Foo Fighters: "There’s no fiction on this record. It’s personal"

It’s 1pm on Monday February 23rd and Ireland is gripped by Foos fever.

The outbreak started around 72 hours ago when an eagle-eyed fan spotted flight cases with their logo on them being wheeled into St. Kevin’s Church in Dingle.

Captured by the Other Voices cameras – you can find the Foos’ short, sharp shock of a set on the RTÉ Player – the 80-capacity gig was 1,000 times smaller than their triumphant Slane 2015 headliner.

It’s also just 10% of the crowd who’ll be jammed into The Academy tonight for another surprise show, which required old school queuing up on the pavement yesterday to get tickets for.

Before we get to chew the cud with Dave Grohl and fellow Foo Fighter lifer Nate Mendel, it’s fair to say that an awful lot has happened since Hot Press last interviewed the band in May 2021 shortly before the release of their groovesome Medicine At Midnight album.

Ten months later before a gig in the Colombian capital Bogotá, the terrible news broke that long-term drummer Taylor Hawkins had been found dead in his hotel room after complaining of chest pains.

The subsequent post mortem revealed that the drummer had suffered a cardiovascular collapse.

Asked whether he’d hit the jackpot joining the Foos, Taylor had told me: “Oh my god, absolutely. I won the fucking lottery. I’m well aware of that. I’ve had the gig long enough not to have to be nice anymore, but it really is a privilege to be in a band with Dave fucking Grohl.”

In an emotional statement, issued soon after Taylor’s death, the band said that, “The Foo Fighters family is devastated by the tragic and unexpected death of our beloved Taylor Hawkins. His musical spirit and infectious laugh will live on with us forever.”

Needing time and space to mourn, the Foos declined to do any interviews in 2023 when their But Here We Are album was released.

As if Taylor’s death wasn’t enough to process, shortly afterwards Grohl also lost his beloved ex-teacher mum, Virginia, and acknowledged an extramarital affair that resulted in the birth of a baby girl. He’s subsequently patched things up with his wife, Jordyn Blum, who’s accompanying him on this transatlantic promo jaunt for the band’s muscular new Your Favorite Toy album.

“Losing Taylor was never meant to be, that threw our world upside down and made me question everything about life, that it was unfair,” Grohl has said. “I still have a hard time making sense of it. We’ve all helped each other over the past thirty years, especially when we lost Taylor, of course. When we go through a crisis, we all come together. Music might be only 25% of what the Foo Fighters are, I swear to God. Where we stand now, and that we are still standing, has everything to do with the people and the close bonds between us. But surviving a crisis like the one we went through is, of course, very complicated. We still talk about Taylor every day, almost as if he is still here. So yes, it has a lot to do with life and valuing each other.”

Taylor Hawkins

While nothing will ever fill that Taylor-sized hole in the band, Grohl is clearly buzzing after that visit to Kerry.

LOUD AS FUCK

“It was our first time in 32 years having to walk through a graveyard to get to the stage – this after having to climb over a stone wall with a ladder – and there being fans sat in the pews,” Dave laughs. “This tiny church is incredible, everybody was lovely and the gig was loud as fuck!”

I was worried that Grohl would burst into flames walking onto consecrated ground.

“I did feel like the kid from the Omen and a little hot, but no flames!” he continues. “It was just an amazing experience and the perfect way to start this run of small shows.”

We’ll return to the subject of horror movies in a while. As Irish fans may or may not know, Grohl and the Kingdom have previous.

“Okay, here’s the back story,” the 57-year-old smiles. “My first time in Ireland was in 1991 when Nirvana played in Cork with Sonic Youth. Amazing gig by the way! As I walked round town, I realised that all the women looked like my mother who’s from the Hanlon side of the family. Same fair complexions, blue eyes, the dark hair and kind faces. I called her and went, ‘Oh my god mum, do you realise how Irish you look!?’

“She has this Irish heritage but had never been here, so before Nirvana headlined the Reading Festival in ’92, my mother, sister and I hired a car and drove around the Ring Of Kerry for a week.

