Original subtitles

The following programme contains strong language and flashing images.

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I'm in Los Angeles driving this fabulous little van,

and I'm here to meet a man who's celebrating 25 years...

..of the band that he's founded.

He started as a drummer,

and then became a front man, and then a guitarist.

He's one of the nicest men in rock and roll,

and one of the most hardworking.

It's the one and only Dave Grohl.

# FOO FIGHTERS: Pretender

(CHEERING)

# Keep you in the dark

# You know they all pretend

# Keep you in the dark

# And so it all begins

Come on!

# Sit in your skeletons

# Sing as their bones go marching in again #

He's going out on tour,

and he's going to call it The Van Tour.

(SHOUTS) D'you wanna sing it?

# What if I say that I'm like the others

# What if I say that I'm just another one of your plays... #

He's acknowledging the early days of life in vans, just like this one.

And as all the other guests I've had on this show,

Sting, Nick Mason, Roger Daltrey, Robert Plant,

all of them, all have their happiest memories ever

in the first vans that they had as a group,

as people living together, you know, and being hungry together,

and, you know, trying to get through life,

but just to play music.

And that's why these are so nostalgic.

And I understand what he's getting at.

Now, this van is a 1968 Ford Econoline.

This was an absolute rocket compared with our first van,

which was a Morris J2.

Our J2 had three on the tree - three gears,

and the cable kept snapping,

so I had to get a pair of pliers

to change gear, which... (CHUCKLES)

And it was always breaking down, but we didn't care.

As long as we could get to a gig and play our music.

GEORDIE: # I can remember the day when I had nothing to say

# Just look at me now I'm shouting

# Hey, hey, hey # Oh, I feel good

And here's the very beast that we first had.

But these vans were everything.

I mean, I know it's... They were usually illegal.

Untaxed, uninsured, cos we couldn't afford it.

Bald tyres on them.

We... We got away with murder in them days.

And, er... Well, we got caught now and again.

# Hey, hey, hey

# To be happy again to have so many friends

# Just when I thought it was the end #

It's a joy to drive this thing. I've never driven one.

It's a lot of fun, and it's got

four big exhaust pipes sticking out the side.

That's why you cannot hear us.

(ENGINE REVVING) