Dave Grohl on Foo Fighters, Documentaries, and Modern Music | The Bill Simmons Podcast | The Ringer

Dave grows here we are taping this in the Sun Dance Studios we've talked about doing a pod for like I don't know years it's a whole 2010 yeah she's never happy even in a podcast with my buddy house last year you did a house of carbs with yeah better year ago and he even had you before I did but now we're finally here 2020 yeah we did it yeah I reached out to you I think it was what 2014 you did the follow-up documentary series to original documentaries I think was called sonic ass on highways yeah and I was like blown away by how good it was and I was like I just have to email this guy because I see so many bad documentaries and this was just a really cool idea for a show and then I was that you'll indeed one season you were done you know I wanted to do another I just fell into that documentary thing like I had never aspired to be like a director yeah make movies I love making music videos that's really fun right but those are like silent films it's like slapstick just physical comedy and [ __ ] so so the first documentary I did was this movie called Sound City that was a year before and that was a year before and not to say making documentaries is easy but if you have the right if you have the right people and you have the the right intention then to be able to go and meet your heroes yeah talk to them about something that you have in common and then put it all together in you know in like a in a three-part three-act story it could be really inspiring and all of this stuff The Sound City thing and the sonic highways then that was mostly meant to humanize music and the process of making it and so that it will inspire others to do well in the Brutis of it too and I'm sure everybody has their own favorite episodes I personally thought I thought the Seattle and I thought the DC bother DC wonder-working from I'm from Boston but house whose podcast you did last year yeah he's my best friend from college and just an all-time DC mid late eighties just the scene so I'd we'd already known about those bands when we were in college and he was listening Fugazi and the first Nirvana album and stuff like that and we were like what the [ __ ] are you listening to but he was years ahead of a lot of us well you know the greatest thing about that those smaller sort of independent or punk-rock music scenes was that it really was like a community yes and so in the sonic highways thing as we went from city to city you know the conversation was mostly about how the environment influences the music so why did Chicago end up a blues capital yeah where did jazz come from in New Orleans how did the Grand Ole Opry become like the Mother Church the place wherever so but in all of those places you realize that there really was a community of musicians and I honestly believe that when you put people together I like do you actually put people together in a space to be creative really great things happen and yeah you kind of can't do it by yourself you need to do it with other people because it's inspiring you know to be able to bounce ideas off of each other and those punk rock communities like the DC scene thought it was so good because nobody you had you were multiple bands but one of yours scream I was like four years yeah but it was great because like you you're on stage playing a show to all of your friends yeah and then you walk offstage and the next band up are your friends and now you're in the audience singing your friends on and they're really like nobody I don't think there was any I mean there certainly wasn't any career opportunity but I don't think anyone really thought too far outside of just like [ __ ] jamming like like I in DC when I was 16 or 17 I never learned to read music I can't read music I didn't think I could become a professional musician all I wanted to do was be the baddest [ __ ] drummer in town right like that was it that's what I was rehearsing for I wasn't thinking like I'm gonna make it to [ __ ] when we studio it was like I just want my friends to go like do that was [ __ ] amazing that's all I want you learned everything by ear right yeah because my son so my son is 12 and in the last nine months just decided I want to learn how to play the bass this is my thing right and really got into it plays most of it by ear but it's been so fun to just watch him fall in love with music yeah and listen to all these old albums and the crazy thing is it's the same album was forever it's you know it's it's ac/dc it's Led Zeppelin it's just the stuff from the 60s and 70s it's never gonna die and it's always gonna be for the 12 year old 13 year old you were like what were you like rush and a couple other ones where you're just like these are my bands I was a Beatles guy at first it was if that's how I learned how to play guitar which is just a songbook and Beatles records and then my stoner cousin gave me 2112 by Rush and that just [ __ ] changed everything I was like so so you're just gravitated to the drummer well it's the first time I really heard the drums you know the inrush the drums are like a prominent element in every song yeah and because the way Neil Pierre would would write his parts as it was the composition of his drum parts was as integral as as a lyric so like you a really musical drummer and so that's why they're like everybody air drums along to Rush songs which I happen to think is that that's that's the key that's if you if you make a song and people air drum to it that don't play the drums people that don't know what they're doing right which usually leads to some of the most awkward way people moments about that of course in the air tonight Phil Collins yeah yeah the thing right if you get one of those in your life or in your career then you're gold dude that's amazing but you know it's funny that your son's 12 years old my mother wrote this book a few years ago about mothers of musicians yeah it's called from the cradle to the stage and she interviewed like 20 different moms mothers from mothers of artists from different parts of the country different genres of music different religions different race they all raised these kids that became legendary musicians dr. Dre Michael Stipe yeah Zac Brown Pharrell people like that you'd think that there wouldn't be like any sort of common parallel because everybody is so different but all of the stories are almost exactly the same that in this window of 10 to 13 years old 11 to 13 yeah all of these kids decided they wanted to become musicians and I think it's because that's it's that it's those years where you start to discover identity yeah and you start you start connecting with music you hear a song or there's an instrument or something and you kind of gravitate towards it and decide like oh this is me right like I'm a rush guy now right so I love rush or I start playing the drums and I'm like oh I'm a drummer but it has so much to do with identity and in if if you're if your kid gets the bug or the spark and they're like and they go headfirst into the music thing and you have a parent that supports or facilitates it and lets them know like yeah that's okay that's you so you do your thing yeah they honestly will go on and do great things it's funny that he gravitated to the bass the same way you gravitated to the drums bass is the best just so you know and I don't I don't hear music like that and I think I do think there's two types of people when they listen to music and some people can just hear the different things and in other people just list what do you think of when