Dave Grohl South By Southwest (SXSW) 2013 Keynote Speech in Full

were recorded at Sound City and we're lucky to have a bunch of them here with us today in these interviews they'll tell you we had to play at 50 a hundred times we had to play it so many times we want to hear that song for another year but if you wanted a song to sound perfect you had to play it perfectly so musicians out there practice your craft until it hurts and if you want to see how it is done right go see the one and only Sound City players tonight and they are going to rip the face off of Stubbs so without further ado it is my honor to welcome South by Southwest 2013 keynote speaker mr. Dave Grohl good morning love look a few okay please have a seat I got these at the drugstore cuz I'm going blind I hope hope it still look like a rockstar thank you South by Southwest very much for allowing me the incredible opportunity of being this year's keynote speaker having been raised by a former DC political speech writer and a former public speaking teacher it's practically written in my DNA zipper that I should feel the insatiable need to stand in front of a room of total strangers and [ __ ] them as a child my father's lectures were legendary and frequent great works of literature that stay with me to this day and if anything taught me how to give long [ __ ] lectures myself not long ago I was lucky enough to sit down with another one of my favorite public speakers the one the only mr. Bruce Springsteen Bruce as you would imagine is a warm funny brilliant man and a wonderful dinner guest I congratulated him on last year's amazing keynote quoting his insight and his humor and then I told him that this year's keynote speaker was me he stared at me for a moment slowly cracked that famous smile that we all know and love the smile that can light up an entire stadium and then he started laughing at me as if to say good [ __ ] luck buddy but truth be told that's not the first time anyone's ever said that to me so it's without a doubt my musical life's greatest honor to be asked to share with you what I know about music so what do I know the musician comes first my mother tells me that I was born to applause the morning of January 14th 1969 there was a class of young doctors in a small delivery room in Warren Ohio there to witness their first live birth as I was born the room burst into applause my first moments in this world hanging upside down covered in blood screaming as I'm being spanked by a complete stranger perhaps the most appropriate preparation for becoming a working musician now before we go any further I have to thank someone I have to thank Edgar Winter for allowing Keitel records to include his legendary instrumental Frankenstein on their 1975 blockbuster compilation it was this record that my sister and I bought at the drugstore down the street and brought home to play on the public school turntable that my mother would borrow from school on the weekends it was this record that changed my life a veritable who's who of 1975 radio hits but it wasn't KC and the Sunshine bands that's the way I like it that made me want to pick up the dusty old guitar in the corner now and it wasn't Dave Loggins please come to Boston or silver conventions fly Robin fly that made me want to jump in a van and leave the world behind for music no it was it was a riff I gave it all up for a [ __ ] riff interestingly enough though that song is completely instrumental there's no vocal it's drums guitars keyboards percussion each getting a solo in the song no vocals but what I heard in all of those solos were voices the voices of each musician their personalities their technique their feel the sound of people playing music with other people it made me want to play music with other people too so it wasn't long until I had my first guitar an old Sears silvertone with the amp built into the case and smelled like an old attic full of mothballs and burning wire and sounded like that goats yelling like humans YouTube clip was popular right now if you haven't seen it it's [ __ ] hilarious but it instantly became my obsession it was this guitar and a Beatle songbook that that ultimately set my life in one direction never one for taking lessons or direction I was left to my own devices and devoted every waking hour to playing music it became my religion the record store my church the rock stars my Saints and their songs my hems Springfield Virginia wasn't necessarily known for breeding rock stars a career in music never really seemed possible to me it just seemed too good to be true surely the faces on my kiss posters weren't getting paid to do this gene Simmons imagined but that never mattered to me because I had finally found my voice and that was all I needed to survive from now on the reward of playing a song from beginning to end without making a mistake well that was enough to feed me for weeks the discovery of a new chord or a new scale could