“Then I came back in ’94 after Kurt had passed,” he continues. “I was trying to disappear – ‘What’s the most remote area on earth? I know, Kerry!’ I didn’t know what to do with my life, was driving around and saw this kid in the middle of fucking nowhere wearing a Nirvana shirt. I was like, ‘I can’t outrun this, can I?’ and decided that there was going to have to be a next chapter. So that literally was the genesis of Foo Fighters.”

“Have you read that book about John Lennon doing the exact same thing after The Beatles broke up?” Nate Mendel interjects. “It’s a fictionalised account of how he bought an island off the West Coast of Ireland. What’s it called…”

Beatlebone, which is by my old Limerick mucker and former Hot Press scribe Kevin Barry. Lennon bought Dornish Island in Clew Bay. Co. Mayo with the intention of building a holiday home there. When that didn’t pan out, he let a hippie commune live there up until when he died and Yoko sold it.

“You know him?” Nate resumes. “It’s a weird ass book but you should check it out, Dave.”

“Sounds amazing,” Grohl smiles. “I’ll have to get that and read it on the plane back home. Anything to do with The Beatles, man!”

Let us concentrate now on the Fab Six and Your Favorite Toy, which is out on April 24 and strikes me as being both a howl of anger and a howl of pain.

“It’s really liberating to be able to write and sing those things,” Dave says. “To me, the first line of a song is always the most important and the first line on this album is ‘This is just a test of a broken broadcast system/ Consider this an evaluation of all of my hallucinations …’  That song, ‘Caught In The Echo’, is about the conversation you have with yourself when you’re trying to resolve some things.”

NO FICTION ON THIS RECORD

It’s worth noting that all ten of the Your Favorite Toy songs were written post-Taylor Hawkins’ passing. With that in mind, ‘Asking For A Friend’ – sample lyric: “Save your promises until we meet again/ You can save all your promises until the bitter end/ What is real, I’m asking for a friend/ Or is it the end?” – is almost too heart-rending to listen to.

“I wrote that seven or eight months ago when I was just having one of those days,” Dave says, eyes half-closed. “Whether wanting to blurt something out, being more introspective or just feeling confused, there’s no fiction on this record. It’s personal.

“But then again, all of our records have been – apart from the first one which was fucking gibberish!”

Grohl goes on to cite ‘Spit Shine’ (“The grass is never greener/ Time ain’t no redeemer”) as one of those blurt out-y moments and ‘Unconditional’ (“I’m sore from sleeping, everything hurts/ Can’t shake what’s on my mind, I’m just not sure”) as a song born of deep self-reflection.

Dave didn’t realise there was an album to be made until he went through thirty-plus song ideas – some fully-formed, others just mere sketches – and realised there was real synergy between them.

“‘Your Favorite Toy’ was the key that unlocked the tone and energetic direction of the new album,” Dave reflected in the run up to the Dingle gig. “We stumbled upon it after experimenting with different sounds and dynamics for over a year, and the day it took shape I knew that we had to follow its lead. It was the fuse to the powder keg of songs we wound up recording for this record. It feels new.”

Nate took more convincing that it was the right direction for the Foos to take.

“I had real difficulty wrapping my head around it,” he admits. “We’ve done a few albums where there’s been really high-end production and a lot of time spent on it. I’d become accustomed to them sounding like that – and this didn’t.

“After listening to the finished album for the first time, I called Pat (Smear) and asked ‘What do you make of it?’ He said, ‘I love it!’ I was like, ‘I’m kind of struggling with it right now…’ We had a conversation about it, I put down the phone, listened again and, like a bolt of lightning, it struck me what it is and why it is. Now that I’ve figured it out for myself, I love it too.”

What I love about Your Favorite Toy are its ‘80s Bay Area thrash metal moments.

“You should hear the rest of the demos, they’ll tear your head off!” Dave cackles, delighted with the Metallica/Megadeth/Exodus comparisons.

