Dave Grohl was born in Ohio in 1969 and raised in Virginia. He got his start as a drummer with the punk band Scream before joining Nirvana in 1990. Following the death of Kurt Cobain in 1994, Grohl formed Foo Fighters, who released their 10th album last year. He has directed several documentaries, and last year published an autobiography, The Storyteller. His latest project, in which he stars with his band, is the horror-comedy film Studio 666, on general release now. Grohl lives with his wife and three daughters in Los Angeles.
1. Music
This [Isle of Wight] band is starting to blow up in America. A friend forwarded me their song Chaise Longue and I thought, Oh this is great. It’s fun, it’s fresh, it’s new, it’s just completely entertaining. Great sense of humour, great beat, great riffs, totally hooky. I started forwarding it to my friends, and whenever we get together for our living room dance parties, that’s the one song everyone jumps off the couch and dances to. There are nights when we just play that song on repeat. They make brilliant videos too. I can’t wait to see them live.
2. Internet show
Hot Ones (YouTube)
This series, hosted by Sean Evans, is one of the greatest ideas for a [celebrity] interview show: 10 chicken wings with 10 increasingly hot sauces, and each wing accompanies a question. Watching your favourite celebrity try to choke down hot sauce with a Scoville count of 1.5 million is amazing. Gordon Ramsay was my favourite episode, because you’ve never seen the guy get it back so hard, after all the pain he’s given out. The person who survived without a scratch, and almost looked like she was enjoying it, was Lorde. Take her for a curry. It’ll blow your mind.
3. Book
The Lyrics by Paul McCartney (Allen Lane)
I’m familiar with every one of Paul McCartney’s songs, and I could probably recite most of them off the top of my head, but to have this new perspective coming from the writer, explaining the songs himself, is really rewarding. It humanises the whole process. I did love the [Beatles] documentary Get Back too. I watched Ringo the entire time: I know what it’s like to sit on a drum stool and watch a bunch of people argue. All you want to do is play a beat. Come on, fuck it, no more words!
4. Food
American barbecue
The resurgence of American barbecue in the past few years is exciting for me, because I grew up in Virginia where barbecue was everywhere. Nowadays, you’ve got chefs getting into the molecular science of a brisket, but you should never forget that it’s a very simple food that’s meant to feed a large amount of people at one time. My favourite barbecue chef is Sam Jones in North Carolina, who still cooks on a pit that his great-grandfather cooked on 130 years ago. It’s so simple, but it is without question the most delicious thing ever.
5. TV
Euphoria (HBO/Sky Atlantic)
I don’t watch much TV, but Euphoria has completely blown my mind, and I think Zendaya is one of the greatest actresses to come out of American television in the past 30 years. It’s about a group of young friends navigating a difficult life that becomes a hurricane of drugs and sex and family issues. I watched an episode the other night that had to do with addiction and withdrawal, and it was so on the fucking nose that I was traumatised after watching it. But then you start to fall in love with the characters and, oof, it’s good.
6. Technology / Art
I love the idea of an NFT [non-fungible token], though I don’t completely understand it. I just figure that whatever I create eventually belongs to everyone. But if you can make $10m off of a fucking drawing, then I’ll make them all day long. There’s one in my studio right now. Someone gave us an NFT. It’s this thing in a frame and you plug it in and then it’s an image. It’s just colours. Someone pointed to it and said: “That’s an NFT.” I was like: “No shit.” I don’t know what makes it an NFT, other than it’s mine!