make me forget about that kid at high school who wanted to kick my [ __ ] ass or that cute chick with the lip gloss and the soft sweater I had a crush on who wouldn't give me the time of day I liked my new voice because no matter how bad it sounded it was mine there was nobody there to tell me what was right or what was wrong so there was no right or wrong now as much as I wanted to be in a band I was there alone in my bedroom day in and day out with my records and my guitar playing with myself for hours I would set up pillows in the formation of a drum set on my bed and play along to records until there was literally sweat dripping down the rush posters on my walls eventually I figured out how to be a one-man band I took my guitar and my crappy old handheld tape recorder I put one cassette in this tape recorder and I hit record you I took this cassette put it in my home stereo I took another cassette put this in the handheld recorder played it back hit record on this one and I would play drums take this cassette put it back in the home stereo rewind it play and there you have it 12 years old I was multi-tracking songs in my bed all by myself to my chagrin though what I got was not sergeant pepper's rather a collection of songs about my dog my bike and my dad nevertheless I had done all of this myself therefore making the reward even sweeter but still I longed to share this newfound obsession with other people eventually I found a kid up the street with an old drum set I found a kid down the street with an old bass I found a kid across the street with an old basement and we found a kid across town with an old PA several awkward jam sessions later and we had a band obstacle one cleared when asked what our band name was upon submitting our official entry to our high school battle of the bands we applied as nameless we just couldn't [ __ ] come up with anything better than you laughs but finding a good band name is still the hardest [ __ ] part I hope you know that I mean Foo Fighters it's the stupidest [ __ ] name this job obstacle to diverted that night Kenny Loggins Footloose never sounded so brave unfortunately our enthusiastic rendition wasn't enough to seize the title of best band at Thomas Jefferson High School but we carried on we tried our damnedest at Bowie and Zep and who and cream and kinks and Hendrix we even played The Rolling Stones time is on my side at a [ __ ] nursing home oh and then I went to Chicago it was 1982 and on my mother's meager public school teacher's salary our family had planned a trip to the great city of Chicago to visit our relatives who had lived in a suburb up north right on the lake we stuffed everything that we could into our tiny baby blue Ford Fiesta and started driving a week and a half of swimming and Italian beef sandwiches was an order though upon arrival the tone of our trip was instantly defined my older cousin Tracy was now a punk rocker at first I heard her coming down the stairs the clanking of chains the stomping of heavy boots the sound of a fresh leather jacket creaking like an old ship and then I saw her shaved head bondage pants torn antipasti t-shirt she was a [ __ ] superhero come to life something I'd only seen on the TV shows Quincy ER chips my heart started racing my eyes widened my throat clenched I stood there speechless and in awe Tracey was my first hero she took me upstairs to her bedroom and showed me her incredible record collection stacks and stacks of 7 inches and LPS with names I'd never heard before names like the misfits and Bad Brains Minor Threat Dead Kennedys and the germs and flipper Circle Jerks and discharge and crass and conflict black flag white flag void faith the dicks the Dickies the Minutemen the adolescents the Ramones the big boys GBH DRI SOA DOA MDC mi a CI a crucifix crucifix X x-ray specs wire Sex Pistols The Buzzcocks write to the accused the necros fan government-issue the descendants I sat down and I played every last one this was the first day of the rest of my life that night I went to my first concert though it wasn't in an arena it was a dingy little hole in the wall directly across the street from Wrigley Field called the Cubby Bear there you go and it wasn't any band I'd ever heard of it was a local Chicago punk crack punk rock band by the name of Naked Raygun and with the watch Audrey fought the band kicked in and the most ferocious noise bodies were flying everywhere spit and sweat and leather and volume and broken glass and piss and [ __ ] puke I was in heaven and it was our secret the next day I took the El to wax trax records I bought a Killing Joke t-shirt and the soundtrack to the decline of civilization I was converted I was no longer one of you I was one of us but more than the noise and the rebellion and the danger it was the blissful removal of these bands from any source of conventional popular corporate structure and the underground network the support of the music's independence