Dave Grohl Biography

Dave Grohl is an American rock musician, multi-instrumentalist and song-writer. He started playing guitar at a very young age, and is self-taught for the most part. He later taught himself to play drums, citing John Banham as his biggest influence. Grohl played drums for the grunge band ‘Nirvana’ from 1991 till 1994, after which the band broke up following the death of its lead singer, Kurt Cobain. After the sudden end of Nirvana, he went on to form his own band, ‘Foo Fighters’. He was also the co-founder of the rock super group, ‘Them Crooked Vultures’, in which he was a drummer and backing vocalist. Grohl played a variety of other instruments, including acoustic guitar, bass guitar, electric guitar and piano. His band, Foo Fighters, has performed at a number of charity events, including Citizen Festival, Concert for Sandy Relief etc. Grohl is a supporter of Gay rights. In 2009, he was honored with the key to his hometown of Warren, Ohio and also has a roadway named after him, David Grohl Alley, where murals of him have been painted.

Childhood & Early Life

• He was born to James Grohl and his wife Virginia Grohl who soon relocated from Warren, Ohio to Springfield, Virginia. His parents divorced when he was six and he was raised by his mother.
• At 12, he started learning guitar but soon got fed up of the lessons. As a result, he taught himself and began playing in bands with friends. During his summer vacations, he was introduced to punk rock genre by his cousin Tracy who took him to various punk band performances in Illinois. He saw his first live concert at Chicago by a Chicago-based punk rock group ‘Naked Raygun’.
• He enrolled as a freshman in Thomas Jefferson High School, Virginia and was voted to be the vice-president of his new class. But soon he was transferred to Bishop Ireton High School, Alexandria, by his mother as his grades got badly affected due to his drug addiction. He stayed there for two years before getting transferred to yet another school, Annandale High School, Virginia.
• During his high-school years, he played extensively with several local bands including ‘Freak Baby’. Meanwhile, he learnt to play drums on his own.
• In his late teens, he went to 9.30 club on a regular basis. It was a live music concert venue in Washington DC which highly influenced his life and shaped up his na�ve mind.

Career

• At 17, he auditioned and got selected to be the drummer in a hardcore punk band ‘Scream’ for which he dropped out of high school in his junior year. He travelled extensively with the band and recorded many live albums with them out of which ‘No More Censorship’ and ‘Fumble’ became very popular.
• In late 1990s, ‘Scream’ got disbanded and he went to Seattle to audition for ‘Nirvana’. He joined the band full-time after getting selected, and they signed a deal in due course of time with a major record label, ‘DGC Records’. Thereafter, the band recorded their first album ‘Nevermind’ and released it.
• Meanwhile, disappointed from his struggling drummer status in the band, he went on to compose lyrics and songs all by himself. In 1992, he compiled and released his own cassette ‘Pocketwatch’ on Indie label ‘Simple Machines’ under the pseudonym Late! Apart from this, he played drums on Buzz Osborne’s solo-EP for which he earned the pseudonym Dale Nixon.
• Before heading on to their European tour in 1994, he and Krist Novoselic of Nirvana fame worked on many demos at Robert Lang Studios in Seattle. The duo together completed many of his songs until the arrival of Cobain. They later recorded a demo of the song entitled ‘You know you’re right’ which proved to be the band’s last studio recording.
• In April 1994, the band came to a halt with Kurt Cobain’s death. Soon in October, he recorded a fifteen-track demo at Robert Lang’s Studio in Seattle and played all of the instruments on his own.
• In 1995, he formed his own rock band, incorporating various music artists including Nirvana guitarist Pat Smear, William Goldsmith and Nate Mendel of ‘Sunny Day Real Estate’. He recorded an album with them comprising majorly of his own demos to which a professional touch was given by Rob Schnapf and Tom Rothrock. The album was finally released in July, 1995, as their debut album under the band name ‘Foo Fighters’.
• In 1997, he composed several soundtracks for the movie ‘Touch’ where he played all the instruments himself along with lending his voice to the songs. After the recording session was over, he joined ‘Foo Fighters’ to work with them on their follow-up.
• In May 1997, the ‘Foo Fighters’ came out with their second album, ‘The colors and the shape’. The album soon became a chartbuster including several smash-hits such as ‘Ever Long’, ‘My Hero’ etc. Meanwhile, Taylor Hawkins joined the band on drums and Smear was replaced by ‘Scream’ band member Franz Stahl, who was later replaced by the touring guitarist Chris Shifflet.
• On June 14, 2005, he came out with his fifth album ‘In Your Honor’ after shifting from his home-based Virginia Studio to Studio 606, Los Angeles. The album featured collaboration with John Paul Jones, Josh Homme and Norah Jones.
• In June, 2008, he joined Paul McCartney’s band for a concert at the Anfield Football Stadium, Liverpool which was organized as one of the major events of the English city’s year as ‘European Capital of Culture’.
• On April 12, 2011, ‘Wasting Light’ was released which was their seventh album. It received mostly positive reviews from music critics and was claimed to be a hard-hitting rock with soaring choruses.