you listen to music I use a lyric or you just kind of I like it I like things that groove but I also you know we're I think we're the same age we had an awesome his 1969 right we had an awesome kind of arc you know where we where when I forget when I started buying cassettes and stuff like that but we really only had 12 15 years of music to buy from him you know was really like eight sixties on and then you start adding but then like the whole college rock scene starts taking up and then all these genres popping out and it all leads to you know though eighty nine to ninety five stage which you were probably above them but yeah I feel really lucky now I look at I look at the kids now there's so much music I don't even they everything is so splintered they have sixty sixty five years of music to listen to well it and and they do that's the things is that a good thing or a bad it's almost like overwhelming well it could be I suppose because you it's heart so hard to have the same common things with your friends cuz they might be going this way you're going this way but in a way that sort of diversity is exciting because you know so my oldest daughter Violet she's thirteen she will listen to Johnny Mathis really and then she'll listen to Slipknot and then she'll listen to Stevie Wonder and then she'll listen to Eloise who's like a artist from England that not a lot of people know about but is so outrageously talented and then she'll listen to like she's just so olives she's trying to get me into the misfits yeah like I never got into the misfits so now my 13 year old kid is like dad listen to this misfits song I'm like but but it's cool because all of those things I think it's the volume or the the amount of music that they have access to is a lot more than when we were a kid but I think the effect is probably the same so for most musicians most musicians just learn from the artists that they love and take whatever it is that those artists have turn it into their own and then it becomes something new or something else and so to get like if my daughter made a record that was kind of like Slipknot but also kind of like Johnny Mathis I would [ __ ] buy that [ __ ] well it's funny with that age they gravitate to riffs yes and I noticed my son he just has he's like a jukebox with riffs there's a couple of your songs on it too but this Chili Peppers have a bunch one where it's just at the beginning of a song and he's just trying to just get it get it get every piece of Ray that start again start again and just kind of keep going and my brain never worked though I was always a writer I'd never I saw that means excite of it but when you when you were getting in the drums oh it was Bonham guy from Rush was that was that like the bird and magic of that era the 2112 record was really the first time I listened to drums on a record I was like oh listen to like I'm like oh my god like the Beatles didn't have that going on they had a whole different kind of drummer ring does just like laying it down and has a really signature sound and feel like you could tell when Ringo's playing drums and then I hear this record where it's like drums all over the place I'm like oh my god this is and course that the kind of kid you were were you like energy no the energy they're just as such a spaz yeah like I've calmed down I'm practically comatose compared to what I was when I was [ __ ] 10 years old I was a nightmarish hyperactive spaz yeah so but having like not learned how to read music I can kind of see it so if I hear a song I sort of see the arrangement in my head almost like blocks or like Legos or something like that they're just pieces and there's stacked in in the composition of all the how its put together I don't know how to explain it but it's just a certain level of genius to it though I think right like you either have it or you don't have it no but I do think you know it's if I started to notice it with my kids when you could tell if they have like a patterned mind yeah you know when they're young you in the kindergarten or preschool they do these little pattern games like Apple Apple orange orange Apple Apple you know and so you can tell if a kid has a pattern mine if you have a patterned mind and you have an ear where you can like sort of discern or figure out pitch or inflection pitch is big too but all of those things if you put that together with a pattern mind then you'll hear something it's almost like a you know some of the does impersonations or impressions yeah it's pretty much the same thing if your ear can sort of like signal that part of your brain to do that with your mouth then you could you know you could play a rush song on a guitar I was mad at figuring out I hung out with the South Park guys were preparing an episode once and Bill Hader was there and they could just on the fly just imitate anybody and there was some come up and then they they were just like speaking this line I'm just kind of sitting there oh my god and they could just imitate anybody's vocal inflection do any celebrity just seamlessly but it was like that right where you just some people can hear that a different way but then I mean it also has a lot to do with the drive yeah you know like nobody wants to [ __ ] sit at a piano and have some smack your hand with a ruler and say do it again do again do it again that's just like the drummer is the most physically taxing of the four and you see you know you see these dudes like the guy on YouTube he's got like the special chair now and yeah it's almost like being in football where you're I don't know like a like a middle linebacker or something you're just cream and dudes for eight nine years and it's like you can't do it like it'll beat you down you can't do thirty five years of it without you know at I mean if there's ways to do it let me use my face and postures here but you you move to a guitar and you were able to you know pick your spots yeah I've always been impressed by the physical longevity and stress of that position well you know this is like I know that some 51 like you think I'm gonna be screaming [ __ ] best of you when I'm 75 years old there's no way absolutely no I'll try you'll be in a stool with it acoustic guitar real chair yeah so it so you kind of know and in a way you know rock and roll is a young man's game right yeah it did that you know a younger generation and the rebellious nature of someone that you know wants to go out and say [ __ ] you and take on the world I'm not that's not where I'm at anymore that's where I was when I was you're in the part of the journey all the money is though because you look at the concert tours it's all know it's true you look at the concert tours and it's all acts that have been around because the people that love them the most are the people relatively within 10 15 years of the age yeah and those are the ones who have money to spend on the major tickets so I'm making a documentary right now I'm making a few but I'm making a documentary it's up to stuff I'm a spaz dude I can't help it you have to do like five things coffee so so I'm making a movie about vans and van touring because back in the day that's how younger independent bands that the van was the tour bus for the punk rockers in the yabbies everybody had a van even before like long before vans go way back who's the poor man's bus absolutely and so so I've interviewed I've interviewed everybody and you'd be surprised like the Beatles toured in a van yeah Guns N'Roses Metallica you to everybody their favorite memories right just all being trapped together absolutely well I mean I think that they're