99 Facts About Dave Grohl

Dave Grohl founded the rock band Foo Fighters, of which he is the lead singer, guitarist, principal songwriter, and only consistent member.

In 1986, at age 17, Dave Grohl joined the punk rock band Scream, replacing drummer Kent Stax.

Dave Grohl first appeared on the band's second album, Nevermind.

Dave Grohl released his debut documentary, Sound City, in 2013, then the 2014 documentary miniseries Sonic Highways and the 2021 documentary film What Drives Us.

In 2021, Dave Grohl released an autobiography, The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music.

Dave Grohl was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of Nirvana in 2014 and as a member of Foo Fighters in 2021.

Dave Grohl was born in Warren, Ohio, on January 14,1969, the son of teacher Virginia Jean and newswriter James Harper Dave Grohl.

Dave Grohl is of German, Slovak, Irish, and English descent.

Dave Grohl's father, James, was a journalist and the special assistant to US Senator Robert Taft Jr.

When he was a child, Dave Grohl's family moved to Springfield, Virginia.

Dave Grohl grew tired of lessons and instead taught himself, eventually playing in bands with friends.

Dave Grohl's mother decided he should transfer to Bishop Ireton High School in Alexandria because his cannabis use was lowering his grades.

Dave Grohl stayed there for two years, beginning with a repeat of his first year.

When Freak Baby fired its bass player and reshuffled its lineup, Dave Grohl switched to drums.

Dave Grohl said he did not take formal drum lessons; instead, he taught himself how to play the drums by listening to Rush and punk rock.

Mission Impossible rebranded themselves Fast before breaking up, after which Dave Grohl joined the hardcore punk band Dain Bramage in December 1985.

In March 1987, Dain Bramage ended when Dave Grohl quit without warning to join Scream, having produced the I Scream Not Coming Down LP.

Dave Grohl spent the initial months with Nirvana traveling to various labels to discuss record deals, and signed with DGC Records.

Dave Grohl said in a 2014 episode of Foo Fighters: Sonic Highways that Cobain reacted by kissing him upon first hearing a demo of "Alone + Easy Target" that Dave Grohl had recently recorded.

Cobain said that he was excited at the possibility of having Novoselic and Dave Grohl contribute more to the band's songwriting.

For most of the three-day session, Cobain was absent, so Novoselic and Dave Grohl worked on demos of their own songs.

Dave Grohl wondered if his future might be in drumming for other bands.

Dave Grohl declined an invitation to become Petty's permanent drummer.

However, by then, Pearl Jam had already settled on ex-Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons, and Dave Grohl had other solo plans.

Dave Grohl did not want the effort to be considered the start of a solo career, so he recruited other band members: former Germs and touring Nirvana guitarist Pat Smear and two members of the recently disbanded Sunny Day Real Estate: William Goldsmith and Nate Mendel.

Dave Grohl's demo was remixed by Rob Schnapf and Tom Rothrock and released in July 1995 as Foo Fighters' self-titled debut album.

Dave Grohl performed all of the instruments and vocals himself, save for vocals from Veruca Salt singer Louise Post on the title track, keyboards by Barrett Jones on one track, and vocals and guitar by X's John Doe on "This Loving Thing ".

Dave Grohl completed the recording in two weeks, and immediately joined Foo Fighters to work on their follow-up.

Dave Grohl wrote and recorded a few new songs, "Walking After You" and the hit single "Everlong", alone at a studio in Washington, DC Inspired by the session, Grohl opted to move the band, without Goldsmith's knowledge, to Los Angeles to re-record most of the album with Grohl on drums.

Dave Grohl later expressed regret, and said, "There were a lot of reasons it didn't work out, but there was a part of me that was like, you know, I don't know if I'm finished playing the drums yet".

Dave Grohl described the recording experience as "intoxicating at times" because the band members were left completely to their own devices.

On November 23,2002, Dave Grohl achieved a historical milestone by replacing himself on the top of the Billboard modern rock chart, when "You Know You're Right" by Nirvana was replaced by "All My Life" by Foo Fighters.