that was totally inspiring to me at 13 years old I realized I could start my own band I could write my own song I could record my own record I could start my own label I could release my own record I could book my own shows I could write and publish my own fanzine I could silkscreen my own t-shirts I could do this all by myself there was no right or wrong because it was all mine upon returning to Washington DC I don't head first into local hardcore punk rock scene little did I know that one of the country's most prolific and influential music scenes was right there in my own backyard Washington DC minor threat Bad Brains screamed these bands were now my Beatles and my stones my Zeppelin my Dylan and these were the [ __ ] Reagan years so protest music was on fire my first punk rock show back at home was actually the rock against Reagan concert July 4th 1983 with the stage built at the base of the Lincoln Memorial steps on Independence Day it was a recipe for disaster 700,000 barefoot sunburned rednecks from Maryland and Virginia and Lynyrd Skynyrd and Judas Priest t-shirts Stone wash jeans and bandanas converging on the nation's capitol to watch fireworks coolers full of beer and Southern Comfort only to find Texas's own dirty rotten imbeciles singing their song I don't need society your numbers up you have to go the system says I told you so stocked in a train like a truckload of cattle sent off to slaughter in a useless battle thousands of us sent off to die never really knowing why [ __ ] the system they can't have me I don't mean society I don't need society it was a [ __ ] riot waiting to happen I actually bought that record that day from the lead singer out of the back of his van it was a 33 song 7-inch stuffed in a homemade sleeve it is still to this day one of my most prized possessions when the Sun had gone down and the legendary Dead Kennedys finally came on stage lead singer Jello Biafra pointed and screamed at the Washington Monument calling it the great Klansmen in the sky with its dew blinking red eyes well that was it the powder keg finally blew helicopters buzzed overhead shining spotlights into the crowd as policemen on horses beat their way through the pumps with their billy clubs it was right out of Apocalypse Now this was my Woodstock this was my Altamont this was rock and roll no matter what t-shirt you had or what [ __ ] haircut you had this was [ __ ] real I burned inside I was possessed and empowered and inspired and enraged and so in love with life and so in love with music that it had the power to incite of [ __ ] riot or an emotion or to start a revolution or just to save a young boy's life so I joined a band I dropped out of high school I hit the [ __ ] road i starved my hands bled if I slept I slept on floors I slept on stages I slept on the [ __ ] floors under the [ __ ] stages and I loved every minute of it because I was free and I wanted to incite a riot or an emotion or a revolution or to save someone's life by inspiring them to pick up an instrument just as I did as a kid I wanted to be someone's Edgar Winter I wanted to be someone's naked raygun I wanted to be someone's Bad Brains or Beatles because that was the reward that was the intention we played that type of music so everyone left us alone there was no career opportunity there was no hall-of-fame there were no trophies there were no ANR guys buying [ __ ] Benihana dinners our reward was knowing that we had done all of this on our own and it was real but inevitably it wasn't long before I found myself stranded in Hollywood without a cent to my name in no way home crashed out in a Laurel Canyon bungalow with a bunch of female mud wrestlers don't ask that's a whole other [ __ ] keynote address right there and that's when I heard the five words that changed my life forever have you heard of nirvana so nirvana were one of us raised on credence and flipper and beetles and Black Flag they seemed to share the same ideals the same intentions but they had something more they had songs they had Kurt and what they didn't have was a drummer so without hesitation I packed all of my drums into one big u-haul cardboard box grabbed my old army duffel bag and I flew up to Seattle we practiced in a barn every day it was all that we had there was no Sun there was no moon there was just the barn and those songs Kurt had without a doubt found his voice every practice would begin with an improvisational freeform jam which kind of served as an exercise in dynamic and musical collaboration communication we were speaking to each other without words verbal communication was never really Nirvana's Forte so we spoke to each other with our instruments and the combination of our three voices resulted in a sound that eventually caught a year of a major label record company or ten major label right here companies suddenly we were thrown into a bidding war of A&R guys with fancy shoes from Fred Segal and radio promo dudes with