pretty happy with the way things turned out yeah but yes I mean I'm the most nostalgic yes and there's something about there's something about that time you know it's like you wear it like a badge hey like oh [ __ ] yeah I toured in a van for five years sleeping on floors eatin you know butter sandwiches and getting paid two dollars a night and in a way I can't remember we're talking about before that but in a way that the movies more it's the movies not so much about like really awesome van tour anecdotes which it is there are many but it's more about the drive to do it like why do why would anyone give up everything quit their job leave the leave home leave everything behind just to chase this dream with no guarantee that you're ever gonna make it and you starve and you bleed and you're sick and you're pissed and you get taken to jail and you get in fights and Ebola and but you always get to the next gig like you always get to the next gig and so you'd be surprised everybody has the same story and it is absolutely a key to success yeah you have to have that [ __ ] thing you have to have the thing if you're just kind of doing it it's just not gonna work out but if you have that thing we're like I can't survive unless I thought could do this that's what you have to do it's really it's it's pretty it's pretty great to to hear your heroes go back to those years when they were a kid and talk about like there's nothing more in life that I wanted to do and then to see their dreams actually come true and it's those musicians the ones that started for that reason I have to do this I just have to [ __ ] do it they're the ones they're all still doing it for that same reason I have to do it what the [ __ ] else am I gonna do like I have to do this if I don't do this I just feel Hollow and I just feel [ __ ] but just to hear you know someone like Ringo Starr talked about being in the band and the van with the Beatles and he talks it's just like he's a [ __ ] 16 year old kid when he talks about it you're like and he changed the world there's so few good movies about bands that get it correctly and it's like like almost famous is probably one of the most memorable ins any catches I'm right at that point when they're about to go from being on the bus every day - all right it's time to go to plane so we can make more money and fly around did you ever see the documentary dig what's it about it's about two bands it's about a this band called the Brian Jonestown Massacre it's now forgetting the other bands name they had a big hit crap doesn't drive me crazy it's gonna come to me anyway it's about two bands that meet they're both in the underground yeah become like best friends because they're sort of they're like brother-sister bands they're just exactly they're made to be together one of them starts gets used to get hugely famous Dandy Warhols set so it was Danny Warhol start to get like really begging some success and Brian Jonestown Massacre are like they're they're insane the singer is like this really striking beautiful [ __ ] crazy figure that's she's like mesmerizing but he's kind of a little crazy and the band start going like this and it kind of I mean I don't give away the ending but it gets to the point where they're not really friends anymore now this band that's huge is afraid that this band is stalking them this is [ __ ] true but how and it it winds up in it it's not a happy and she says it's one of the greatest [ __ ] documentaries I've ever seen I don't know I haven't seen that one cuz most movies like the end is like but this one is just like I love amazing I love all content about bands when they hit that point where they're they're gonna stay together break up everybody get sir because they that that first part of the Eagles Part 1 which is basically those the arc and then the fall but like it's I'm so into it it's so good though all the beats of it but then there's been some other ones that people like there was one about you to which I don't even think people know they hit that point where it was like yeah and then they end up their manager ends up trapping them and some castle in Germany and they end up making Achtung Baby but it seems like the shelf life is I don't know six to ten years and everybody starts either the band's gonna stay together it's gonna implode and those are the two options and if they can somehow stay together then they can keep going it's not easy you know like we've been a band now for 25 years but you must state a point what's a way you must hit a point there in the oh I'm sorry years it's seven years it's usually as you get the seven-year itch yeah you're like why am i doing this do I really want to do this anymore and then you feel the pressure to do it you're like [ __ ] that that's not why I started doing this in the first place and then everything goes better [ __ ] you all and then you decide you're gonna bail and then three months later you're like I miss you guys and then you start doing it again I mean that's sometimes that's what happened with us but do you remember the big conflict yes yeah so this is in like 2000 2000 or 2001 so you've had multiple giant albums at this point not really you know it's funny aren't our sort of path has been really gradually comfortable you know I felt like you were big I saw you in Worcester and in Boston or not Boston back then Foxborough we sighted in Worcester and was it that weird weird theater there yeah it was [ __ ] awesome I read actually that was really good the acoustics were good in that cuz it just went up I just remember it just didn't seem like a place to have a rock show but it was really cool yeah um but now it's weird like you know when we started it we just it was when we started it wasn't even a band it was just a demo tape I made by myself yeah I played all the instruments I did it in five days I thought it was really fun Nirvana was over I didn't have anything to do I was depressed and I thought you know what [ __ ] that I'm gonna put just go to the studio and record some [ __ ] by myself recorded it I mean a hundred cassettes I mean I made a little cover looks at I call it Foo Fighters because I didn't want people to think it was me I wanted to be like others newb and it's really cool when really it was just one person and then that starts getting out and whatever and then and we I'd call Pat and I call Nate and we start the band anyway then we tore our [ __ ] asses off and then the second album I'm like okay let's make let's this is probably gonna be the last record we ever make so let's really make it good so we really worked on that like ever long and my hero and monkey ranch stuff like that that that would like we we produced that we worked on that with a great producer and then after that we were let out of our record contract does the technicality the president of the company we had a key man Klausen he bailed so we're like cool now we're [ __ ] not even we do whatever we want so we had this easy out that was like okay dude you want to keep doing we're not obligated to do this should we keep doing it and I had just moved back to Virginia where grew up I built a studio in my basement I'm like let's just [ __ ] make a cool record and have fun every day we like barbeque at night we'd [ __ ] shoot hoops in the daytime drink Coors Light all day long it was spring and Virginia we just made this record and once we were done then we said to the record companies like okay who wants it and then we did a deal but it's kind of been like this but you know inevitably after at some point you question why you're doing it and the the thing that