In November 1991, Nirvana’s Nevermind was beginning its climb up the charts. The album had not yet sold more than 10 million copies, had not yet knocked Michael Jackson out of the No. 1 slot on the Billboard album chart, had not yet become the defining moment of the alternative rock movement or given Kurt Cobain the “voice of a generation” status that would help prove his undoing.
Already, though, the band’s newest member, the drummer Dave Grohl, was expressing his concerns about the impact that the album would have on his future. “Everyone is always asking if I’m afraid of the band’s success going too far,” the 22-year-old told Rolling Stone, in the band’s first interview with that magazine. “That doesn’t really make any difference. I just don’t want to be David Grohl of Nirvana for the rest of my life.”
“What a spoiled brat,” Grohl, 40, said with a laugh when that quotation was recently read back to him. “But I think any musician would say the same thing — there’s a lot of ground to cover, a lot of work to do. I wouldn’t want to be tied down to one project or defined by any one thing.”
The odds, however, were certainly stacked against Grohl’s leaving a legacy beyond his role in Nirvana. The trio became the biggest band in the world for a time, then ended in horribly dramatic fashion with Cobain’s suicide in 1994. Grohl, who was known for having a personality as laid-back as his drumming was explosive (“He’s so easygoing, always fun to be around,” the band’s former bassist, Krist Novoselic, said in an e-mail message), was now permanently linked to one of rock’s most public tragedies.
But Grohl was able to create a second act for himself as the singer, guitarist and primary songwriter for Foo Fighters. From its humble beginnings as a one-man project, an attempt to find an escape from the shadow of Nirvana, the band has become a commercial force, steadily racking up hit singles (Learn to Fly, Best of You) for the last 15 years.
Even more surprisingly, the affable drummer who hid behind his long hair became believable as a frontman. (“I feel more comfortable being Keith Moon than being Freddie Mercury,” he said, “but my favorite lead singers all act like drummers, and my favorite drummers play like singers.”) Few pop musicians have pulled off a comparable transformation; it’s as if one of the biggest bands of the 1970s had actually been Ringo Starr and Wings.
And now Grohl has recently formed another group, Them Crooked Vultures, which puts him back behind the drums alongside the guitarist and singer Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age and the former Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones. “People’s perception of Dave is that he’s the nice guy of rock ‘n’ roll,” said Homme, “and that’s accurate. He’s generous, comfortable in his own skin, but he’s also ambitious. He’s never really satisfied with what he’s done.”
This month offers the opportunity to consider the sweep of Grohl’s history. Within a two-week period a Foo Fighters’ Greatest Hits album (RCA), a DVD and CD of Nirvana’s breathtaking performance at the 1992 Reading Festival (UME) and Them Crooked Vultures’ self-titled debut album (DGC/Interscope) are all being released. “November is like This Is Your Life for me,” Grohl said on the phone from Los Angeles. “It’s very nostalgic, but at the same time I’m in this brand new band, and a husband and a father. My life is pretty out of control right now, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
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