Speaker 1: You know what I had for dinner last night? At what?
Speaker 1: Two microwaveable hot dogs in a guinness. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: nothing has changed. I've known you since the nineties and
Speaker 1: nothing has changed. Why should it wait, Dave? Do you
Speaker 1: remember that there was that place that you had a
Speaker 1: Laurel Canyon and one night one of your roadies fell
Speaker 1: asleep for the eating. That house was so old that
Speaker 1: the only heating vent was right in the front door
Speaker 1: of the house, and he fell asleep in the hallway.
Speaker 1: Our drum tech, John John, was sleeping. He was so cold,
Speaker 1: so he took my jacket, put it over this massive
Speaker 1: heating then and fell asleep on it and woke up
Speaker 1: on fire. That's right, I remember that. Remember those were
Speaker 1: the days. Well, by the way, the barbecue in Laurel Canyon,
Speaker 1: which sounds really fancy, but at that house where you're
Speaker 1: having the barbecue, it literally what you had microwave for
Speaker 1: dinner last night. It was like a couple of gorn
Speaker 1: dogs and like twenty four beers. It was Hello, I'm
Speaker 1: mini driver, and welcome to many questions. I've always loved
Speaker 1: Pru's questionnaire. It was originally an eighteenth century parlor game
Speaker 1: meant to reveal an individual's true nature, but with so
Speaker 1: many questions, there wasn't really an opportunity to expand on anything.
Speaker 1: So I took the format of Pruce's questionnaire and adapted
Speaker 1: what I think are seven of the most important questions
Speaker 1: you could ever ask someone. They are when and where
Speaker 1: were you happiest? What is the quality you like least
Speaker 1: about yourself? What relationship, real or fictionalized, defines love for you?
Speaker 1: What question would you most like answered, What person, place,
Speaker 1: or experience has shaped you the most? What would be
Speaker 1: your last meal? And can you tell me something in
Speaker 1: your life that has grown out of a personal faster
Speaker 1: The more people we ask, the more we begin to
Speaker 1: see what makes us similar and what makes us individual.
Speaker 1: I've gathered a group of really remarkable people who I
Speaker 1: am honored and humbled to have had a chance to
Speaker 1: engage with, and today I am talking to Dave Grohl.
Speaker 1: I first met Dave when his band Food Fighters were
Speaker 1: the live music at the FSACHI Runway show in New York.
Speaker 1: I was dressed in white from head to toe. It
Speaker 1: was a slightly futuristic look, high collared, stiff fabric. Dave
Speaker 1: said I looked like ziggy Star, Dust's dental hygienist and
Speaker 1: our friendship of twenty three years was born. For all
Speaker 1: his many achievements, at heart, to me, Dave is one
Speaker 1: of our most profound storytellers. Nirvana was legendary, it defined
Speaker 1: and created an entire genre of music. But for me,
Speaker 1: Food Fighters and the myriad side projects Dave always has
Speaker 1: in play speak to an ongoing, restless exploration of creative evel.
Speaker 1: I've never met a person who literally and figuratively refuses
Speaker 1: to sit still as much as Dave, and to me
Speaker 1: it's genuinely what makes him great. The first question is
Speaker 1: where and when were you happiest? Well, I hope that
Speaker 1: I haven't been my happiest yet. I have lots of
Speaker 1: very fond memories. I think I've been happiest more than
Speaker 1: a few times. But you know, I think you find
Speaker 1: different versions of happiness. I find a lot of happiness everywhere,
Speaker 1: even in the unhappiest times, because I sort of search
Speaker 1: for it. Do you mind for happiness? Is that something
Speaker 1: that you consciously do? I do. I'm a little bit
Speaker 1: more of a big picture type. I try not to
Speaker 1: get caught in crisis so much that I can't see
Speaker 1: outside of it. So if I'm deep in it, I
Speaker 1: stopped and remind myself of the big picture. Was that taught?