got weird with us was I had we were making a record and it just wasn't working out our fourth record just didn't sound good didn't feel good we weren't into it and then in the meantime my buddy Josh from Queens of the Stone Age had just bailed his drummer and he's like dude I got two weeks can you come just do the drums on the record and they were like my favorite band they were [ __ ] amazing and we're good friends you known each other for 30 years a long time I guess I had to plan at Queens the Stone Age record so go on and record the Queens and it was kind of the opposite of what we were doing what we were doing was like okay all right let's just put this bass down let it but the Queens of Stone Age thing was like this collective lightning bolt of like gold let's do this tracking live and like you're on the same room like face-to-face like yeah who's [ __ ] mean like it was too hungry it was great and um so I go do that and it's [ __ ] bad-ass I was like oh this is good those guys are really good they're [ __ ] great this there they are I really I've always said that they are when they hit the stage they're the best rock band in the world like nobody even gets close there's amazing live bands who write powerful songs Rage Against the Machine there's amazing live bands that can make an audience go like this The Prodigy stuff like that yeah but like for musicality and as a musician you sit and watch queens of stone it you know like that's not fair right what the [ __ ] like everybody in the band is a [ __ ] bad ass and I know it so anyway so I made that record and it was almost like you had an affair yeah I was like yeah I'm gonna do this thing with this other band and so and it was the first time I play drums really since Nirvana yeah and I [ __ ] miss it you know like it's hard for me I can't just go join some [ __ ] band I have to join a band where I'm just like yeah you know I got really [ __ ] be into it and so I'll send a minute and into it the songs are [ __ ] great and I'm [ __ ] but it were great and I thought okay and then I tried finding them a drummer I'm like here's you get try this guy what about this guy and then I thought okay before they get a drummer who's way [ __ ] better than me let's just do one show and we did a show at the Troubadour and at the end of that show Mark Lanegan who sent one of the singers in the band yeah he said man it'd be a shame if that's the only time we did that and so meanwhile I'm [ __ ] making a record over here that is kind of uninspired and then I'm over here kicking [ __ ] ass I'm like you know what I need to like go do this and the guys were bummed they're like okay bye and it turned into it turned into something that wasn't gonna end well and then that Coachella was coming up Foo Fighters were playing one day Queens the Stone Age were playing another day and um I thought it was gonna be our last show I thought like okay this is it I just [ __ ] a 2002 or something yeah mm wanna and so you're right that six seven-year range right there and then we and then did both and somehow everyone just went okay and we kept going but you know at this point it's like I always say that it's like we can't break up now that's like your grandparents getting a divorce like why even the [ __ ] that you're gonna do so why'd it like we just have to just write it as could still sell out stadiums though mm-hmm that's the case I would say don't break up but you know what a lot of people do a lot of people the police did it right here's the police it's the all-time best beginning middle end it's angry because they didn't even say like [ __ ] you I quit we're breaking up she's never said it they've never said a word it disappeared for 20 [ __ ] years and then it was like the police are coming back you're like oh like [ __ ] all of us were so excited and then we go to see him play stadiums everywhere they go go to see him play and it's the [ __ ] police they sound and look like the [ __ ] police unfortunately they intensely disliked one another that was a problem it happens it's that creative conflict that makes for good things that's one of the documentaries that nobody's really done correctly the police one that I'm just I'm just dying for and I don't know if it ever happened because all three of them would want input in it and it's just I don't feel I could ever happen it almost all have to be dead I think the hardest thing would be to find a director that's gonna put their [ __ ] hand in that wasp nest like I've been asked before it like will you do a documentary on blah blah blah will you do a documentary on blah blah blah and their bands that are just like [ __ ] hate each other and the story is amazing but I'm not getting the middle of that [ __ ] right take a look that was the Eagles one was as close as anyone got because oh good because they it's basically Frey and Henley are doing it yeah but there's this whole unsaid piece to it that they allude to but it's clear the band broke up because of those two guys yeah and they're like here are these other factors and our other guitarists to use a pain in the ass and he wanted to be in victim of love and but it was really those two guys in the fact that Henley ascended Frey and initially Frey same orbit and Henley was a drummer who sang sometimes and then it turns out Henley has one of the best voices of you know that entire generation and they're like hey you know who should sing the songs Don Henley and then you know fright you know what bothered Frey but they could never like diving in that part in a documentary that's it's hard and there's a wall shop and then wall Joe Walsh is just he's chainsaw in the hot tub he's a [ __ ] coolest yeah the coolest the king of what was he the king of room trash or restructure dirty it's like I remember being at dinner with him one time and everyone was sort of telling stories and stuff but there was some there was someone there that wasn't really aware of joe's history and she turns to Joe and she says were you were you like a big partier and Joe says he goes kind of because I was Keith Moon ish well that was his mentor of course amazing but you know it's when I was I didn't grow up listening to the Eagles I'd be there like I didn't really like them that much the documentary and I was like sorry Jason like I never I just didn't like him yeah and then I saw that movie and how [ __ ] like I mean they were they were like a they were like the usual suspects like they were [ __ ] like these mean assassin [ __ ] singing like peaceful easy feeling right watch that I'm like this is great I think I like the Eagles though this is [ __ ] right stories about how he came up with songs where he's just going so I'm riding in a car with a drug dealer 90 miles an hour and he says life in the fast lane I'm like that's a song I'm like a tit there's no way this happens rock'n'roll yeah it happens like that the the the police one is sitting there but I don't think whatever happened the Nirvana one can't happen right no we could happen yeah absolutely you did it a little bit in the sonic highways yeah yeah you dabbed it but no I mean you know things are good like if if we're if everybody put their heads together and really wanted to do something like that I'm sure we could do it like I don't think it would be it's not impossible it's just a matter of like there's another rights that screwed up why what's that is another right stuff that goes real issue okay I have to be perfectly honest I don't [ __ ] you don't even understand it no right I don't like I'm that guy that I have kept blissfully outside of most of the business stuff that