little one hitters in their glove compartments and closets full of complimentary box sets and [ __ ] Benihana every [ __ ] night at one meeting after playing a demo of our song in bloom for Donnie Einar yay Donnie honored in his high-rise office in New York City Donnie turned the Curt and asked so well you guys want Kurt slouched over in his chair looked up to Donnie sitting behind his massive oak desk and said we want to be the biggest band in the world I laughed I thought he was [ __ ] kidding he wasn't you have to remember where music was at the time here the Billboard year-end top ten songs of 1990 number 10 Jon Bon Jovi blaze of glory number 9 Billy Idol cradle of love number 8 n vogue with hold on number 7 Phil Collins another day in paradise number 6 Mariah Carey vision of love number 5 Madonna with vogue number 4 Bill Bev DeVoe with poise number 3 Sinead O'Connor with nothing compares to you number 2 rock set with it must have been love and the number one song of 1990 Wilson [ __ ] Phillips quit hold on how Kurt could even think we make a ripple in this ridiculous mainstream world of polished pop music was beyond me it was beyond everyone it made absolutely no sense it was simply unimaginable it was the type of hopeless shallow aspiration that we had been conditioned to reject ultimately relieving us of any intention other than just to be ourselves I mean the very definition of the word Nirvana in the dictionary is a place or state characterized by freedom from or oblivion to pain worry and the external world we've always been left to our own devices as musicians day after day in our bedrooms as children day after day in that old barn we did everything ourselves what did we need with that world a few more guys with a and our guys with fancy shoes a few more boxes few more dinners at [ __ ] Benihana and we signed a deal following in the footsteps of our great heroes Sonic Youth we signed to the David Geffen company threw everything in the back of our old Chevy van and headed down to Sound City sixteen days thirteen songs we were used to recording 16 songs in one day this was a big time all of those cold rainy days spent in that barn chopping away at those songs speaking to each other without words finding our voice it was all for this when we pulled into the parking lot of Sound City I quickly realized that this was not the big fancy major-label Hollywood recording studio I had imagined not at all it was a [ __ ] it was a rundown burned-out dumpy old joint in a warehouse complex deep in the sunburned San Fernando Valley miles away from any [ __ ] Fred Segal or Benihana it was perfect famous for such legendary albums like Neil Young's after the gold rush Fleetwood Mac's Fleetwood Mac Tom Petty's damn the torpedoes cheap Trick's heaven tonight Rick Springfield's working-class dog it was hallowed ground but it looked like no one had cleaned up the place since [ __ ] Lindsey Buckingham is Stevie Nicks where runners they're brown shag carpet on the wall a couch they'd been renting for ten years personally I thought it looked like a [ __ ] cheese that had a fire but upon listening back to the first take have been bloom we instantly understood Sound city's legacy that room and that old Neve board captured something something that we had never heard before it didn't sound like the first record bleach it didn't sound like the peel sessions we had recorded for the BBC or the sliver single or any of the demos no it sounded like nevermind it was the sound of three people playing as if their life depended on it like they waited their whole lives for this moment to be captured on a reel of 2-inch tape after a week or so at Sound City for whatever reason I started getting worried that no one from the label had come down to check out what we were doing so I called my manager John Silva and I asked hey should we be worried his immediate response was [ __ ] no you should be happy you don't those [ __ ] people down there as usual he was right and they left us alone well just as we couldn't imagine making the slightest ripple in the mainstream no one else really imagined that happening either the initial pressing of nvm was around 35,000 copies enough by their estimate to last the label a few months a pretty good indication of everyone's expectations well those were gone within a few weeks within a month the record was gold by Christmas the record went platinum by the new year we were selling 300,000 records a week that ripple that seemed so unimaginable had become a tidal wave I never really figured out why that happened timing perhaps legions of disaffected American youth fed up with Wilson Phillips probably but I like to think that what the world heard in Nirvana's music was the sound of three human beings three distinct personalities their inconsistencies and their imperfections proudly on display for everyone to hear three people that had been left to their own devices their entire lives to find