Major Works

• In 1993, Nirvana released ‘In Utero’ which included one of his self-composed songs ‘Marigold’ (originally ‘Colors of a Marigold’) as a B-side on their famous single, ‘Heart-shaped box’. Meanwhile, he also recreated the music of ‘The Beatles’ for the movie ‘Backbeat’.
• In 1999, he recorded Foo Fighter’s third album ‘There is Nothing Left to Lose’ in his basement-turned-recording studio. Its single, ‘Learn to fly’, proved to be a runaway success.
• In 2002, he helped Chan Marshall of ‘Cat Power’ on the album ‘You Are Free’ and also played with ‘Queens of the Stone Age’ on their album. Soon he re-recorded his own album at a studio in Virginia and released it soon as ‘One by One’.
• On November 23, 2002, he made it to the top of the ‘Billboard Modern Rock’ chart with ‘All My Life’ by Foo Fighters. Thereafter, he remained at the top for quite some time.
• On September 25, 2007, he released his sixth album ‘Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace’. Soon after, they released their ‘Greatest Hits’ collection bringing together 16 tracks including an unreleased acoustic version of ‘Everlong’, and two fresh tracks, ‘Wheels’ and ‘Word Forward’.
• In 2009, he recorded with Josh Homme and John Paul Jones under a rock super group named ‘Them Crooked Vultures’. They released their debut album on November 16, 2009 under the same name.
• In 2013, he debuted as a director in a documentary film entitled ‘Sound City’ which was all about the studio where ‘Nevermind’ was recorded during his days with ‘Nirvana’. The studio had already stopped functioning by 2011. The film received tremendous positive reviews.

Awards & Achievements

• In 1993, his band ‘Nirvana’ won the British Phonographic Industry’s annual award under the category, ‘Best International Newcomer’.
• In 2000, he received a Grammy Award along with his band ‘Foo Fighters’ for their music video for ‘Learn to Fly’.
• In 2001, he won a Grammy Award under ‘Best Rock Album Category’ for ‘There is Nothing Left to Lose’. It was followed by more Grammy awards under the same category for his albums, ‘One by one’, ‘Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace’, and ‘Wasting Light’.
• In 2002, he was inducted into the Washington DC Music Hall of Fame for his significant achievement as a musician.
• In 2003, he was presented with a Grammy Award for ‘Best Hard Rock Performance’ for his song ‘All My Life’ from the fourth album of Foo Fighters, ‘One by One’.
• In 2008, he won a Grammy Award for ‘Best Hard Rock Performance’ for the song ‘The Pretender’ from the group’s album ‘Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace’.
• In 2011, he along with his band mates won the Radio Contraband ‘Major Label Artist of the Year’ for his band ‘Foo Fighters’.

Personal Life

• In 1994, he married a photographer, Jennifer Youngblood. Together they did few of the works for his bands, including shooting the photographs for Nirvana’s ‘Unplugged in New York’ and artwork image for the Foo Fighter’s debut album. Their relationship was short-lived and they eventually split up in 1997.
• On August 2, 2003, he married Jordyn Blum whom he had met in the Sunset Marquis hotel bar in Los Angeles. The couple has two children, Violet Maye and Harper Willow.

Trivia

• On December 12, 2012, he participated in Sandy Band Concert along with Paul McCartney and surviving members of Nirvana, which was branded as a Nirvana re-union with McCartney in place of Kurt Cobain.