we do yeah conceptually I have you know I've had the same manager for 30 years I've had the same accountant for 30 years I've had that same monitor guy for 30 years we all started in the [ __ ] van and it went and here we are and so we've learned everything along the way but we we learned to love each other and become like this family so anything we do we like you know we kind of protect what we have and so but I still to this day like I don't want to [ __ ] know about money I know it sounds shitty but I never had anyone I was [ __ ] young right mom is a public schoolteacher lived in a house in Springfield Virginia worked at a [ __ ] furniture warehouse wanted to go to Parsons to be a [ __ ] commercial art design guy - [ __ ] stupid - [ __ ] poor that wasn't gonna happen so I played drums in punk rock band worked at the [ __ ] Furniture Warehouse and was totally happy like I didn't need more and then when the whole thing [ __ ] went nuts it was just like oh my god this is [ __ ] cool like I bought a [ __ ] I mean the first thing I bought I got 400 bucks I think I was 21 and honestly that was like pretty much the most cash I'd ever had in my hand I bought a [ __ ] BB gun a Nintendo and some whippits back then but so but I don't like when I work with people I don't want to have I don't I prefer it to not be a business relationship yeah I like to work with people on a personal level - so that you're doing thing my guitar tech when he hands me my guitar I don't want him to hand it to me because he's getting paid I want him to hand it to me so that I go out there because he wants me to go out there and [ __ ] shred yeah and that's kind of how it works so I don't know like I don't know how I don't know how much my guitar tech gets paid I don't know how much my [ __ ] tour manager get paid and I tell everybody I don't want to know don't [ __ ] tell me ever so I have no idea so to me it's not a business it's a [ __ ] group of people that have known each other for a quarter of a century that just [ __ ] party right it's [ __ ] great so with the Nirvana stuff I mean it's complicated obviously it's more complicated than most situations but um but anything's possible if people actually want to do something then yeah but I wouldn't [ __ ] director that's for goddamn sure what's here yeah I wouldn't expect you with what's your feeling on bands as we head into the 2020s just in general where there's lots of seams it's in now but just like I think if we've learned anything over the years it's the individual artist is gonna get more attention make more money the whole thing because we have this whole 60 year history of oh bands broke up because this one person was bigger than the other people sharing all the profits he's like well [ __ ] that I'll just do this myself yeah and then also the way the way I don't know the internet social media and all day it's all geared toward one person do you feel like the concept of a band is gonna start drifting away no so you're optimistic absolutely okay well just as you said like kids are listening to music now the same way we listen to music when we were young cuz I'm optimistic too because I saw I see with my son I'm like maybe this circles back and we have like a renaissance of people who want to be in bands and gang because we're cool yeah to jam with some in what a lot something that not a lot of people think about is the the interaction between musicians while they're playing so I've been in bands before like my high school band like the drummer was like in the Key Club and then the [ __ ] singer was like the quarterback of the football team and then right the other guy was like the weird nerd that's in science club or whatever and then we didn't the only thing we really like connected and had in common was when we played like jumpin Jack flash or something like that so you could communicate with someone without words right and there's some socialization than that in in it sort of teaches you how to how to be with other people playing music it's a great way to bring people together it's like a basketball Tim it is very similar I did too just as I have this thing where drummers I was a goalie my whole life like I did and I don't know anything about sports but yeah at all I was a [ __ ] I was I was a soccer goalie from the time I was six years old totally missed 13 years old and that's a psychotic position and then of course and then a lacrosse goalie Oh high schools can be belted yeah but there is something there's something similar it's similar to being a drummer like this the [ __ ] buck stops here like you're the goalie it's your [ __ ] ass and those guys it's and in a band the band is only as good as its drummer and this is absolutely true no question it's a [ __ ] stupid cliche but it it's true I wrote this whole thing I'm going to say 2013 do you know enough to know LeBron James and I know clean Wade when they joined in Miami with Chris Bosh was the big three and what that was the best one but the dynamics were basically like a band Bosh was this guy who could have been the best guy on a good team on this team he was the third best guy so he was kind of the basis and then Dwyane Wade could have easily been the best guy on a great team but now he's with LeBron LeBrons the lead singer and Wade's like the guitarist and that's amazing it's very it only lasted four years cuz it's a point did they just live rounds like now I'm gonna go here yeah they want two titles that made four finals but Bosh was the one who had to sacrifice and then I don't know who the drummer was in the scenario I guess it was the other nine guys because if the if the other guys don't make some big shots make some good see you know you need eight guys to win a title right and that's kind of the drummer if you have only the three but you don't have the supporting cast you're not winning I don't know if that made sense recently I interviewed the edge from YouTube o for this project that I'm doing and and he was talking about like how you two got together yeah and you know since [ __ ] high school it's the only band they've ever been in there a bunch of Irish kids yeah didn't like but yeah there's a kid that's got a drum set and right and um but he was very open about how YouTube does one thing really [ __ ] good but if but anything outside of the way they do it is kind of a challenge for them yeah you know like they couldn't go play Frankenstein by having a winner or they don't mean like they they do that you to thing which they [ __ ] invent it like that is their thing and the reason why the reason why it came from them is that it's a combination of specific elements like I I believe in bands because when I go to record demos or like the first Foo Fighters record that's not a band that's me playing the stuff so that's one lens or one perspective on how this song should be when you're in a group of people whether it's three people or five people whatever it is everybody's gonna hear and then and see the song differently so it's almost like everyone takes their corner of this thing and just stretches it out like that and it becomes bigger because it's the energy of all the different people and their vision in movies it always takes three minutes for them to figure out the hit song really well somebody has the riff and then some other guy and then uh oh yeah I'll sitting there play their plate in the finished product but you know it's I mean there's sometimes that's how we just finished making a record yeah and um and some of those songs sometimes the best ones happen in 45 minutes yeah like I have an idea and it starts with a