Speaker 1: Was that from your amazing mother or was that how
Speaker 1: evil was rolled? I'm sure that it's taught in some way,
Speaker 1: maybe like inadvertently. Yeah, I'm you know. I was raised
Speaker 1: by my mother, single parent. My parents split up when
Speaker 1: I was I think six years old, seven years old,
Speaker 1: something like that. So my mother raised me in our
Speaker 1: tiny little house, and she was a public school teacher,
Speaker 1: and we didn't really have money, and sometimes the heat
Speaker 1: would get turned off, and the phone would get turned off,
Speaker 1: and the lights would get turned off, and we'd have
Speaker 1: scrambled eggs for dinner and things like that. But my
Speaker 1: mother was really good at making us feel like we
Speaker 1: had enough all the time. So I had a really
Speaker 1: happy childhood. I didn't have much, but I was happy,
Speaker 1: and that really did come from my mother. It was
Speaker 1: as simple as going to a jazz club on a
Speaker 1: Sunday with my mother and realizing that, oh, she's cool
Speaker 1: and we're friends, but she's my mom. My friends don't
Speaker 1: hang out with their parents. From an early age, I
Speaker 1: felt like you play the hand that you're dealt and
Speaker 1: that's kind of it. And there's no use in wishing
Speaker 1: against things you can't change, you know. And so when
Speaker 1: I would be in the middle of crisis or an
Speaker 1: uncomfortable situation, I would always try to remind myself of
Speaker 1: the big picture. I'm sure it goes back to my childhood,
Speaker 1: but I still feel that way, you know. I think
Speaker 1: you also set your own bar in a way. You know,
Speaker 1: some people are perfectly happy sitting on their couch playing
Speaker 1: video games for twelve hours a day. Other people are
Speaker 1: only happy when they're skydiving. Yes, and so it's relative.
Speaker 1: I like your spectrum Gears of War to jumping out
Speaker 1: of an airplane. I mean, to be honest, I'm sort
Speaker 1: of both, you know. Like I could be perfectly happy
Speaker 1: sitting on a couch with two hot dogs in the
Speaker 1: Guinness watching Dumb and Dumber again, you know, or perfectly
Speaker 1: happy running on stage at Wembley Stadium and conducting eight
Speaker 1: people to sing a song with me. So like those
Speaker 1: two things, you know, you walk off stage and you
Speaker 1: you're like, oh my god, the adrenaline. It's like skydiving,
Speaker 1: it really is. It's a bungee jump. But then I'm
Speaker 1: just as happy you know, sitting in traffic and listening
Speaker 1: to Bill Withers or whatever. And I think it's just
Speaker 1: because you have to be open to it. My dear
Speaker 1: friend and love of my life, Pat Smir, who plays
Speaker 1: guitar in The Food Fighters, he is the most amazing,
Speaker 1: beautiful person because he has this contagious sense of reassurance
Speaker 1: where even in the worst fucking tragedy, you can look
Speaker 1: at each other and laugh, like, how much more absurd
Speaker 1: could life be? You know, the ups and downs of life,
Speaker 1: and and the range of that dynamic. You know, when
Speaker 1: things are at their peak, you look at each other
Speaker 1: and you're like, oh, my fucking god. When things are
Speaker 1: at the bottom, the lowest of the low, you look
Speaker 1: at each other and you just go, oh, my fucking god.
Speaker 1: It's strange, though, because I was just talking about this
Speaker 1: the other day. We have a song called Waiting on
Speaker 1: a War that just came out, and I wrote the
Speaker 1: song about a year and a half ago. I wrote
Speaker 1: it and when I was young, growing up outside of Washington,
Speaker 1: d C. My greatest fear was war. In the early eighties,
Speaker 1: when there was political tension and it was Russia and
Speaker 1: it was Reagan and there was just this anxiety of
Speaker 1: you know, conflict and conservatism, and being so close to Washington,
Speaker 1: d C. I always thought, Okay, there's going to be
Speaker 1: a war and we're going to be the first ones
Speaker 1: to get it because this is the nation's capital. And
Speaker 1: I was kind of obsessed with it. And then a
Speaker 1: year and a half ago, I was taking my daughter, Harper,
Speaker 1: who's eleven years old, to school. I'm driving her to
Speaker 1: school and she turns to me, she goes, Dad, is
Speaker 1: there gonna be a war? And it broke my heart
Speaker 1: because I thought she's now living under this like dark
Speaker 1: cloud of a hopeless future. Forty years after I did
Speaker 1: the same thing, I felt the same as she did,
Speaker 1: and I was heartbroken. I'm like, you know, her childhood
Speaker 1: is being stolen from her by this fear of war.
Speaker 1: And I immediately wrote the song and I wrote it
Speaker 1: for her. And I'm only mentioning this because I did
Speaker 1: have this weird, nihilistic, pessimistic side to me as a kid.
Speaker 1: And it's unfair, like, it's so unfair. Why should anyone
Speaker 1: go through it? But children, you know, God forbid, they
Speaker 1: turn on the fucking television and see what's going on.
