Dave Grohl has been a force in rock music for years, and he has been a member of two of the most iconic rock bands of all time. He first became famous as the drummer of Nirvana (although he wasn't their first), and after the death of Kurt Cobain, Grohl went on to form The Foo Fighters, the band he still fronts to this day. In addition, he has worked on all kinds of side projects with other musicians, because the guy is loved by pretty much everyone. From his audition for Tom Petty to his friendship with another famous Dave, let's take a look at the untold truth of Dave Grohl.
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00:00As drummer for the legendary Nirvana and frontman for the Foo Fighters, Dave Grohl has been
00:05one of the most important and influential figures in rock music for almost three decades.
00:10Yet, despite his fame, Grohl still sometimes manages to go under the radar.
00:15Here's a look at the untold truth of Dave Grohl.
00:18Oh, what's that?
00:20A bell?
00:22Time for school.
00:24Heartbreaker
00:25After Nirvana broke up in 1994 following the tragic suicide of frontman Kurt Cobain, Grohl
00:30found himself in high demand, and he was soon offered an amazing job, as the drummer for
00:35Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
00:37For his audition, Grohl played with the band on Saturday Night Live.
00:40No pressure.
00:41Naturally, Grohl killed it, but he decided to turn down the offer of a permanent position
00:45because he wanted to do his own music.
00:47It would prove to be the right choice.
00:50Solo artist
00:51Following his brief stint with the Heartbreakers, Grohl went into the studio intending to record
00:56some demos for some songs he was working on.
00:58He came out with an entire album, playing every instrument on every song except for
01:03one guitar part on a solitary track.
01:05For the album, he even taught himself how to play the guitar in a unique fashion, translating
01:10the strings into their drum set equivalents.
01:12He told Rolling Stone,
01:13"...the low E string is the kick drum, the A and D strings are snares, the G, B and high
01:17E are the cymbals."
01:19Grohl originally intended for the songs to be released anonymously, but after he got
01:23a record deal, he decided to put the album out under the name Foo Fighters.
01:27Drum master
01:28Despite being one of the best drummers in the world, Grohl primarily sings and plays
01:33guitar in Foo Fighters.
01:35That means some poor guy has to play drums in front of Dave Grohl every day.
01:39At first, it was William Goldsmith, who Grohl hired onto the band when he realized he needed
01:43other people in order to perform his songs live.
01:46But in 1997, during the recording of the second Foo Fighters album, The Color and the Shape,
01:51Grohl became unhappy with Goldsmith's work, requiring the poor guy to record 96 takes
01:56for one song, and over 13 hours' worth of takes on another.
02:00Even worse, all of that work got thrown out later when Grohl decided to just re-record
02:05the drums himself for almost the entire album.
02:08Understandably frustrated, Goldsmith quit the band, and was later replaced by Taylor
02:12Hawkins, who is still in the group today.
02:15Was it hard for you to give up being the drummer?
02:18I mean, a lot of people say you're the best drummer of your generation in rock and roll.
02:22Well, I disagree with that, but when you have a drummer like Taylor Hawkins in your band,
02:30I don't necessarily miss being the drummer, because I have the greatest drummer in the
02:33world.
02:34Bad behavior
02:35Grohl has been married to his wife, Jordan Blum, since 2003, and they have three daughters
02:41together.
02:42His romantic life hasn't always been so rosy, however.
02:44He was in a high-profile relationship in 1998 with Louise Post of Veruca Salt, until
02:49he dumped her via long-distance phone call, simply because he wanted to hook up with Winoda
02:54Ryder.
02:55What's sadder, Post got the call right before a Veruca concert, and she got so drunk she
02:59could barely play.
03:00Those bad romances came in the wake of Grohl's first marriage to Jennifer Youngblood, which
03:04ended in divorce in 1997 due to his infidelities, but it also led to a professional split.
03:10Foo Fighters guitarist Pat Spear is very good friends with Youngblood.
03:14When the divorce happened, he sided with Youngblood, so much so that he left the Foo Fighters,
03:19eventually reconciling with the band years later.
03:22Dave loves Dave
03:24Foo Fighters are one of the few bands in recent memory that transcend genre or demographics.
03:29It seems like everybody loves them, even grumpy old David Letterman.
03:32In 2015, he invited the band to be the last-ever musical guest on his last-ever late-night
03:37show.
03:38The band had one request — play their 1997 hit, Everlong.
03:42So why the Foo's, and why Everlong?
03:44Back in 2000, Letterman had open-heart surgery.
03:47Afterwards, he had one request — he wanted the Foo Fighters to play his show.
03:51Fan favorite
03:53As much as the fans love Grohl, he loves them right back.
03:56For example, in 2006, a pair of minors in Tasmania were trapped underground and sent
04:00a request to rescue workers to have an iPod full of Foo Fighters songs lowered to them.
04:05Grohl responded first with a heartfelt note, and then later by giving them free concert
04:09tickets and backstage passes to meet with him.
04:12He even wrote a song for them, called Ballad of the Bacon's Field Minors, which appeared
04:16on the Foo Fighters' album Echo, Silence, Patience & Grace.
04:20And in 2015, after a group of 1,000 Italian musicians playing the Foo Fighters' hit Learning
04:25to Fly went viral, Grohl traveled to Italy to put on a show for them, and even brought
04:30some of them on stage to play the song with him.
04:34No love lost
04:35After the death of Kurt Cobain and the end of Nirvana, there was no love lost between
04:39Grohl and Cobain's widow, Courtney Love.
04:42For 20 years, Grohl and Love took turns suing each other over the rights to Nirvana's music,
04:47while taking petty potshots at each other in public.
04:50I've never written a song about him, so I'm going to sing you one right now.
04:52Okay.
04:53When the drummer tries to sing, everybody better hide!
04:58When the drummer tries to sing, God, let's all go inside!
05:02Oh yeah, all of you that love all things Foo, Dave, I have to tell you, Kurt hated you!
05:09In recent years, though, the hostility has subsided, with the pair even embracing when
05:13Nirvana was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014.
05:17I mean, look, if you can give up a grudge like that, because there was a lot of crap
05:22that went on, I think anyone could do it.