-My first guest tonight is
a 16-time Grammy winner. Grammy winner! And he is in the Rock & Roll
Hall of Fame. Well deserved. His band Foo Fighters are
celebrating more than 25 years of making awesome music
together with the release of their new album,
"Medicine at Midnight." Listen to it now. Here is Dave Grohl! Oh, my goodness, Dave Grohl,
it is great to see you. Thanks so much
for coming on the show. Congrats on the new album,
"Medicine at Midnight." This just came out on Friday. But you were going to release it
last year, correct? -Well, yeah. So, we actually -- We started recording this record
like mid-2019. And we were like, "2020 is going to be the best
year our band has ever had." We're like,
"It's our 25th anniversary. It's our 10th record.
We're going to tour the world. There's, like, stadiums. So let's make a party record. Yeah, we'll make these songs
that have, like, groove, and they're going to make people
bounce. And it's going to be
the stadiums -- festivals are gonna --" And then
everyone went just pbht! -[ Laughs ]
-No way it's gonna happen. And so we basically
just sat on it. We were like, "Okay, let's wait. Let's wait for a while and see
if things go back to 'normal.'" And then after
like eight months, it was like,
"Dude, just put it out! Come on!
Let's give it to the people. Let's go."
So that's it. -How does it feel to
finally have it out? -I mean, I've never given birth
before. -[ Laughs ] -Women hate when you compare
anything to childbirth. -Uh-huh.
-But honestly, it's just like -- [ Groaning ]
And they're like -- [ Mimicking crying ] And then you just give it up
for adoption, is what you do. -I love it 'cause there's so
many different sounds on this. Someone has called it
your party record. What inspired the different
sounds in this one? Just the 25 years? -Yeah, I mean, honestly, like, we looked back at all of
the things that we'd done. And, you know, we've done,
like, loud, dissonant, heavy, sort of punk rock,
crazy music. And then, we've also done,
like, lots of acoustic stuff, and stuff that's more
orchestrated and gentle, and then everything in between. But the one thing that we had
never really done was make kind of, like, you know,
like a groove-oriented -- it's hard to call it
a dance record. Listen, if I say --
-No. -If you put the word "dance"
in the same sentence as Foo Fighters, people are like,
"I think I might throw -- I think I just threw up
in my mouth." Like, "You can't do that." -I wouldn't say
it's a dance record. No. But there are some grooves
on here. The title track is my jam,
"Medicine at Midnight." It's kind of like a Bowie, like almost like
a "Let's Dance-y" type of -- there might even be like --
[ Mimicking wood tapping ] there's that woodblock
or something happening. You're like, "Mm! Oh!" -It's got it in there.
Well, this is the thing. It's like, okay, so,
we're roughly the same age, grew up listening to rock bands
that made albums that you could do
the Molly Ringwald dance to, and, like, you know,
albums that you could, like, kind of get down to,
like David Bowie records or Rolling Stones records,
and even long before that, Sly and the Family Stone
kind of stuff. We were all raised on
that type of music. We never really figured that -- We never thought we would apply
that to what we do. But I was like, "Why not?"
-Yeah. -You're like, "At this point,
it's like everything I say is a dad joke,
everything I wear is a dad -- they're, like, sweatpants
and Crocs or whatever." So, I'm like, "Okay, it's time
to -- let's do this. Like, I want to see a stadium
doing this." -Why not?
-You know? -No, it's such a good groove. You know I was gonna ask you,
as far as Bowie, have you ever -- did you ever
work with Bowie or meet him? -I did. A long, long time ago, he had his 50th birthday party
at Madison Square Garden. I think it was like 1997 maybe. And we were invited to play
at his birthday party. There were a lot of
other artists there. Billy Corgan from
The Smashing Pumpkins was there, Robert Smith from The Cure was
there, Charles from the Pixies, all these different artists,
Sonic Youth. And so we got to meet there. And then not long after that,
he was in Los Angeles, and I was asked by his guitarist
if I wanted to come play drums on a song that he was recording. So I got to record with Bowie. I got to watch him
step in front of a microphone, do one take perfectly, and the sound out of his mouth
was David Bowie. It absolutely blew my mind. And then years later, I was asked to do a song
for a movie soundtrack. They didn't want the Foo
Fighters. They just wanted me. But I didn't feel comfortable
just doing a solo thing. So I thought, "Oh, I'll do
an instrumental track and have someone else sing." So I contacted Bowie. And I said,
"Here, listen to this thing. Maybe you'd like to sing on it." And time went by.
