Dave Grohl Shares Gratitude Recalling Foo Fighters’ Starting

November 24, 1994, started similar to another dreary Pacific Northwest day beneath the blanket of Seattle’s oppressive, autumn skies. Fall had lengthy set in, and the stretches of daylight had grown shorter, driving most individuals to spend the vast majority of their time indoors, away from the nagging rain and darkish. It felt like the best climate for a proper banquet at residence. So, to the roar of 100-foot-tall pines whipping within the gusts of chilly wind behind my home, I ready my eating room desk for the night, rigorously arranging the place settings for every visitor, some acquainted, some not, desperate to see the place the evening would take us.

Even the world’s biggest psychic couldn’t have predicted what was in retailer for us, simply hours later.

“Is there a ghost on this home?” I quietly requested the Ouija board, palms gently touching the planchette because the others in my basement seemed on in shocked silence. To my amazement, a budget little heart-shaped piece of plastic beneath my fingertips started to make a gradual, tender circle throughout the board and landed on the phrase “YES,” confirming my creeping suspicion that I used to be certainly the proud new proprietor of a terrifyingly haunted home within the sleepy suburbs of Richmond Seashore, simply north of town. Considerably in shock (and with purchaser’s regret) I rapidly packed up the Ouija board, threw it again within the closet the place it belonged, and we continued on with our night. UPSTAIRS.

However this evening was not meant to be a seance. It was meant to be a celebration.

It was Thanksgiving.

For these of you all over the world who don’t partake on this significantly gluttonous vacation, it’s a day meant to signify gratitude and thanks. A gathering of family and friends, joined collectively to specific an appreciation of life’s proverbial harvest and blessings, be they extra tangible rewards (canned cranberry sauce and bite-sized marshmallows) or extra delicate items from the soul (love and music). Historically, it’s a feast shared with these closest to you, but it surely may also be a possibility to open your doorways to these you’ve by no means met who want a spot to land. And on this fateful night, there was one new face amongst mates that I quickly realized was as equally grateful for music as I had been my complete life: A younger, spry Nate Mendel. Our first encounter.

Just a few heaping plates of meals, just a few bottles of wine, one factor main to a different, and earlier than lengthy we had began a brand new band with different expensive mates, Pat Smear and William Goldsmith.

We referred to as it Foo Fighters.

This band started virtually as an excuse. A purpose to hold devices round our necks and smoke cigarettes with the home windows rolled up whereas listening to our favourite cassettes as we barreled down the interstate in the direction of the following darkish, sticky stage. We’d all been within the recreation for some time by then, thoughts you. We’d all performed in different bands, with different individuals, some that ended a lot too quickly. However we have been removed from completed. This was a mischievous and perhaps needed detour from maturity, reminding all 4 of us that our little brains have been nonetheless wired like an overloaded extension wire, sparking from too many gentle strands on the Christmas tree. A infantile refusal of maturity, white knuckling the final grasps of adolescence. (Principally, we have been simply fucking round).

However, earlier than lengthy it turned clear that we have been on to one thing extra than simply escape. Not essentially within the musical sense. Extra of a “life” factor. This was a brand new starting. A change. And it felt proper. We had stumbled upon a shiny new toy that got here with out directions and with a lot meeting required. So, we started to construct it ever so rigorously, piece by piece.

Songs, test. Van, test. Highway atlas, test. And away we went, with deep reverence for previous lives and an insatiable starvation to fill this clear slate with one thing stunning, to attempt to make the “life factor” actual life.

Our first van, a 1996 prolonged Dodge RAM dubbed “large pink scrumptious,” tore the pavement from state to state till there have been actually mushrooms rising beneath the outdated, sweaty t-shirts tucked behind the bench seats. With an overloaded trailer in tow, every present of that first tour with the almighty, punk rock legend Mike Watt felt like a musical bungee bounce, praying the harness wouldn’t snap earlier than being lowered again to security. However we have been at all times recreation to leap once more. We shed kilos and gained a special type of urge for food, hungry to maintain going, hungry to see what we might do as a band, what sort of music we might create, and the way we might hook up with the audiences who got here to listen to us play. We have been breaking on this new band like a pair of stiff trousers till we had worn large, frayed holes within the knees from an excessive amount of time on the playground. We survived the primary day trip and selected to do it once more. And once more. And once more. As a result of this shiny new toy nonetheless wasn’t absolutely assembled.

Over time, there was change. Rising pains, perhaps. Gone was “large pink scrumptious,” changed by a a lot sturdier set of radials, courtesy of Chris Shiflett, Rami Jaffee, and the incomparable Taylor Hawkins. And, whereas we have been now a fine-tuned machine, all of it nonetheless felt considerably non permanent, so we saved filling the tank with new albums and songs as gas, simply sufficient to get us to the following vacation spot. This finally turned the problem: So long as we hold our palms on the wheel, how far can we drive this factor till the wheels finally fall off?

However we saved transferring, typically with clear path, different occasions desperately wandering to seek out the closest relaxation cease, however by no means with out impediment. And that’s exactly what saved us from throwing the keys in a close-by lake. As a result of the detours and unpredictability of all of it made us really feel alive. What was as soon as an “excuse” to exist had now turned a “purpose.” And with every year, every tour, every album, the roots grew deeper, the tree taller. However, simply because the forest behind my home swayed furiously within the chilly wind that fateful evening in 1994, it’s at all times the deepest roots that hold the bushes from falling within the strongest storms. And as soon as our roots took maintain, we realized that there was no turning again. Foo Fighters was now a “life” factor. Perpetually.

Our little caravan turned a roaring convoy with just one map between us, and although we didn’t at all times agree on a vacation spot, we at all times felt that we’d get to the place we wanted to be so long as we went collectively. With one another, for one another. As a result of there comes some extent when the phrase “band” supersedes the widespread, extra common definition of the time period merely used to explain a gaggle of musicians. The phrase can tackle an entire different which means. In time, it may well change into “one thing to lock and reinforce.” And this band is definitely certain collectively, held tightly in order to not crumble, regardless of the last decade. Nonetheless a piece in progress, meeting nonetheless required, however fixed progress is a part of what makes us all who we’re as individuals. I’m proud that we’re nonetheless rising, our roots now too deep to tug.

For anybody who has ever glanced behind our tattered, flannel curtain, you’ll absolutely discover the identical acquainted faces which were driving this convoy for many years. These are relationships that go far past the stage, with the music being just one aspect of our bond. Friendships that predate the inception of this little experiment we embarked upon beginning at that Thanksgiving dinner in my haunted home, again when wheatgrass photographs have been cool and earlier than tv turned an overcrowded buffet of streaming companies. With out their help and steerage through the years, we absolutely wouldn’t be celebrating this milestone anniversary with you as we speak. We’ve been blessed with this little tribe, certain by love. We thank each single certainly one of them, they usually know who they’re.

Over time, we’ve had moments of unbridled pleasure, and moments of devastating heartbreak. Moments of lovely victory, and moments of painful defeat. We’ve mended damaged bones and damaged hearts. However we have now adopted this street collectively, with one another, for one another, it doesn’t matter what. As a result of in life, you simply can’t go it alone.

It ought to go with out saying that with out the boundless vitality of William Goldsmith, the seasoned knowledge of Franz Stahl, and the thunderous wizardry of Josh Freese, this story could be incomplete, so we lengthen our heartfelt gratitude for the time, music, and reminiscences that we shared with every of them through the years. Thanks, gents.

And… Taylor. Your identify is spoken day-after-day, typically with tears, typically with a smile, however you might be nonetheless in the whole lot we do, in all places we go, perpetually. The enormity of your stunning soul is simply rivaled by the infinite longing we really feel in your absence. All of us miss you past phrases. Foo Fighters will perpetually embody Taylor Hawkins in each word that we play, till we do lastly attain our vacation spot.

Lately, I used to be on a protracted, worldwide flight, and woke to a small, yellow post-it word caught to my seat. It learn “Watch the lobster and the Rabbi xxx.” Not understanding who this mysterious little message was from, I browsed the film choice and located nothing by this title. So, I did some research and located that it’s not really a film, however relatively a narrative of progress. You see, a lobster is a small, fleshy animal that lives inside a tough, inflexible shell, and as its physique grows too giant for its shell, it begins to really feel discomfort. As soon as this occurs, the lobster instinctively retreats to a secure place, sheds the smaller shell, grows a brand new one, and resurfaces. However finally that new shell turns into uncomfortable as its physique continues to develop, so it retreats once more. New shell, new progress, again and again. The purpose being that life’s challenges have a manner of signaling the necessity for change and progress, so when that point comes, you retreat, rebuild, and resurface stronger than earlier than. One thing I’m positive that all of us can relate to as human beings. And in case you’re fortunate, you share this course of with those that you simply love essentially the most, be they onstage or off.

It has been 30 years since I sat beside Nate Mendel with my palms on that Ouija board (and the final time I ever touched one) however I now understand that there was no strategy to predict what was to change into of our lives that evening. And simply as I used to be that stormy Thanksgiving night in 1994, I’m nonetheless grateful for all times, love, music, and the thriller of the place this path might lead us subsequent.

Let’s hold transferring.