If ever there were two bands in competition with each other, it was the aforementioned Metallica and Megadeth. Who are the Foos sticking it up to?

“I’ve met musicians who are competitive – especially towards their peers – but I’ve never thought of it like that,” Dave insists. “When I was young, I wanted to be the best drummer in D.C. which was mostly to prove to my friends that, ‘Hey, I’ve figured this out! Watch this, I’m going to beat the fucking shit out of my drum-kit tonight.’ Whether with Nirvana, the Queens, the Vultures or any of the other bands I’ve drummed with, I always concentrated on my own shit. I’m not here to outdo Rush’s ‘2112’, although it’s my favourite record of all time. You do you and I’ll do me.”

IT BLEW MY MIND

There was a Grohl family day out last summer when they went to see Fontaines D.C., Amyl and The Sniffers and Kneecap in London’s Finsbury Park.

“You know what blew my mind at that gig?” Dave marvels. “The energy from the audience for Kneecap. That was like watching Rage Against The Machine in 1994 or The Prodigy. It was fucking insane!”

“I didn’t go but you sent me a video of it and I was like, ‘What the hell?!” Nate says.

“It was bonkers!” Grohl resumes. “I felt sorry for Amyl and The Sniffers, who made their latest record in our studio, having to go on after them. ‘Who the fuck’s going to follow this?’ but the audience sang every word to their songs. Again, it blew my mind. Fontaines D.C. were amazing too; it was a great lineup.”

The Grohlian mind was also blown in March 2024 when he attended the final night of U2’s UV Achtung Baby residency in the Las Vegas Sphere.

“Everyone was telling me, ‘You should see this show, it’s a gamechanger.’ I’m like, ‘Okay, but how can it be so great?’ Then I went and the size and the scope of that production… I back-and-forthed from laughing hysterically and thinking, ‘Jesus, this is insane!’ to some really emotional moments and fucking sobbing during ‘Beautiful Day’!”

U2 live at The Sphere

While his collaborations with the likes of Miley Cyrus, Halsey, Paul McCartney, David Bowie and Billie Eilish were all carefully preplanned, Grohl’s 2022 guest turn on Liam Gallagher’s C’Mon You Know album was one of those great twists of rock ‘n’ roll fate.

“I love Liam, he’s one of my favourite human beings, but I wasn’t in the studio with him,” Dave reveals. “Greg Kurstin the producer has a band called The Bird And The Bee who were making a Christmas record. He wanted to do a version of ‘The Little Drummer Boy’ with me playing drums in his garage in Hawaii. He had this old kit and set up three microphones – he’s a fucking genius engineer too – and it was the best drum sound I’ve had in my entire life. It sounded like ‘When The Levee Breaks’, it’s actually that beat.

“So he used it for this The Bird And The Bee album, and as he was making the Liam record said to me, ‘Hey, can I use the drums from that and loop it on this song we’re doing called ‘Everything’s Electric’?’ I said, ‘Great, that’s perfect! I get the kudos of being on a Liam Gallagher record without having to do a fucking thing!’”

REALLY FUCKING DRUNK

The Foos turned out en masse to see Oasis last year in the Pasadena Rose Bowl.

“Yeah, there was a bunch of us there, Oasis were amazing and I got really fucking drunk!” Dave winces. “It was great to see a stadium full of people who were there for rock ‘n’ roll.  My daughter Harper, who’s sixteen, knew every word to every song. She was singing fucking B-sides. Believe me, she does not know every word to every Foo Fighters song.

“It doesn’t matter whether it was a restaurant last night or Oasis in California, we roam in a pack. Taylor’s widow Alison is with us on this trip so it’s a real extended family thing.”

Flying somewhat under the radar in 2022 was the Foos’ Studio 666 horror movie/rockumentary, which finds the band hamming it up more than the Dennys factory.

In one of the scenes, Grohl plays the guys a killer new tune he’s written, only to be told by Nate that he’s regurgitating ‘Everlong’. Does that ever happen in real life?

“All the time,” Dave grimaces before giving a recent-ish example.

