grohl refers to himself in the song as the āKing of Second Chances,ā and itās kind of true: who thought that Nirvanaās drummer would go on to be one of the biggest rock stars of the next three decades. So youād be foolish to think that he doesnāt have more classic LPs in him.
Dave Grohl has always had an indie-punk ethic, but happily he grew out of the orthodoxy of that scene. āStatuesā is a lovely piano ballad (with Grohl on piano) that would not sound out of place between songs by Cat Stevens and Carly Simon on a ā70s hit station.
Only two people have sung lead vocals on Foo Fighters albums: Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins. The latter of takes the mic here for his best vocal performance. And only four people have sat behind the drum kit: Grohl, Hawkins, William Goldsmith andā¦ Paul McCartney. Thatās right: the band with two great drummers gets Paul freakinā McCartney into the studio and they put him on the drum kit. It works though. Funny enough, āSunday Rainā sounds like it could be a Wings outtake.
If Tom Petty asked Dave Grohl to write a song for the Heartbreakers, what would it have sounded like? Probably āWheels.ā And it would have been great to hear Tom sing this one.
The Foo Fighters have had a crazy amount of hit singles, but some of their greatest songs are hidden towards the end of their albums. āSummerās Endā is one of them, and it should have been a hit. LIsten to it once, and try to get it out of your head.
A solo acoustic song that Dave Grohl wrote when he was in Nirvana, possibly about Kurt Cobain. An earlier version of this song was included on a collection of Grohl tunes under the name āLate!ā which was released on a small indie label as a limited-edition cassette-only release back in 1992. Itās been bootlegged often, but has never had a wide release; it also featured āColor Pictures Of A Marigold,ā which Grohl re-recorded with Krist Novolselic as āMarigold,ā and was released as the B-side to Nirvanaās āHeart-Shaped Box.ā More than a decade after Cobainās death, āFriend Of A Friendā stands as a moving tribute.
Turn down the guitars a bit, and this is another jam that could have been a hit on AM radio in the ā70s. Which seems to have inspired the songās very ā70s looking video.
One of Dave Grohlās loveliest songs, this one gets an assist from his future Them Crooked Vultures bandmate, John Paul Jones, on piano.
In some ways, itās the first Foo Fighters song: itās probably the first one that many fans heard. It premiered on one of Pearl Jamās pirate radio broadcasts. In the Foo Fightersā early days, this often closed the bandās live sets.
Grohl said of the song, āIt's an ode to North Carolina. I lived there from 1991 to 2002, on the coast where there were these beautiful sand dunes. It's [about] finding yourself by disappearing.ā
A sugary sweet pop country-rock song, it kicked off the long tradition of hilarious Foo Fighters videos. Older fans might remember that the video led to fans throwing Mentos (or āFootosā) at the Foos when they played the song live, which led them to stop playing it. Happily, it returned to the set; the Mentos phase has thankfully passed.
The song features some of Dave Grohlās most primal screaming and still manages to be catchy and melodic. The band surprise-dropped the song and video and seven weeks later, it topped the Billboard Mainstream Rock Songs chart, showing that the Foo Fighters were still relevant, twenty-two years into their career.
Itās a favorite of the hardcore fans, and Dave Grohl likes it too. He told Rolling Stone: āIt is definitely one of my favorite songs that we've ever come up with. It's a nostalgic look back at Seattle and the life I once had. That song actually questions the meaning of life.ā He added, āIt's probably the heaviest thing I've ever written."
One of Dave Grohlās most power-poppy songs, āGimme Stitchesā features one of his catchiest choruses.
23. āBaker Streetā - B-side of āMy Heroā Dave Grohl has always had a jones for ā70s soft rock... as seen here, on this cover of the Gerry Rafferty classic. The original version, a #2 pop hit in 1978, was driven by the iconic saxophone playing of Raphael Ravenscroft, which the Foos replaced with (of course) screaming guitars.
One of the Foo Fightersā heaviest songs had a bit of an unlikely lyrical influence: the āSesame Streetā song āOne Of These Things Is Not Like The Others.ā Grohl has always been great at mixing heavy guitars and drums with a pop sensibility, and he does it brilliantly here, adding in a Chuck Berry-ish guitar riff for good measure.