their voices it was honest it was pure and it was real up until that point no one had ever told me how to play or what to play and now no one would ever again the follow-up to never mind in utero was a brazen example of this 12 songs recorded virtually live in only a few days by infamous record producer and opinionated pundit on the music industry Steve Albini he's a badass it truly was the sound of a band in a placer state characterized by freedom from or oblivion to pain worry and the external world now it was us that had the power we weren't Nirvana anymore we were Nirvana now you had to [ __ ] leave us alone the latchkey children that unexpectedly inherited the castle maybe more like Lord of the Flies with [ __ ] distorted guitars really but where do you go from there as an artist raised in the ethically suffocating punk rock underground conditioned to reject conformity to resist all corporate influence and expectation where do you go how do you deal with that kind of success how do you now define success is it still the reward of playing a song from beginning to end without making a mistake is it still finding that new chord or scale that makes you forget all of your troubles how do you process going from being one of us to one of them guilt guilt is cancer it will confine you torture you destroy you as an artist it's a wall it's a black hole it's a [ __ ] thief it'll keep you from you remember learning your first song or riff or writing your first lyric there's no guilt then remember when there was no right or wrong remember that simple reward of just playing music you are still and will always be that person at your core the musician and the musician comes first [ __ ] guilty pleasure how about just pleasure I can truthfully say out loud that Gangnam style is one of my favorite [ __ ] songs of the past decade it is is it any better or worse than the latest Atoms for Peace album hmm if only we had a celebrity panel of judges to determine that for us what would JLo do Beijing pitchfork come in come in pitchfork we need you to help us determine the value of a song who [ __ ] cares who's to say what's a good voice and what's not a good voice the voice imagine Bob Dylan standing there singing blowing in the wind in front of Christine Aguilera I think it's not a little Anthony and sharp it's your voice cherish it respect it nurture it challenge it stretch it scream it until it's [ __ ] gone because everyone's blessed with at least that and who knows how long it will last when Kurt died I was lost I was numb the music that I devoted my life to had now betrayed me I had no voice I turned off the radio I put away my drums I couldn't bear to hear someone else's voice singing about pain or joy it just hurt too much but eventually that feeling that I had Independence Day July 4th 1983 at the base of the Lincoln Memorial steps that feeling came back the same feeling that made me feel possessed and empowered and inspired and enraged and so in love with life so in love with music that it had the power to incite a riot an emotion or start a revolution I felt it again I found a studio down the street I booked six days loaded all my [ __ ] into the car bought some good strong [ __ ] coffee and I got back to work 14 songs in five days with one day to mix I played every instrument running from the drums to the guitar to the coffee maker to the base to the volca mic to the coffeemaker back to the drums back to the coffeemaker here it was again left to my own devices with no one to tell me right or wrong the same one-man band 20 years ago 20 years later multi-tracking all on my own the long gone were the two cassette recorders and songs about my dog my bike and my dad I was singing songs about starting over maybe a few about my dad I dubbed a hundred cassettes I gave it the name Foo Fighters so that people would imagine it was a group rather than just one strung out coffee junkie scrambling from instrument to instrument I gave them to friends I gave them to relatives I gave them the people at [ __ ] gas stations I was starting over it wasn't long before I got the call an A&R guy the tape was getting around those six days that I spent alone in the studio that I considered to be a demo I considered an experiment I considered it [ __ ] therapy they thought it was a record I didn't even have a band I called my brilliant friend and lawyer Jill Berliner for advice you know she told me the musician comes first I started my own label Roswell records that's right ladies and gentlemen you are staring at the president of a record group after all that had happened deep down I was still the same kid that at 13 years old realized I could start my own band I could write my own song I could record my own record I could start my own label I could release my own record I could book my own shows I could write and publish my own fanzine I could silkscreen my own shirts I could do all of this myself and it may have been