Speaker 1: I'd rather have her listen to the song because in
Speaker 1: the song, I say, you know, I've been waiting on
Speaker 1: a war since I was young? Is there more to
Speaker 1: this than just waiting on a war? Because God? Anyway?
Speaker 1: So I did have this pessimistic side to me when
Speaker 1: I was a kid, but I sort of counted it
Speaker 1: with this maybe naive optimism where I would just think,
Speaker 1: I know, but birds sounds are pretty, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean? Like I would just like get on my
Speaker 1: skateboard and crawl through the sewers and be like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know. I think the answer the
Speaker 1: question that you asked fourteen minutes ago, yes, I mind
Speaker 1: for happiness because I think you have to live with
Speaker 1: a sense of hope and you have to be able
Speaker 1: to find goodness and happiness even in the worst times.
Speaker 1: I couldn't agree with you more. And I actually think
Speaker 1: the worst times thrown too relief what is good and
Speaker 1: what is meaningful and actually helped define happiness a lot
Speaker 1: better than happiness itself. You've got to find it, you
Speaker 1: look for it. I think you're right, you have to
Speaker 1: make the effort. Okay, So next question, what relationship, real
Speaker 1: or fictionalized defines love? Fear? Well? The relationship with my mother,
Speaker 1: no question. Yeah. You know, as as a parent, you
Speaker 1: understand that the love that you received from your child
Speaker 1: is just, it's incomparable, It's unlike any other love, and
Speaker 1: the same thing to be said for your relationship with
Speaker 1: your parents. So I've always said her like, that's the
Speaker 1: one because you know, not only was I had given
Speaker 1: this unconditional love, but I was also I was given
Speaker 1: so much more. I was given freedom. She disciplined me
Speaker 1: with freedom, if that makes any sense. She really did.
Speaker 1: We were so close, and I had so much respect.
Speaker 1: Why I still do. I still have so we're still close.
Speaker 1: I still have so much respect for that. The last
Speaker 1: thing I would want to do is disappoint her, because
Speaker 1: I didn't want to jeopardize not only our relationship, but
Speaker 1: your freedom. So she was like, you know, okay, you
Speaker 1: could listen to satanic death metal. It's funny. I'm interested
Speaker 1: in what I think. The only way of being a
Speaker 1: good parent is being cognizant of what it is we
Speaker 1: took from our parents. Both good question. First of all,
Speaker 1: if you believe any of this, I have a bridge
Speaker 1: to sell you. How about that? But then I mean no,
Speaker 1: I mean, of course, that's the foundation. My mother wrote
Speaker 1: this book about mothers of musicians right four years ago,
Speaker 1: and she interviewed all these different mothers. She interviewed Dr
Speaker 1: Drey's mom, she interviewed for Rall's mom, she interviewed Michael
Speaker 1: Stipe's mother. She interviewed like fifteen or twenty different mothers.
Speaker 1: It was interesting because there were parallels. A lot of
Speaker 1: the experiences were the same, some of the relationships were
Speaker 1: a bit different, the mother child relationships. But ultimately you
Speaker 1: have to imagine that that relationship is your first love, right,
Speaker 1: and if you become an artist, typically love is your
Speaker 1: greatest muse. Like that's not only the foundation of who
Speaker 1: you are and what you become in the relationships you
Speaker 1: have with other people, but it also you know, it
Speaker 1: becomes your lens. So that's how you see the world,
Speaker 1: you know, whether it's in a dark, tortured focus or
Speaker 1: it's something more romantic. And like, I mean, a lot
Speaker 1: of that is that that foundation is laid by your
Speaker 1: first example of love, and that usually comes from your parents.
Speaker 1: I remember asking her once about being a teenager in
Speaker 1: rural Ohio and the forties in the late forties, and
Speaker 1: um I was asking her about peer pressure, if she
Speaker 1: had any sort of like social anxieties, and she said,
Speaker 1: she said, I never really compared myself to anyone else.
Speaker 1: And I thought, that is the greatest nugget of wisdom
Speaker 1: my mother has ever dropped in my stocking. It was like, like,
Speaker 1: I've never compared myself to anyone, and what a perfect
Speaker 1: way to be. It's extremely evolved to be able to go.
Speaker 1: I never compared myself to anyone, not the notion that
Speaker 1: anyone is better or worse, but rather I am myself.