Dave Grohlās progression from drummer to bandleader was a difficult one, and by ā99, heād parted ways with three former Foo Fighters; drummer William Goldsmith and guitarists Pat Smear and Franz Stahl. āThere Is Nothing Left To Loseā was recorded by the trio of Grohl, bassist Nate Mendel and drummer Taylor Hawkins, and on āLearn To Fly,ā Grohl was coming to terms with being the man at the top. At one point, he expressed ambivalence about the song, but later revised his opinion. "Lyrically it was all about just settling in to the next phase of your life,ā he told Kerrang! āThat place where you can sit back and relax because there had been so much crazy s--- in the past three years.ā And the video, featuring Jack Black and Kyle Gass of Tenacious D, is legendary.
The first single from one of the bandās best albums, āWasting Light,ā this song and album reintroduced Pat Smear as a full-time Foo Fighter, giving the group a new three-guitar attack of Grohl, Smear and Chris Shiflett.
A rather R-rated jam about oral sex, it was an unusual choice for the first single and lead track from āOne By One.ā Most artists from the ā90s/ā00s alt-rock era didnāt sing too much about sex, but Grohl stuffs a lot of rock star swagger in the punky tune, bragging, āDone! Done! On to the next one!ā
The songās title is named for Dave Grohlās boyhood friend, Johnny Park, who heād lost touch with, but that has nothing to do with the rest of the song. When he asks, āAm I selling you out?ā Grohl sounds defensive: all these years later, the concept of āselling outā seems quaint. But the truth is, Grohl has become one of musicās biggest and most enduring stars, and heās done it on his own terms.
This song starts with a soaring guitar riff, not unlike the one in āBaker Street,ā and the riffs get heavier as the song progresses. Grohl has said that as a drummer and a guitar player, he loves to play and write riffs; he must have had a blast writing this song.
The acoustic half of āIn Your Honorā had some of Dave Grohlās best songs, and he looked outside the band to expand their sound. āAnother Roundā features Led Zeppelinās John Paul Jones on mandolin, Rami Jaffe of the Wallflowers on keyboards (heād later join the Foo Fighters) and famed rock photographer Danny Clinch plays harmonica.
By the late ā90s, Dave Grohl seemed to get more and more comfortable with his inner soft-rocker, and was writing more mellow jams that worked side by side with his raging guitar rockers. This is a perfect example; you could almost imagine a mainstream country artist scoring a hit with this song.
The original version of this was on āThe Colour And The Shape,ā but the band re-recorded it the following year for the āX-Filesā soundtrack. Itās a rare recording with guitarist Franz Stahl and is one of their first tracks with Taylor Hawkins. The re-recorded version is a bit shorter and has some sweet backing vocals. The video shows Grohl doing some serious acting too (itās on YouTube).
Fun fact: this song was the Foo Fightersā first music video, and it was directed by Gerald Casale of Devo. The song is an early example of Grohl merging his love for hardcore punk (the āI! Donāt! Owe! You! Anything!ā chant) and melodic Beatlesque rock.
Named after the town in Virginia where Dave Grohl was living, on āArlandriaā he rages against celebrity status, two decades after he became a household name as Nirvanaās drummer and sixteen years after the Foo Fightersā first album. āClose your eyes, turn around, help me burn this to the ground/Come now, take the blame, that's OK I'll play the game/I don't care it's all the same, watch it all go up in flames/Use me up, spit me out, let me be your hand-me-down/Fame, fame, go away, come again some other day.ā The lyrics were a bit surprising, as Grohl seems to handle celebrity better than most, and it seems like heās figured it out. Speaking of which, itās crazy that āSaturday Night Liveā *still* hasnāt tapped him to host an episode!
Many of the Foo Fighters songs used Nirvanaās (and the Pixiesā) quiet/loud dynamic, and āLet It Dieā holds up to the songs in both of those bandsā catalogs. The lyrics are vague: āWhy'd you have to go/And let it die/Do you ever think of me/You're so considerate,ā and, as with many of Dave Grohlās songs, are like lyrical Rorschachs: what they mean to you is as much a reflection of you as whatever inspired them. Ex- guitarist Pat Smear guested on the song; heād soon rejoin the band.
Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic reunited, post-Nirvana, twice in 1995: they played together on Mike Wattās first solo album, and on an album by a band called the Stinky Puffs. This was their first recorded collaboration in 16 years, and with all due respect to Nate Mendel, the Foo Fightersā longest-running non-Grohl member, Novoseicās bass playing was perfect for this song. He added some accordion as well. Itās probably not a coincidence that this album was produced by the same guy who produced āNevermind,ā Butch Vig.