I didn't hear anything. Finally, I got an e-mail back,
and he said, "David, I like the instrumental,
but this time --" It was, like, a Marvel movie
kind of thing. He's like,
"This is not really my trip, not my genre of film and stuff. I'd love to work with you
at some point. But I don't think
this is the time." And so I'm sitting in my living
room reading this like, "Oh, my God,
David Bowie writes e-mails. This is blowing my mind
right now." So I immediately e-mailed back
something very -- I didn't want to take up
more of his time. -Yep.
-So I said, "Thanks for responding.
I hope you're well. Take care." And then one minute later
he e-mails back and he says, "Well, that's settled then. Now [bleep] off." -[ Laughs ] Come on. Come on! -And I'm like, "Oh, my God.
Holy crap. David Bowie just told me
to [bleep] off." And so I e-mailed back,
and I hadn't seen him since his birthday party
at Madison Square Garden. I said, "Well, I guess I'll see
you in another 15 years." And he goes,
"Not if I see you first." -He's being funny. -And I'm like --
Well, I didn't know that! I was like, "David Bowie
thinks I'm an [bleep]!" And so we went back and forth
until I realized like, "Oh, he's just being funny."
Whatever. But, yes, he was
an incredible guy. And we wound up having
these really funny e-mail exchanges
just out of the blue. Like, he would e-mail me
in like June and say, "Well, happy new year." And I'd be like, "What?" And so then we'd go
back and forth, and I'd say, "Drink some day, yes?" And he'd immediately e-mail back
and say, "I will, thanks." And I'm like --
I couldn't tell, you know. I'd say, oh, like,
he's on a health kick. I'm like, "Nuts and muffins?" And he'd e-mail back and say,
"Those are my attorneys." -[ Laughs ]
-[Bleep] like that. -Nuts and muffins. He's brilliantly funny. I remember I went to
some event once. And I went,
and I honestly put on a -- I was such a fashion victim,
but I put on a long raincoat, like, a tan raincoat
or something. And I walked in,
and I see Bowie. It's full-on
"Dancing in the Street." Basically I'm wearing that,
but I can't pull it off because I don't have
his face or anything. So I walk in,
and he's there with Iman, and I go, "How are you? He goes, "Raincoat? Really?" I was like,
"It's the whole thing." It's so embarrassing.
-Jimmy, oh, my God! You know what? Listen.
I just remembered. Remember the Fourth of July
at the White House? -[ Laughing ] Oh, my God.
-Remember the Fourth of July at the White House?
I just remembered this. -I was sweating my brains out. -I know because you were wearing
a three-piece suit. You looked like Mark Twain.
I don't know. You showed up
to the White House, and I remember we walked
upstairs to meet the President, and he's wearing, like, khakis
and Izod or whatever. And remember?
He was like, "Damn, man, you're a little
overdressed for a picnic." It was a picnic!
-Totally making fun of me. Michelle -- They were laughing
at me, because you guys come in. I see you. I go -- I'm opening up
for the Foo Fighters there. It's for veterans. It was an outdoor thing. I'll do a little stand-up,
something. I'm wearing a three-piece suit. I've never been invited to
the White House. I'm freaking out.
I see you. I go, "What's up?" And you're just cool and you're wearing, like,
board shorts or whatever. And you were like,
"Yeah, dude, are you hot?" And I go, "Yeah, I am.
It's like 100 degrees." And Taylor was like -- Dude.
I think Pat was like -- You all were kind of laughing
like, "Put a T-shirt on, man. You don't have to.
It's an outdoor event." I go, "I'm fine." And we all walked up. You guys talked to the President and Michelle for a while,
the First Lady. And then I got walked in,
totally covered in sweat. Sweating through my collar.
It was a different color shirt. And they both were laughing. And Michelle was like,
"Can I loosen your tie?" And, yeah,
President Barack Obama said, "Jimmy, didn't you get the memo?
It's a barbecue." -[ Laughs ] That's right! I remember. But you know what?
The other thing I remember is, like, when we first got there,
of course, you know, there's Secret Service and all this security and stuff
like that. And we're like --
It's us and a road crew. So, like, we're like pirates,
okay? We're setting up. And there was someone
that briefed us, and they basically said,
"Here's the deal. If anyone has
to use the bathroom, there's bathrooms over there,
there's bathrooms over there. Whatever you do,
don't go pee in the bushes, because there's people
in the bushes." We're like, "Wow!" -It's the White House. It's the White House.
-Yeah.