Speaker 1: That's a good person to teach you what the scaffolding
Speaker 1: should look like, around your life, around love, around the
Speaker 1: way we see ourselves. I love your Mom's cool. Okay,
Speaker 1: what question would you most like answered? The thing about UFOs?
Speaker 1: Does you want like the Kennedy thing? I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: and then there's the thing about like the Big Bang
Speaker 1: and God and whatever. I'm more into the uf I'm
Speaker 1: with you. I went out My sister worked at Ben
Speaker 1: and Jerry's in Provincetown when I was sixteen, and I
Speaker 1: won't to spend the summer with her, and I went
Speaker 1: out to those dunes every night looking for the UFOs,
Speaker 1: and one night, I know one night, this guy gave
Speaker 1: me something to smoke and I saw the goddamn your bugs.
Speaker 1: It was super cool because the next day, when I
Speaker 1: worked in the ben and Jerry's with my sister, I
Speaker 1: was like, listen, the UFOs are for real, And because
Speaker 1: I was so English, they all believed me. Oh, I
Speaker 1: love that. That's what you want to know. No, but really,
Speaker 1: I mean when I was young, I don't know why
Speaker 1: or how it started, but I would do that thing
Speaker 1: where I would lay in my front yard and just
Speaker 1: stare at the sky. When you weren't thinking about their
Speaker 1: being a war that was going to wipe you out.
Speaker 1: I'm sure of course you thought that there were aliens
Speaker 1: who might possibly be there to come and save you.
Speaker 1: I mean, I still the scrange. Please, Mr Freud, I
Speaker 1: have to be honest. But no, the uf Here's the
Speaker 1: funny thing about the UFO A thing. So since I
Speaker 1: was young, Like when I was young, I'd like lay
Speaker 1: in the front yard and I'd be like contact me
Speaker 1: where I never saw anything weird, but I'd have these
Speaker 1: amazing dreams. First of all, I'm in a crazy vivid dreamer.
Speaker 1: I remember dreams from when I was for four years old.
Speaker 1: I remember dreams from when I was eight years old
Speaker 1: and fourteen years old. I still vividly remember them. I
Speaker 1: can see them in my mind. I had these crazy
Speaker 1: UFO dreams where I'm like walking on a hill in
Speaker 1: somewhere in Italy on the coast, and it's at dusk
Speaker 1: and right as the stars are coming out, and there's
Speaker 1: people walking around. It's a beautiful night, and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, the stars just like implode and the sky
Speaker 1: is filled with UFOs and there's these things being projected
Speaker 1: in the sky explaining the evolution of man. But it's
Speaker 1: it's not sound. It's like telepathically being explained to you
Speaker 1: in your mind. And then a map of the world
Speaker 1: and how like all the territories have been redefined, and
Speaker 1: like crazy stuff like that. But here's the thing. I
Speaker 1: remember once going to a psychic. I wasn't going to
Speaker 1: the psychic for me. I was dropping off my girlfriend
Speaker 1: at the time. At the psychic. This is in Sydney, Australia,
Speaker 1: and someone said, there's this French woman in this apartment
Speaker 1: complex outside of Sydney. She's the real due. She'll know
Speaker 1: you're coming right so you don't even knock. So I
Speaker 1: drop off my girlfriend and she has this horrible reading
Speaker 1: and then I walk in and the ladies like no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: sit down, sit down. Oh she only speaks French, so
Speaker 1: my girlfriend, who also spoke French, was translating. So I
Speaker 1: sit down and she's like, oh, you have a lot
Speaker 1: of energy. And I'm like, I know, I'm a spa
Speaker 1: as I've had a lot of coffee. And she's like, no,
Speaker 1: you have a lot of energy. Like your hands they're
Speaker 1: they're like glowing, and I'm like, fuck, yes, this is amazing.
Speaker 1: My girlfriend was just told like our relationship is not
Speaker 1: gonna work, blah blah blah blah blah blah. And then
Speaker 1: now she's got to translate this this the psychic who
Speaker 1: is saying like, you have psychic power. But the best
Speaker 1: the best part was she goes, do you see ghosts?