Between October 26,2002, and March 1,2003, Dave Grohl was in the number one spot on the Modern rock charts for 17 of 18 successive weeks, as a member of three different groups.

Dave Grohl said he felt the Greatest Hits was too early and "can look like an obituary".

Dave Grohl did not feel they had written their best hits yet.

On June 12,2015, while playing a show in Gothenburg, Sweden, Dave Grohl fell off the stage, breaking his leg.

Dave Grohl left temporarily and returned with a cast to finish the concert.

In 2016, Dave Grohl lent his throne to Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses after Rose broke his foot.

Dave Grohl lent it again in 2021 to Darin Wall, of the Seattle metal band Greyhawk, after Wall was shot in the leg.

Dave Grohl frequently participates in music projects apart from his main bands.

In 1993, Dave Grohl was recruited to help recreate the music of the Beatles' early years for the movie Backbeat.

In January 1997, Dave Grohl played a few songs with David Bowie for Bowie's 50th birthday concert at Madison Square Garden.

In 2003, Dave Grohl stepped behind the kit to perform on Killing Joke's second self titled album, Killing Joke.

Dave Grohl lent his drumming skills to other artists during the early 2000s.

In 2001, Dave Grohl performed on Tenacious D's debut album, and appeared in the video for lead single "Tribute" as a demon.

Dave Grohl later appeared in the duo's 2006 movie Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny as the devil in the song "Beelzeboss", and performed on its soundtrack.

Dave Grohl performed drums for their 2012 album Rize of the Fenix.

In 2002, Dave Grohl helped Chan Marshall of Cat Power on the album You Are Free and played with Queens of the Stone Age on their album Songs for the Deaf.

Dave Grohl toured with the band in support of the album, delaying work on the Foo Fighters' album One by One.

In 2004, Dave Grohl drummed on six tracks for Nine Inch Nails' 2005 album With Teeth and played percussion on one more, later returning to play drums on 'The Idea of You' from their 2016 EP Not the Actual Events.

Dave Grohl drummed on the song "Bad Boyfriend" on Garbage's 2005 album Bleed Like Me.

Beyond drumming, Dave Grohl contributed guitar to a cover of Neil Young's "I've Been Waiting For You" on David Bowie's 2002 album Heathen.

In June 2008, Dave Grohl was Paul McCartney's special guest for a concert at the Anfield football stadium in Liverpool, in one of the central events of the English city's year as European Capital of Culture.

Dave Grohl performed with McCartney at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards, again playing drums on "I Saw Her Standing There".

Dave Grohl helped pay tribute to McCartney at the 2010 Kennedy Center Honors along with No Doubt, Norah Jones, Steven Tyler, James Taylor, and Mavis Staples.

Dave Grohl sang a duet version of "Maybe I'm Amazed" with Norah Jones on December 5,2010.

Dave Grohl played drums on the tracks "Run with the Wolves" and "Stand Up" on the Prodigy's 2009 album Invaders Must Die.

On October 23,2010, Dave Grohl performed with Tenacious D at BlizzCon.

Dave Grohl appeared as the drummer for the entire concert, and a year later he returned with Foo Fighters and played another set there, this time as guitarist and vocalist.

Also in 2010, Dave Grohl helped write and performed on drums for "Watch This" with guitarist Slash and Duff McKagan on Slash's self-titled album that included many other famous artists.

In October 2011, Dave Grohl temporarily joined Cage the Elephant as a replacement on tour after drummer Jared Champion's appendix burst.

Dave Grohl directed a documentary entitled Sound City which is about the Van Nuys studio of the same name where Nevermind was recorded that shut down its music operations in 2011.

In 2012, following the departure of Joey Castillo from Queens of the Stone Age, Dave Grohl performed on some tracks as drummer on their 2013 album.

On March 14,2013, Dave Grohl delivered a keynote speech at the 2013 South by Southwest conference in Austin, Texas.

Dave Grohl said Edgar Winter's instrumental "Frankenstein" was the song that made him want to become a musician.