“The tempo and key of ‘No Son Of Mine’ (from Medicine At Midnight) is very similar to Motörhead’s ‘Ace Of Spades’, which we weave into it live. I loved Lemmy, he was so sweet, man. I know he didn’t always project that sweetness, but I found it in our relationship. There was a very tender, child-like side to him.”

“I only got the cranky Lemmy,” Nate rues. “He looked at me as if to say, ‘Bass-player? You’re doing it all wrong and should play it like a guitar through a Marshall amp!’”

Talking recently to Hot Press, Tim Wheeler revealed that Ash are hoping to finish off the slasher movie they started shooting in 2002  and which includes cameos by Chris Martin, Mob, James Nesbitt, Neil Hannon and a certain Mr. Grohl who’s said of Tim: “I love that man as much as you can love any man – which is quite a lot!”

“Oh my god, from twenty fucking years ago!” a shocked Dave says. “I think we filmed my bit at the Astoria in London. They’re still working on it? Good luck with the continuity, guys!”

Credit: Elizabeth Miranda

CORNY FOOS’ NAME-RELATED QUESTION ALERT!

Lost amongst all of Donald Trump’s recent madness was Barack Obama saying that aliens are categorically real.

“Obama was doing a podcast, wasn’t he?” Dave responds. “It’s been said – and I believe this – that on their first day in office every president goes, ‘Where are the aliens? Fuck world peace, bring ‘em out!’

“I’ve been into this stuff since I was a kid. I was reading Project Blue Book when I was eight years old and telling my friends at school that I was a Ufologist. I’d go to their yard and say, ‘That’s a crop circle right there. I think you might have had a visitation last night. Any dreams?’ Ask me ‘do aliens exist?’ now and I’m like, ‘Why not?!’”

If first contact were to be made, what record would he play the ETs in order for them to grasp the artistic side of humanity?

“Those red and blue Beatles Greatest Hits records,” Grohl shoots back. “I was seven or eight years old, my parents had just got a divorce, I was lonely and looking for meaning and connection and friendship and, I swear, they gave me all of that. From that moment, music was my entire life.

“After that, I’d play them Revolver. No, the White Album. Or Abbey Road. Fuck, I don’t know, it’s hard to choose!”

Once he’s got them addicted to John, Paul, George and Ringo, Grohl would consider introducing our new intergalactic friends to the hard stuff.

“I don’t know if they’d be ready for Fugazi but it’d be amazing if they could spend an hour with (singer and founder) Ian MacKaye. He doesn’t give off any rock star hero energy, but when Ian’s around I feel like I’m in the presence of greatness because of what he’s achieved and how many people he’s inspired, all independently and on his own terms. That’s human spirit. He’s just this incredibly kind, generous, brilliant dude.

“Another record that was a real awakening for me was Bad Brains’ Rock For Light. I was like, ‘Shittttttt!’  Whether you’re human or alien, you need that in your life!”

ASSASSINATING PEOPLE ON THE STREET

The shooting dead of Renée Good in Minneapolis by an ICE agent felt like a JFK assassination moment. What was their reaction to it?

“Oh my god, it was just a sinking pit in your stomach when you realise that essentially the US government has sanctioned assassinating people on the street with zero accountability,” proffers Nate as Dave nods in agreement. “It’s a real re-set in terms of understanding exactly where you are at a political moment in time. It got viscerally real. It’s absolutely shameful.”

Well said. Dave has told us about lots of his most magical rock ‘n’ roll moments, but what are the things that Nate wouldn’t swap for the world?

“A moment that was super-impactful for me was the first time we went to South America,” he concludes. “I forget which city it was but the crowd there gets together on social media and figures out fun shit to do at the gig. So we’re in this stadium, launch into ‘Learn To Fly’ and from front to back, everyone launches these paper planes. It was so beautiful that they’d gone to all that trouble. Interactions with fans like that are what make being in Foo Fighters so special.”

• Foo Fighters’ Your Favorite Toy is out now