Speaker 1: And I said, now, I mean I lived in the
Speaker 1: house that had like creepy things, that the vibe was weird,
Speaker 1: But now I don't see ghosts. I said, I have
Speaker 1: dreams about UFOs and she goes, those aren't dreams. I
Speaker 1: was like, yes, killer, what person, place, or experience most
Speaker 1: altered your life? I would have to say the first
Speaker 1: time I saw a band play on a stage. Who
Speaker 1: was it? It was a punk rock band. Actually, I
Speaker 1: had never been to a rock concert, and it was
Speaker 1: a band called Naked Reagun. They were like an infamous
Speaker 1: punk rock band from Chicago. And I can't think of
Speaker 1: anything else that that changed or formed my future then
Speaker 1: that moment, I was in this like you know, dark
Speaker 1: bar that smelled like bleach and beer, and then these
Speaker 1: four guys walk on stage and ripped jeans and like one, two, three, four, bam,
Speaker 1: and they started playing, and like my chest was against
Speaker 1: the stage and their sweat was on me and their
Speaker 1: spit was on me, and I was getting thrown around
Speaker 1: um by people with like mohawks, and so I was like,
Speaker 1: this is what I'm doing for the rest of my life.
Speaker 1: In between the ages of like eleven and thirteen, it's
Speaker 1: a really formative age because you're discovering independence. You're no
Speaker 1: longer just a child that needs to hold someone's hand
Speaker 1: when they crossed the street. So you're kind of discovering
Speaker 1: who you are, and at that time you sort of
Speaker 1: connect to things that become your identity. Right, I'm really
Speaker 1: into football, So then you started playing football, but with music.
Speaker 1: If the hooks get deep enough that they sort of
Speaker 1: like catch that newly introspective part of your identity. Oh,
Speaker 1: so now you have somewhere to put it, Like, Oh,
Speaker 1: I'll pick up a guitar and I could put it there.
Speaker 1: I could pick up a drum as I could put
Speaker 1: it there. Wait, were you already a drumma when you
Speaker 1: saw no I started playing guitar. I think when I
Speaker 1: was like ten, so I was playing guitar, but I
Speaker 1: could understand the drums. I didn't have a drum set.
Speaker 1: I had a pair of drumsticks, so I would set
Speaker 1: up these pillows on my floor in my bedroom in
Speaker 1: the configuration of a drum set. Yeah, but you're a
Speaker 1: proper music day. But you play, you play everything, so
Speaker 1: that doesn't surprise me at all. Well, I don't know
Speaker 1: how to play everything. I just try to play everything.
Speaker 1: So it's that whole fake it till you make it thing,
Speaker 1: you know. I know people that are like accomplished musicians
Speaker 1: that spent a lot of time taking lessons and being
Speaker 1: formally trained to do what they do. But then I
Speaker 1: know a lot of musicians that picked up records and
Speaker 1: just sort of played by year, And I think not
Speaker 1: that either is better. But one of the benefits of
Speaker 1: learning how to do it yourself is that there really
Speaker 1: is no right or wrong because you're sort of inventing
Speaker 1: your own weird theory. So you wind up doing things
Speaker 1: that some might consider, uh, you know, unusual, but that
Speaker 1: leads to innovation and progress. Okay, this is my favorite question.
Speaker 1: What would be your last meal? And you're not allowed
Speaker 1: to say you're sotting corn dogs and beer. Now you
Speaker 1: can if that's what it is. No, that wouldn't be it.
Speaker 1: It's a toss up. Can I say two different things? Yeah?
Speaker 1: It can be your lunch and your dinner. Okay. A
Speaker 1: fift years ago, when the Food Fighters were touring Australia,
Speaker 1: we were on our way to the gig and I
Speaker 1: saw a KFC and I said to Gus, our tour manager, Hey, guys,
Speaker 1: could you get a bucket of KFC for after the show?
Speaker 1: I don't think I'd had a bucket of Kentucky Fried
Speaker 1: Chicken since I was nine years old at like soccer practice,
Speaker 1: Like it has been a really really long time. And
Speaker 1: he's like, yeah, sure, but what do you want? You
Speaker 1: want extra crispy or I was like the original recipe
Speaker 1: please just a bucket. So then we go up on
Speaker 1: stage and we played for two and a half hours.
Speaker 1: I'm like, and I walk off stage, I've got a
Speaker 1: tale around my neck. Heading down the hallway, I could
Speaker 1: smell that ship from fifty yards away, and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: you got the KFC, like he got the KFC. And
Speaker 1: I walk in and there's a hot steamhon bucket of
Speaker 1: KFC right there. I'm like, I'm exhausted. I just, you know,
Speaker 1: lost five pounds on stage by sweating, so I need salt,
Speaker 1: like I need I'm like, and I'm like, open it up,
Speaker 1: and I'm just like, I'm like a raccoon and a dumpster.