drumbeat and then I do weird percussion thing put down like a scratch guitar really quickly okay let me go write some lyrics really quick I sit down like a little bit and then [ __ ] and within 45 minutes it's like oh my god that's maybe one of the best things we've ever written in our lab in lives then there's other songs that there's a riff on the new record I've been working on for 25 [ __ ] years like 25 years first time I demoed it was in my [ __ ] basement in Seattle and every record I might oh let's put it on and like didn't work let's put it on anyway so that one so sometimes it's 45 minutes sometimes it's 25 [ __ ] years well what is some a couple of the Foo Fighters songs initially you worked on when your stolen Nirvana yeah messing around yeah because well I wouldn't let anyone hear him yeah I bet it sounded like [ __ ] I don't like my [ __ ] voice I was like I just did it for fun it was it's kind of therapeutic you know to be able to write and then perform some what was Kurt's reaction when you would be like hey I have this idea for a bank well first of all I mean I didn't come well he's you know one of the greatest song matters of all that's a tough one yes so you don't want to [ __ ] it say hey that's the famous bad idea is what the weather drummer last thing the drummer said before we got kicked out of the band he goes so you know I didn't want to like interrupt the process we had it good it's like all I had to do was beat the [ __ ] [ __ ] out of the drums like I'm playing disco rate right like all nevermind that all that stuff those drum parts that's the Gap Band I just explaining this to someone recently I'm like oh yeah this gap in and like what I love disco I always have the [ __ ] Gap Band like burn rubber on me when is I jacked abduct objected but that's all okay see that's the whole go-go influence and all that stuff well there's a lot of good yeah I mean DC and gogo and funk is huge but anyway so when you have like those three simple elements it's like don't rock the [ __ ] boat and there was one time where I recorded something that I was really proud of and yeah man I recorded this song at a studio in my basement I played it for Kurt and he was really excited about it and he he liked the riff and the melody but he didn't he didn't really like the lyric and so but he was sort of he didn't want to ask if he could change the lyric because he didn't want to you know like offended me or something which of course I would have said like yeah do you think why do you think I'll be great but he never did but so I would just do these things and just listen to them by myself and be like okay that's cool and then I try it again it was almost like I was you know would shedding or whatever just trying to figure out how to do it and then when the band was over is like I didn't want to [ __ ] play music at all just didn't want to listen to music I was like [ __ ] music bad this is this is [ __ ] a drag and then I realized like wait a minute that's the one thing that like actually heals me and makes me feel good I should [ __ ] go make some music and I had these 20 songs that I did nobody never and then you were out yeah do you think because fundamentally that ban you could have had three people and filled a stadium if you really wanted to and I think the police were like that too and there's certain bands where three people can do all the work of a four person fan in sports if we were like yeah this NBA team they only play four dudes not five but they're still smoking everybody else we would like that's amazing any music there don't think it's credit for that I always thought that was weird well if I totally do need four but it like technically you could have had three and been and done like a whole thing okay so no nobody's ever brought this up to you like well now it's interesting because I think that like it's never so planned I don't think it's always like I know a guy with the drum set or I know that I've wrote these songs hate call blah blah blah it's get some beers and jam that's kind of I mean that of course that's like the cool organic way to do stuff but you basically need somebody who would be able to have to do two of there's 4 jabs total you would need one person has to be able to two of the four to have a three person thingy did you see that thing recently it came out after Neil Pierre died it was on the internet it was some dude listening to rush for the first time right not a rush man I was a black guy I love that guy I've tweeted a bunch of and and one of his quotes was like hold up hold up everything there's no way this is only three people and with it with a trio I've been in a few bands with only three people and that much space lends to bigger noise yeah the times when you've got like a thousand people on stage it's just like but when it's like a [ __ ] drum beat a great bass player a great and a great song I mean it honestly just comes down to like is it a good song yeah if it's a good song it could be [ __ ] a hundred people or one it's a good song that's what's gonna come through but but trio's man it's honestly a three-piece band i [ __ ] love him rush police cream I mean there's so many that are so [ __ ] good that guy I became obsessed with him for like a week and then I got Jimmy Kim obsessed with them and then I asked him to listen to dream on cuz he hadn't listened to that yet and he took the request that he listened to dream on and he just like he did the whole like he was having a seizure a couple of times I mean those it's funny how the 70 stuff it's just not gonna die you know and like something with Metallica I had somebody told me who's in the industry about how with Metallica every year there's another 12 or 13 year okay it was just gonna be like these are my guys without a doubt and it's just gonna go on forever as long as we have music well I mean I remember when I first like I tried to pray and watch my [ __ ] kids with the Beatles I was like before you go to jail yeah like yes dude [ __ ] sergeant pepper's or whatever and so then I bought them a record player a turntable which to them is like you know it's like a [ __ ] steam engine there but the and I got the Beatles records this box that thing of all the vinyl and I sat there and I watched them listen to records they're sitting on the floor the album covers are all over the floor they're reading the liner notes they're looking at the pictures they're turning it over they're playing it they're singing along and it was honestly exactly the same way everybody has listened to Beatles songs right forever like since the Beatles started that's how you [ __ ] do it because it's an experience when you do when you do that I think it should be at least that we said that they were having an experience like it a tangible like experience an aesthetic experience where they we're like hearing the music and seeing the images and touching things and like that so yes that can still happen I think it will still happen just as people are gonna ear son is a [ __ ] he's a bass player he's not going solo dude he's a [ __ ] bass player okay maybe he moves too good tired so put on and out or now that works you never know but he's gonna wind up with someone and they're gonna Jam and they're gonna become friends and they're gonna write some songs and they're gonna that's how that's ready to happen and they're gonna he's got this whole hip-hop world to this so he's like between these two worlds where he's doing all that but he does have he has these two friends that he just they have sleepovers you know they're 12 and then they make songs and that's what they