Dave Grohl – The Story Teller – Tales of Life and Music

Dave Grohl The Story Teller the book – Dave Grohl The Storyteller Tales Of Life And Music is out now. It features stories of his time in the Foo Fighters, stories about his family life and just general rockin’ about.

Here’s the books liner notes:

Having entertained the idea for years, and even offered a few questionable opportunities (‘It’s a piece of cake! Just do four hours of interviews, find someone else to write it, put your face on the cover, and voila!’), I have decided to write these stories just as I have always done, in my own hand. The joy that I have felt from chronicling these tales is not unlike listening back to a song that I’ve recorded and can’t wait to share with the world. Reading a primitive journal entry from a stained notebook, or even hearing my voice bounce between the Kiss posters on my wall as a child.

This certainly doesn’t mean that I’m quitting my day job. It does give me a place to shed a little light on what it’s like to be a kid from Springfield, Virginia, walking through life while living out the crazy dreams I had as young musician. From hitting the road with Scream at 18 years old, to my time in Nirvana and the Foo Fighters, jamming with Iggy Pop or playing at the Academy Awards or dancing with AC/DC and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, drumming for Tom Petty or meeting Sir Paul McCartney at Royal Albert Hall, bedtime stories with Joan Jett or a chance meeting with Little Richard, to flying halfway around the world for one epic night with my daughters…the list goes on. I look forward to focusing the lens through which I see these memories a little sharper for you with much excitement.

Dave Grohl and Nirvana’s Destiny

On recording Nevermind Dave said “I don’t think anyone’s entirely designed to make it out of a situation like that unscathed”. He added “But I was lucky because I had Virginia, the state, and my mother. If I ever did feel like I was being swallowed by this thing. I would retreat to Virginia and I would go back to the old cul de sac where I grew up and have barbecues with my old friends. It really rescued me in a lot of ways.”

Unlike Cobain, “I wasn’t the one who had a microphone shoved in his face every five seconds. I could literally walk through the front door of a Nirvana show and not be recognized until I sat on my drum set, and so my experience with the band was very different.”

Grohl talks bout the time just after Nirvana “Every time I sit down on a drum stool, I see Kurt,” he recalled. “I had some kind of musical PTSD, and I was scared to let myself break down. When Tom Petty asked, I was not yet ready to go there.”

Dave Grohl Story telling Foo Fighters Time

Around this time Grohl was writing songs that would end up on the first Foo Fighters album. “I don’t know too many people that strap on a bungee confident that they’re going to survive the fall. That’s why you do it. Just being unsure of yourself can be a great motivator. You know, I’m not sure I can do this. Let me see if I can. Let me prove myself wrong. So, yeah, it took me a decade to become comfortable as the frontman and singer of the Foo Fighters. Now, I love it.”

The book is out now and you can order it here

In other Nirvana news, Dave Grohl talks about the issue with the front cover of Nevermind about Spencer Elden who has sued the Kurt Cobain estate about sexual exploitation. Grohl said: “I have many ideas of how we should alter that cover but we’ll see what happens. We’ll let you know. I’m sure we’ll come up with something good.” He added Grohl added: “I think that there’s much more to look forward to and much more to life than getting bogged down in those kinds of things. And, fortunately, I don’t have to do the paperwork.”