Dave Grohl

Dave Grohl (born January 14, 1969, Warren, Ohio, U.S.) is an American musician best known as the founder and lead singer of the alternative rock band Foo Fighters and the former drummer of the influential 1990s grunge rock band Nirvana. Grohl is known for his energy and musical proficiency, despite never having learned to read music. Grohl also is a film director, initially directing music videos for Foo Fighters and later directing documentaries. He is considered one of the most influential rock musicians of his era. During his career, he has won 17 Grammy Awards.

Early forays into music

Grohl’s father was a journalist, and his mother was an English teacher. At age 3, he moved with his family from Ohio to Springfield, Virginia. Three years later, however, his parents divorced. He lived with his mother and elder sister, Lisa, who exposed him to a wide range of music, including heavy metal bands such as Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, the Stooges, and Kiss.

When Grohl was 10, he formed his first band with a friend; together they were known as the HG Hancock Band. He soon started learning to play the guitar. At age 13, after visiting family in Chicago, where he attended a live punk concert at a small bar known as the Cubby Club, he became fascinated by punk music and endeavored to teach himself to play the drums. After dropping out of high school in his junior year, he went on to become the drummer for Scream, an independent punk group based in Washington, D.C. In the late 1980s, after touring together and releasing a few albums, the band broke up.

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Nirvana

In 1990 Grohl was invited by rock musician Kurt Cobain to audition for the drums for a then unknown Seattle band named Nirvana; Cobain and Grohl met through a mutual friend. Grohl played his first show with Nirvana on October 11, 1990, at the North Shore Surf Club in Olympia, Washington. Grohl spent eight months living with Cobain, who was the band’s front man and main songwriter.

In 1991 Nirvana signed with Geffen Records. Nirvana’s major-label debut album Nevermind (1991) was an instant hit. Grohl’s strikingly raw drumming style was recognized by fans and peers. About the same time that Nirvana’s fame was skyrocketing, Grohl was writing, recording, and playing all the instruments for his own demo project, resulting in the release of a cassette album titled Pocketwatch (1992) under the name Late!

While Cobain was the main songwriter for Nirvana, Grohl contributed lyrics to some of the band’s tracks. On Nirvana’s third and final album In Utero (1993), Grohl received a cowriting credit on “Scentless Apprentice.” He also had his song “Marigold,” originally released as “Color Pictures of a Marigold” on Pocketwatch, featured as a B-side track on Nirvana’s “Heart-Shaped Box” single (1993).

Following Cobain’s suicide in 1994, which brought Nirvana to an end, Grohl channeled his energy into new projects. He was the drummer for the soundtrack of Backbeat (1994), an independent film about the early days of the Beatles. Grohl was a touring drummer for bassist and singer-songwriter Mike Watt, backed musician Tom Petty on a Saturday Night Live appearance, and released a CD version of Pocketwatch (1995).

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Foo Fighters

Grohl then started a new project called Foo Fighters. At first he was the sole member. He played every instrument and wrote and provided vocals on every song on the debut album, Foo Fighters, released in 1995. By 1997 he had successfully recruited other musicians to complete the heavy punk rock sound he was seeking. The group’s first studio album, The Colour and the Shape (1997), was an international success. The group’s next album, There Is Nothing Left to Lose (1999), was even more successful, winning the Grammy Award for best rock album in 2000. Foo Fighters won a second Grammy that year for the music video for “Learning to Fly,” the top single from There Is Nothing Left to Lose. The albums One by One (2002); Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace (2007); and Wasting Light (2011) were also later recognized with Grammy Awards for best rock album.

With Foo Fighters as his main project, Grohl continued to participate in other musical projects. In 2002 he performed as the touring drummer for the hard rock band Queens of the Stone Age. He also worked with multiple rock legends, including Mick Jagger, Brian May, David Bowie, and Nine Inch Nails. Meanwhile, Foo Fighters continued to produce albums, including Sonic Highways (2014), the release of which was accompanied by a documentary miniseries of the same name, for which the band received two Emmy Awards in 2015. Sonic Highways was followed by Concrete and Gold (2017), Medicine at Midnight (2021), and But Here We Are (2023).

Films

In 2013, after years of directing music videos for Foo Fighters, Grohl made his directorial debut in film with the independent documentary Sound City, about the famous Los Angeles recording studio of the same name. The film’s soundtrack included many famous Sound City patrons, among them British musician and Beatle Paul McCartney. Grohl’s second documentary, Play (2018), was an ode to his love for musical instruments. Along with the documentary, Grohl also released the accompanying soundtrack, which featured a 23-minute-long track in which he plays every instrument.