do for eight hours and I'm like all right you definitely have the book I'm not sure where this is going but just kind of stay out of the way and let it go yeah I mean I think it's also you know one or the one of what now he has somewhere to go when he doesn't know how to explain himself or now he has somewhere to go when he's gonna write a song about how much he [ __ ] hates you yeah that'll hurt well he'll never say it to your face dad sucks well he just well you know recently recently there was this benefit show in Los Angeles I was for The Art of Elysium yeah that they do over here Linda Perry was putting the whole thing together the producer Linda Perry and I know her through things and she called and said hey will well the Foo Fighters play at this thing and it was around Christmas some of the guys were out of town I was like well we can't do it because some of the guys are gone and she said well could you like could you just do it is there any way you could just do it it'd be really help and it'd be it's great cause and she sent me all the info and I was like yeah I could probably do it I said let me put together a band and then I was thinking about it I'm like [ __ ] maybe I'll call Chris and Pat you know Chris massage from Nirvana and pap smear and we were in Nirvana together I'm like maybe like I'll call them with a she only wanted us to do three songs I'm like maybe I'll call them so I text them all I'm like you guys want to do this thing they were like [ __ ] yeah and I feel I could he want to play and there was once when we performed it a Clive Davis party and Beck did man who sold the world with us yeah and Beck's awesome like he's just the [ __ ] coolest I was like you want me to cut let me call back let see it backs around I text back I'm like human do man's own the world is that [ __ ] Lillee I'd be great [ __ ] and then Annie Clark st. Vincent Annie Clark I'm like we Jam 2/3 before I'm like oh [ __ ] maybe we could do something with Annie so she's like what do you want to do I'm like [ __ ] let's do a Sabbath song the first song off of [ __ ] sabotage which is uh I can't really move it now anyway like yes it'll be great be super fun and then I was like well I'll call Joan Jett because we jammed with her before - she still got it by the way she's saying at WrestleMania amazing Phil has the fighters yeah she did she's great she sang Ronda Rousey's entrance ugh I mean she's gotta be she's definitely older than us yes she still had the pipes she's a badass she's the real deal anyway I was gonna tell this other story about the Palladium thing about my dot so then I say I was like well maybe I violets in a song my daughter and she's like she's also one of our backup singers yeah so she's she's played to 80,000 people before she doesn't get nervous and she's right great she's really saying so I said a violet I'm like what do you want to do like a Bowie song or a cover or a Nirvana song she's like I want to do a Nirvana song cuz she's in a Nirvana phase unbeknownst that's phenomenal because she's she's that age and she's that kid like the whole Nirvana thing she's she's the audience we were connecting to 30 [ __ ] years ago so she's I coming to dinner Ivana song and I'm like oh okay what do you want to do and she's at heart-shaped box and I'm like really you had to pick the darkest [ __ ] Jesus balanced him I mean she's an artist though she is without question a deep talented brilliant person like I don't even think of it she's about to turn 14 I don't even think of her like she's a kid you know she and I like this we [ __ ] hang like she's cool she's like have you studied no Billy Irish phenomena yes so violet kind of got into Billy Eilish a couple years ago maybe a year and a half ago I'm same as Mike it's like year-and-a-half ago and she started listening to it and violet and I were going and whenever I would be asked to perform at a fundraiser a charity thing I'd always say hey by anyone come sing a song with me and you go okay and we'd she would do like a an Adele song or a Beatles song or something Blackbird so she goes dad I want you to learn this song let's do this I'm like okay lerton the sug she's just [ __ ] assigned stuff to me to learn this I want to say that I'm like okay so and it was this song called I don't want to be you anymore yeah right and I'm listening to it I'm learning it I'm like who the [ __ ] is this yeah this is real like this is a real [ __ ] those lyrics and the voice Wow so I learn it and I say to her I'm like who's this she there's Billy Irish who's that she goes oh it's this girl's she's you know at the time I think she was maybe 14 or 15 or whatever it was and she said she goes she was like a SoundCloud thing and then she's got these songs like wow it's really good and so then we go and perform it and violets got a beautiful voice and it turns out great and then we went to go see her play she was playing at this festival thing in LA it's maybe your half ago and and she has this presence you know it's a real thing but what I started to notice was her connection to the audience and the audience is connection to her like it was that was real the vibe was like oh my god like this is an actual you know this is like this is like [ __ ] this is Morrissey you know this is it's almost like this is like a real thing not just music and some lights and [ __ ] this is like something bigger then we went to see her I think it was at The Wiltern and when we went to the Wiltern that's where I was like okay this is a revolution like this is [ __ ] all these kids are are gravitating towards this because they feel like her and those lyrics represent something that they connect to and it's dark [ __ ] [ __ ] you're not gonna get that from like the hot 100 person who's singing about something but that was the thing that was stunning to me like you know my daughter plays soccer we're driving around California and weekends and she's putting on the pop music station and it's like Sam Smith all those type of people like god bless all of them pretty bad for the most part just for me somebody that really loves a certain branded me is that gonna have [ __ ] she's gonna put her music on and then Billy I wish comes on it was like one of those like who's this you you know it just stood out in such a unique crazy way and I'm with you on the stage thing certain people Morrissey was like that especially in the 80s yeah where it's funny cuz I I loved REM I never felt like Michael Stipe was like that I felt like there was a connection that I was missing with him in the audience as brilliant as that guy was I never felt like locked in with him whereas other people I felt like locked in I think you've you guys have done a great job of that I think that's why people love coming in the concerts they feel like you know they can hang out with you after the show and they're just in you know some people don't the cure was another one that was like that because I used to love the Cure you go see them and he was just kind of like thank you and he'd go the next song and he just didn't really care that anybody was there on our last European tour of course I've like listened to the cure for the last 30 [ __ ] years who hasn't they're amazing [ __ ] amazing their songs are great I was never like a [ __ ] rabid cure devotee that was just like turned into someone in the car and on the last trip we did this these festivals in Germany over the summer there were two stages big stage over here big stars over here what in that band would end this band would start and that band would end this band would start pawing me back and forth and the