On November 6,2013, Dave Grohl played drums at the 2013 Country Music Association Awards, replacing drummer Chris Fryar in the Zac Brown Band.

Dave Grohl produced Zac Brown Band's EP The Dave Grohl Sessions, Vol.

Dave Grohl worked closely with indie hip-hop band RDGLDGRN on their EP.

Dave Grohl was featured in a number of songs on the EP.

That same year, Dave Grohl invited ten-year-old Collier Cash Rule on stage at a Foo Fighters concert in Kansas City, Missouri and gave him his guitar.

Rule played several Metallica songs and Dave Grohl sang one verse and the chorus to "Enter Sandman".

Between August and November 2020, Dave Grohl participated in an online drum battle with ten-year-old drummer Nandi Bushell, who had released cover versions of Nirvana and Foo Fighters songs on her YouTube channel, then challenged the elder drummer to a contest.

Dave Grohl developed a thrash metal record for a fictional band named Dream Widow, as developed for a horror-comedy movie titled Studio 666.

Dave Grohl worked to create the Dream Widow album and aimed to release it at the same time as the film, on February 25,2022.

On June 25,2022, Dave Grohl duetted with Paul McCartney when he headlined the Glastonbury Festival.

Dave Grohl has appeared with Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Them Crooked Vultures, Mick Jagger, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Dave Grohl voiced the controversial Syrian dictator, Abdule Malik in the season 3 finale, Doublebookedklok.

In February 2013, Dave Grohl filled in as host of Chelsea Lately for a week.

Dave Grohl had previously hosted the show during the first week of December 2012 as part of "Celebrity Guest Host Week".

On December 1,2015, Dave Grohl appeared on an episode of The Muppets where he competed in a "drum off" with Animal.

Dave Grohl appeared in the 50th anniversary season of Sesame Street in February 2019.

In 2013, Dave Grohl produced and directed the documentary Sound City, about the history of the famed Sound City Studios recording studios in Van Nuys.

In 2021, Dave Grohl directed What Drives Us, a feature-length documentary on van touring.

Dave Grohl is a self-taught musician and cannot read musical notation, and instead plays only by ear.

Dave Grohl's primary recording guitar is an original cherry red Gibson Trini Lopez Standard that he bought in the early 1990s, while still with Nirvana, because he liked the different style of headstock and the diamond-shaped sound holes on what was otherwise an ES-335.

Onstage during early Foo Fighters tours, Dave Grohl played two Gibson Les Pauls, then relied primarily on a pair of black Gibson Explorers while touring for The Colour and the Shape, There is Nothing Left to Lose, and One by One.

Dave Grohl's primary acoustic guitar is a black Elvis Presley model Gibson Dove.

In May 2006, Dave Grohl sent a note of support to the two trapped miners in the Beaconsfield mine collapse in Tasmania, Australia, who had survived the initial rockfall.

Dave Grohl participated in two counter-protests against the Westboro Baptist Church for their anti-gay stance: in 2011, by performing "Keep It Clean" on the back of a flatbed truck and in 2015, by Rickrolling them.

Dave Grohl contributed to a 2009 anti-drug video for the BBC.

Dave Grohl has described himself as a coffee addict who drinks an average of six cups of coffee every morning; in 2009, he was admitted to a hospital with chest pains caused by a caffeine overdose.

Dave Grohl supported Barack Obama's 2012 presidential campaign and performed "My Hero" at the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.

In 1994, Dave Grohl married Jennifer Leigh Youngblood, a photographer from Grosse Pointe, Michigan.

From 1999 to 2001, Dave Grohl dated former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur.

In 2024, Dave Grohl announced on Instagram that he had fathered a fourth daughter, this time outside his marriage, and asked his family for forgiveness.

From 1993 to 1997, Dave Grohl owned a house in Shoreline, Washington.

In 2015, Dave Grohl sold his 3,088-square-foot beachfront house in Oxnard, California, for $2.9 million.

In 2016, Dave Grohl was ranked 27th on the list of the best drummers of all time by Rolling Stone.

Dave Grohl received the George and Ira Gershwin Award in 2024.