Speaker 1: I was like, I was just like bones flying and
Speaker 1: then so thirsty. I'm like, okay, there's nothing to drink,
Speaker 1: except right next to me in a bucket of ice
Speaker 1: was a bottle of champagne. So I go and I
Speaker 1: opened the champagne and I take a sip and then
Speaker 1: I eat another piece of chicken. Then I go back
Speaker 1: to the champagne. Then I go to the chicken. I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, you guys have to try this. You
Speaker 1: have to try this. Everyone's like, what IM I get
Speaker 1: a piece of chicken, get a little champagne and see
Speaker 1: what happens. I'm not like, I can't go into like
Speaker 1: a culinary diet tribe about the juxtaposition and mouth feel
Speaker 1: of fried chicken the champagne. Trust me, it's good. And
Speaker 1: by the way, in Australia, what do you think the
Speaker 1: case stands for kangaroo? Many made joke, okay, And then
Speaker 1: years later I rented a motorcycle while we had a
Speaker 1: day off in Paris, and we of up into the
Speaker 1: Champagne region and took a little tour of the Did
Speaker 1: you tell those French people that they needed to be
Speaker 1: serving the champagne with KFC? I bet you did. I did.
Speaker 1: After the tour, we're back in this little garden and
Speaker 1: this guy's like white gloves, tuxedo. He's like opening stuff
Speaker 1: and smelling it. No, this one is not good enough.
Speaker 1: And then he like opens another one and it was
Speaker 1: like a rose. He's like, this is rose is very
Speaker 1: nice with salmon and see food and ship and then
Speaker 1: he goes he opens up another bottle of like champagne
Speaker 1: and he's like this is very nice with her, and
Speaker 1: I excuse me, you know what's really good with a a
Speaker 1: champagne fried chicken. Motherfucker, what what are you talking about?
Speaker 1: Shut up? I love that that was your I love that.
Speaker 1: That's one. Okay, if there's another one as good as that,
Speaker 1: you're allowed to eat both of them. The other one
Speaker 1: is where I grew up in Virginia, just outside of Washington,
Speaker 1: d C. We're not far from the Chesapeake Bay, the
Speaker 1: Chesapeake Bay, it's kind of at the edge of d
Speaker 1: C in Maryland. It's hard to explain, but as a
Speaker 1: child you spend a lot of time going to the
Speaker 1: beaches out there or going to the bay. But there's
Speaker 1: a specific sort of like culinary history to that area,
Speaker 1: whether it's oysters or clams or blue crabs, things like that.
Speaker 1: So when I was young, we would always go down
Speaker 1: to the wharf and buy seafood from the boats that
Speaker 1: came directly off of the Chesapeake Bay. So we would
Speaker 1: get like a bushel of crabs, and there's a there's
Speaker 1: a specific way to have blue crabs on the Chesapeake
Speaker 1: Bay Way. They're steamed, they're not boiled. They're seasoned with
Speaker 1: this stuff called old Bay seasoning. And the ceremony of
Speaker 1: eating these things, I mean, from each crab, you're lucky
Speaker 1: if you get a tablespoon of crab meat, right, But
Speaker 1: it's more of a ritual. So you steam these crabs.
Speaker 1: You have a table and you lay newspaper all over
Speaker 1: the table. You steam the crabs and season them with
Speaker 1: old bass seasoning. You have some sides, maybe corn on
Speaker 1: the cob, maybe hush puppies or some sort of like
Speaker 1: starchy thing, and a lot of beer. And then you
Speaker 1: just dump this bushel of steam crabs covered in this
Speaker 1: seasoning on the table and everyone just sits there and
Speaker 1: drinks beer and picks crabs for like six hours. And
Speaker 1: your lips are burning because it's spicy, your fingers are
Speaker 1: orange because of the seasoning. You've had forty seven beers
Speaker 1: because it's so salty. But you've wound up telling each
Speaker 1: other the best stories you have to tell, and so
Speaker 1: it tastes delicious, and it is my favorite. That is,
Speaker 1: without a doubt, my favorite meal. I can't imagine that
Speaker 1: any warden would allow me that on my no, no, no,
Speaker 1: in my in my prison which you're in, you can't
Speaker 1: have crab with with orange seasoning and forty seven beers
Speaker 1: for sure. Last question, David, in your life, can you
Speaker 1: tell me about something that has grown out of a
Speaker 1: personal disaster of the food fighters. Babe, Yeah, that's it.