Cure were the band on the other and on the other stage so and there at the like forty year mark at this point and it's like yeah they represent they have 40 year anniversary concert 2018 yeah well yes ok so then so they're over there are playing their [ __ ] arsenal of hits that everybody's grown up listening to loving and I was so [ __ ] like that to me that's that's one of the things I love the most to see these people survive yeah to see a band like Pearl Jam oh my god they survived so many people didn't and to see them still [ __ ] out there kicking ass they hit that point which point the breakup point yeah everybody does dude it's like pew mid-90s it's like it just happens and he had to take the band and once they all realize that they were fine really yeah cuz they brought him in they hired him anyway so [ __ ] pure plate over there we're playing over here and um so I give a big shout out to the Cure I'm gonna do for the gear goes nuts and uh then I was playing on a Bob Smith and said Robert go way back with I look over the side of stage and he's standing there watching us really yeah and it's like Robert Smith's 60,000 people big ass festival and he's on side of stage I'm like yes this is [ __ ] great so there's a break and I walk up to him someone's doing a solo or something and I'm like hey man how you doing and I said this next one's for you we walk out there and I go right into all my life and like when we do that it's like it's like a jaws movie yes I do and then when it goes BAM it kicks in the place [ __ ] goes insane it's the best feeling ever yeah every night it's [ __ ] awesome so lamp Anna Anna Anna and get the [ __ ] audience is going bananas and then we do a runner right off the stage into the van my tour manager texted me and says just you know Robert Smith is in the last man he wants to [ __ ] hang in the bar I was like yes dude I stayed up with Robert Smith this isn't a se535 morning yes the only guys in the bar for like five [ __ ] hours and he's like so who do you think in the Super Bowl yeah he was he's the greatest and absolutely real yeah like that whole thing his vibe the songs the lyrics the way it the sound that is him like that is how he is so you never really know so when you see something like that on the stage do you think to yourself let's just bring this dude out yeah well do that with Leslie do you know when we did that with Rick Astley I don't think I know this one okay so who doesn't love her come on he's a great athlete he's the best so there was some BBC thing where they wanted all of these current bands do covers for some BBC special and they wanted us to and we've Rick Rolled Westboro Baptist Church a few times yeah they come to our shows and they're like you're going to hell and so we always [ __ ] with them somehow right anyway so we're no stranger to never gonna give you up so I thought hey let's [ __ ] let's do our version of never gonna give you up for this BBC thing like cool we got to learn it we've got to practice it because when we get home from this trip we have to do it yeah backstage at our shows we have a [ __ ] jam room to warm up in so we show up to this festival in Tokyo the [ __ ] Tokyo Dome or whatever all these different bands playing and I look on the schedule and [ __ ] Rick Astley is playing at this festival too we missed him he played before us and I'm like oh my god [ __ ] it and but it reminded me I was like do you guys we have to learn this [ __ ] song cuz we got to go do it when in a week when we get home let's learn the song so me and Taylor is sitting there trying to learn it right the other guys come in the chapter said I have never gonna give you up works as a rock so I'll tell you it's the exact same arrangement as smells like teen spirit I'm not kidding I'm not joking one bit there's the intro there's the drum break there's the first there's a pre-chorus there's a reintroduce the riff it's the [ __ ] Sam and so and Pat starts we start playing it instead of it going then man let that down and totally joking we start going Andy and I could to get the good dad to get the cap antic it starts sounding like smells like teen spirit yeah and it's so funny we do it 10 times in a row dying laughing where's [ __ ] cracking up like oh my god it's the same song we're gonna let's play it so it sounds like smells like teen spirit same drum intro yeah and then we have to go on and were like cool it's gone so we go on to play and we're playing and I look over this is 20 minutes later I look over and Rick Astley's on the [ __ ] side of the stage you could see him from a mile away cuz he looks exactly the same right and I'm like and I someone's doing a solo I [ __ ] run up I'm like hey I'm Dave he's like hey man I'm Rick I'm like I know I said we just learned your [ __ ] song twenty minutes ago do you want to come out here and do it right now and he said [ __ ] yes we had just learned it 20 minutes before and I said it kind of we do it's sort of hard he's like [ __ ] you great I'll be fine dude we nailed it is this on YouTube yes I don't know how I missed this this is my wheel I've done it a few times now but yes this is I this two years ago it was such a triumphant momentous [ __ ] it was like all the stars aligned see I love crossovers and the Grammys always [ __ ] him up it's tricky though dude but when it works and I always wonder why I went to fleas charity better benefit like two months ago and Eddie was there yeah and then they all did like they were all just on the stage together and it was like this is cool Eddie and the Chili Peppers at work who's I wouldn't know sometimes it was like this is Eddie and Anthony together and it was just like this is something but I I like the crossovers you know dad they go bad it's hard there was a show Ken Ehrlich that produces the Grammys yeah from Chicago he used to have this show was called where that was basically what he would do he would take two artists I think this is in the 70s he would take two artists that seem unrelated and put them together on stage just to see what would happen yeah sometimes it worked sometimes it didn't with the Grammys it's kind of this it's a [ __ ] crapshoot but that's kind of when magic happens it's like when I [ __ ] when I see someone in the audience it's got a sign League doing [ __ ] money here or whatever yeah if I'm in the mood or if I'm [ __ ] feeling like this [ __ ] needs to like bump up a little bit I'll look and see someone that wants to play on the song and I'll go do you [ __ ] know the song do you actually [ __ ] know it I'm like yeah and if it's great and a total stranger if they come up on stage and it's great it's amazing if they come up stay on stage and [ __ ] the bed it's amazing like you kind of can't go wrong well the best one I think of all time was when Prince after George Harrison died still sure I agree that's and it was faces I was like look at iris the prince is like hey guys hold my parish veils oh my god that's hot that's the best kiss man all right we gotta go I think I could really have a piss yeah I did too this is great we're two old people that hey thank you [Music] you

Channel: Bill Simmons

Views: 398,114

Keywords: The Ringer, Bill Simmons, The Bill Simmons Podcast, Dave Grohl, Sundance, Live From Sundance, Live Podcast, Podcast, Music, Rock Music, Rock n Roll, Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, Sound City, Sonic Highways, Nirvana, Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl Interview, Music Documentaries, Billie Eilish

Id: nyx9ZRsd0X0

Length: 65min 39sec (3939 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 12 2020