The first Foo Fighters album was a stunning collection: a nearly perfect group of songs written, sung and played by Dave Grohl. But would there be a sophomore slump? The first single from āThe Colour And The Shapeā quickly squashed that question. The video, directed by Grohl, marked the first appearance of Taylor Hawkins as a Foo Fighter; original drummer William Goldsmith played on a few songs on the album, but Grohl used his own playing on most of the songs. Hawkins -- previously a member of Alanis Morissetteās band -- didnāt join until after the album was in the can.
Dave Grohl has always cited Husker Duās Bob Mould as an influence (even name dropping Husker Duās āNew Day Risingā in āTimes Like Theseā). But here, Mould joins the Foo Fighters, playing guitar and singing very distinct vocals on this song, which is one of the bandās greatest non-singles.
Featuring one of the Foo Fightersā heaviest guitar riffs, many fans presumed that the song was about Courtney Love, but Dave Grohl has said that it was about his experience of living in Hollywood.
Originally written for the previous album, āEchoes, Silence, Patience & Grace,ā Grohl decided that it made the perfect ending for āWasting Light.ā Itās an uplifting anthem about second chances and starting over, something Grohl knows a bit about: āLearning to walk again I believe I've waited long enough/Where do I begin?ā
Famed astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson doesnāt come up as a musical influence often, but Grohl said that his song was inspired by Tysonās answer to the question: āWhat is the most astounding fact about the universe?ā (You can find the video on YouTube.) Appropriately, he used wide-screen production: thereās a string section and backing vocals from powerhouse singer Alison Mosshart of the Kills and the Dead Weather.
Dave Grohl played bass guitar on āJesus Doesnāt Want Me For A Sunbeamā from Nirvanaās MTV Unplugged, which may have surprised some who thought he was ājustā a drummer (although if were you type who checked out the B-sides, you probably heard the Grohl-written and sung āMarigold,ā the b-side to āHeart Shaped Boxā). OK, but could he lead a band? The first single from the Foo Fightersā self-titled debut, which was also the albumās lead track, announced that Grohl was way more talented than weād realized. Indeed, the first Foo Fighters record is essentially a Dave Grohl solo album, as he sang, played bass, drums and all of the guitars (except for āX-Static,ā which featured Greg Dulli of the Afghan Whigs). Fans and radio reacted quickly to the new Grohl: āThis Is A Callā hit #2 on the alternative charts, and #6 on the mainstream rock charts.
Fans have interpreted this song to be about Kurt Cobain, but Dave Grohl has never verified that. In the Foo Fightersā performance on āVH1 Storytellers,ā Grohl said that it was inspired by the seemingly normal characters in ā80s films like āValley Girl.ā Yet another rumor is that the song is about Pete Stahl, the singer of Scream, a DC-area hardcore band that Grohl played in prior to joining Nirvana (the bandās guitarist Franz Stahl was briefly a member of the Foo Fighters). But a recurring theme with Grohlās best songs is that, regardless of what they were written about, theyāre vague enough that you can apply them to your life, and itās probably one of the many reasons why the band has been so popular for so long.
The āOne By Oneā sessions werenāt easy, and during a break in the action, Dave Grohl wrote this song. āIt's times like these you learn to live again/It's times like these you give and give againā might have been about his relationship with the band, but the song is malleable enough to fit different situations. Case in point: a number of British pop stars recently recorded a socially-distinct version of the song for the BBC; Grohl and Taylor Hawkins contributed to the recording as well. It also showed the wide and enduring appeal of the band: most of those pop singers are probably not familiar with the Foosā peers or their influences.
āWhen I sing along with you/ If everything could ever feel this real forever/If anything could ever be this good again/The only thing I'll ever ask of you/You've got to promise not to stop when I say when.ā This song was released three years after Kurt Cobainās death, and it certainly felt like it could have been about him. Dave Grohl allegedly wrote that about an ex-, but, as weāve mentioned, universal lyrics transcend their original inspiration, and thatās certainly true here. It also clearly has a lot of meaning to David Letterman: in 2000, after the talk show host had quintuple bypass surgery, he said that listening to āEverlongā was crucial to his recovery. For his first show back after the surgery, Letterman asked the band to come on the show and play that song. The Foo Fighters often close their shows with this song, and -- of course -- the audience sings along with Dave. Many of them surely have their own stories too, and itās always a powerful moment.