Speaker 1: I mean when we started this band, you know, we
Speaker 1: didn't imagine that it would last as long as it has.
Speaker 1: But I think one of the reasons it's lasted as
Speaker 1: long as it has is because of what it represents
Speaker 1: to us. So when Nirvana ended, I couldn't imagine doing
Speaker 1: that again. But I realized that music was what had
Speaker 1: kept me alive up until that point, and in order
Speaker 1: for me to survive, I needed it. So this band,
Speaker 1: when we first started it, the foundation was this continuation
Speaker 1: of life, not just music. It was like a continuation
Speaker 1: of life. I would have to say it's that because
Speaker 1: over the years, even in the heartbreaker ups and downs
Speaker 1: of the last twenty five years, the band has always
Speaker 1: been not just an anchor, but kind of like it's
Speaker 1: like a home. And so you don't just feel like
Speaker 1: you're an island and you're you know, floating and nothingness.
Speaker 1: It's like I can always lean back on this thing.
Speaker 1: And again not just musically, it's a really emotional experience
Speaker 1: in this it's a real world that we've created over
Speaker 1: the last twenty five years, and so I don't know
Speaker 1: where I would be or who I would be without it.
Speaker 1: I feel like the luckiest person in the world that
Speaker 1: that it happened. It's an extraordinary example of what I
Speaker 1: hope to elicit from that question. I would also add
Speaker 1: having been on the tour bus with all of you
Speaker 1: and the band that in addition to it being you know,
Speaker 1: home and they are such excellent people, it is a
Speaker 1: proper fart shop around about listen ten hours into a draw,
Speaker 1: come on, well, you know what's funny. I was explaining
Speaker 1: this to someone the other day, that that there's really
Speaker 1: no musical prerequisite to be in the Food Fighters. Barely hardly.
Speaker 1: That's not that's not the top of our list. It's
Speaker 1: more of emotional aesthetic. It's the type of person that
Speaker 1: you are. But you know, you just you know, it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, when you meet the love of your life,
Speaker 1: you know, when you meet your best friend, you know,
Speaker 1: when you meet that person that you're just like, just
Speaker 1: like that, You're like, okay, it's just like that. And
Speaker 1: the same thing can be said musically. It's just like, okay,
Speaker 1: we're not going to say anything. Put on your instrument
Speaker 1: and let's talk to each other. For a while, and
Speaker 1: that comes from like the person that you are. You
Speaker 1: guys are excellent people. The radio, it's the it is.
Speaker 1: It's one of the most fun times I ever had ever.
Speaker 1: Was the short time I was on tour with you guys.
Speaker 1: It was Hold on a second. What remember when we
Speaker 1: played the Monsters of Rock festival. Yeah, when you went
Speaker 1: on off to Pantera. That was a great show there.
Speaker 1: I'm going to tell you a story that's going to
Speaker 1: kind of blow your mind. Okay, So that day we
Speaker 1: meet our metal heroes Pantera, right, who are the sweetest
Speaker 1: people in the world. After the show, the drummer Vinny
Speaker 1: God Rest, his soul is not with us anymore. Neither
Speaker 1: is Dime Back. Both of the brothers gone and uh
Speaker 1: and they were the most beautiful people. I love them
Speaker 1: so much. Vinny the drummer gives me this his business card,
Speaker 1: hands it to me and it's a strip club called
Speaker 1: the Clubhouse. He goes, man, next time we were in
Speaker 1: Texas outside of Dallas, you gotta come visit us at
Speaker 1: the Clubhouse. And I'm like, oh my god, you have
Speaker 1: your own strip club. He's like, hey, yeah, I do.
Speaker 1: Am I great? And this is just before I was
Speaker 1: moving from Los Angeles back to Virginia eight or nine
Speaker 1: or whatever it was, so I knew that I was
Speaker 1: going to make this road trip. It was Taylor and
Speaker 1: I in my Chevy Tahoe driving across country. I mean,
Speaker 1: talk about dumb and dummer come on. So we're like, okay,
Speaker 1: we're going to We're gonna route this tour around a
Speaker 1: visit at pan Terris Strip Club. So we we sort
Speaker 1: of like, Okay, first day we're gonna get to Phoenix.