an entirely different world now but once again there was no right or wrong because it was all mine from day one the Foo Fighters have been fortunate enough to exist within this perfect world we write our songs we record our songs we make our albums we decide when the album is the album we own the album and we'll license it to you for a little while but you got give it back because it's mine because I am the musician and I come first I have to imagine that the reason I'm here today in front of you all is exactly this am I the best drummer in the world certainly not am I the best singer-songwriter not even in this [ __ ] room but I've been left alone to find my voice since that day I heard Edgar winters Frankenstein recently I directed a full-length feature documentary about the recording studio that Nirvana recorded nevermind on over 20 years ago Sound City in the movie we not only tell the story of this magical [ __ ] but we also explore technology and what we refer to as the human element of music how do these things coexist well there is no right or wrong there is only your voice your voice screaming through an old Neve a t-28 recording console your voice singing from a laptop your voice echoing from a street corner a cello a turntable a guitar cerrado ass tutor it doesn't matter what matters most is that it's your voice cherished respected nurture it challenge it stretch it and scream until it's [ __ ] gone because every human being is blessed with at least that and who knows how long it will last it's there if you want it now more than ever independence as a musician has been blessed by the advance of technology making it easier for any inspired young musician to start their own band write their own song record their own record book their own shows write and publish their own fanzine although now I believe you call it a now more than ever you can do this it could be all yours and left to your own devices you can find your voice recently I came home with the new Beatles vinyl box set it's amazing it's the size of a [ __ ] to me suitcase it's huge it weighs 50 pounds as I walked into the house my daughter's Harper who's three and violet who's six looked up and gasped why is that I said it's all of the Beatles records now I've already spent hours brainwashing them with Beatles songs they're cool I know good music I still get a little fresh Beat Band every now and then but but this was vinyl they've never seen that before I set up the turntable in their room open the box and started showing them how it's done okay take the record out of the sleeve here the songs on this side there's a song on this side you just carefully place it on the turntable gently put the needle down careful they were absolutely blown away I left the room came back half an hour later and there they were dancing to get back album covers strewn all over the floor sound familiar we've all been there and as a proud father I pray that someday they're left to their own devices and they realize that the musician comes first and that they find their voice and that they become someone's Edgar Winter that they become someone's Beatles that they incite a riot or an emotion or start a revolution or save someone's life that they become someone's hero but then again what do I know thank you very much for your time Dave Grohl hey girl mr. Dave Grohl that was great okay two things one we showed a film about our friend brick Roky earlier we're going to show it again after a few people clear out second I've lost the lottery twice you know but I'll tell you a secret that lonely the locals know the best-sounding spot in Stubbs is actually a parking lot on ninth Street so I will see you there so a couple minutes we'll get to sum up and then there's a whole lot of stuff to do in the building today I hope you'll check out some of the many conferences and panel sketches I remember meeting him at a party that Nick barber oh he was a very guy while party where we wanna three years mark appeared on so many people you know came together who were really gifted in River

Channel: FooFightersLive.com

Views: 847,601

Rating: 4.9554391 out of 5

Keywords: Dave, Grohl, South by Southwest, speech, 2013, keynote, nirvana, story, sxsw

Id: Efv0Y5Fs7m4

Length: 49min 32sec (2972 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 14 2013

Reddit Comments

[u/kebertrednaxela]

Wow that was pretty amazing. 90s kid or not I think everyone can appreciate that awesome speech.

[u/wehaveawinner]

Nicest guy in rock for sure, great speech.

[u/wilof]

If anyone was wondering here's the Bruce Springsteen speech from last year.

[u/SillyMarbles]

Took the time to listen to the speech in its entirety, this just reaffirms the fact that Dave is one of the greatest artists of the last couple decades.

[u/light50]

is this a repost? how come this doesn't have more upvotes?

[u/BurningMonkPro]

I liked it so much, I made a video to it http://youtu.be/E_GxuDVkCMg