Speaker 1: We're gonna spend the night there. The next day we're
Speaker 1: gonna get to Blah blah blah. But on the third
Speaker 1: night we're gonna get to Dallas. Taylor is going to
Speaker 1: visit his family. He's got relatives there, and then after
Speaker 1: we have that dinner, went straight to the clubhouse in
Speaker 1: my Chevy Tahoe. The first day of the trip, we're driving,
Speaker 1: we stopped for gas. We're blaring, you know, fog hat
Speaker 1: and put a stepping Wolf and Ted Nugent. We get
Speaker 1: to Phoenix. We go to check into the hotel and
Speaker 1: I had left my wallet on the gas pump in Barstow, California,
Speaker 1: but credit cards, I d everything, and I'm like, oh
Speaker 1: my God, and Taylor said, okay, I'll check us in.
Speaker 1: I immediately call my accountant and I'm like, dude, I
Speaker 1: love I just lost all of my credit cards and stuff.
Speaker 1: And he said, well, you know it's going to take
Speaker 1: you a while to get some of those back, but
Speaker 1: I'll fed X you something. So he does. We get
Speaker 1: to Dallas, we have the dinner with Taylor's family and
Speaker 1: we're like, all right, We're going to the clubhouse. And
Speaker 1: this is like a seven hundred mile detour by the way,
Speaker 1: like this is not a short cut to Springfield, Virginia.
Speaker 1: This is like we're taking a hard right and going
Speaker 1: way over here just to go to this club. We
Speaker 1: pull up to the club doorman he says, uh, I
Speaker 1: see your I d S. Please, And I'm like, uh, oh, well,
Speaker 1: I actually just lost my my driver's license the other
Speaker 1: day in California. And uh. He was like, I'm sorry, buddy,
Speaker 1: I can't let you in. And I said, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: we will be I think it was like thirty at
Speaker 1: the time or whatever. I'm like, no, no, I'm I'm
Speaker 1: i'm I'm I'm of age. He goes, I'm sorry, brother,
Speaker 1: I can't let you in. If if if the cops
Speaker 1: came and found you, I'd get busted and Taylor goes, yeah,
Speaker 1: but we're friends with and Tara and the guys. The
Speaker 1: guy's like, he's like everybody's friend. Tara. I tried called Vinnie,
Speaker 1: couldn't get in touch with anyone, never got into the club.
Speaker 1: That is the saddest story. Back in the truck with
Speaker 1: my tail between my legs, got back to Virginia. Are
Speaker 1: you kidding you? Literally went seven and didn't and he
Speaker 1: didn't even get in. Yes. But here's the best part
Speaker 1: that I think about. Ten years later, I was in Oxnard, California,
Speaker 1: at a surf shop buying sunglasses from my daughter Violet,
Speaker 1: who was about three years old at the time. And
Speaker 1: I walked up to the cash register and the nice
Speaker 1: surfer girl who worked there says, are you Dave Grohl.
Speaker 1: I said yes, and she said did you lose your
Speaker 1: wallet in Barstow, California ten years ago? And I said yes,
Speaker 1: and she said that was my parents gas station. No,
Speaker 1: and then she said they still have your wallet. I
Speaker 1: gave her my address and they sent my wallet. No.
Speaker 1: Oh my god. And by the way, you can't follow that,
Speaker 1: can't follow that, so it you just have to see
Speaker 1: the big picture. Many brought it all the way back around.
Speaker 1: You have to find the happiness. It might not be immediate,
Speaker 1: you might have to wait ten years to get it back.
Speaker 1: I gotta look at that big picture. I'll drink to that.
Speaker 1: I'll drink to that, and I'll eat KFC to that.
Speaker 1: But food Fight has just released an eleven minute video
Speaker 1: of Dave performing ev long at old song First seven eight.
Speaker 1: It features Dave telling the beautiful background story of how
Speaker 1: that song was written and of the first formative performances
Speaker 1: of it. Storytelling is an art. Dave is a bit
Speaker 1: of a master at it. Mini Questions is hosted and
Speaker 1: written by Me, Mini Driver, supervising producer Aaron Kaufman, Producer
Speaker 1: Morgan Lavoy, Research assistant Marissa Brown. Original music Sorry Baby
Speaker 1: by Minni Driver, additional music by Aaron Kaufman. Executive produced
Speaker 1: by Me and man Gesh Hetty Cador. Special thanks to
Speaker 1: Jim Nikolay, Will Pearson, Addison, No Day, Lisa Castella and
Speaker 1: Annique Oppenheim at w kPr, de La Pescadore, Kate Driver
Speaker 1: and Jason Weinberg, and for constantly solicited tech support, Henry
Speaker 1: Driver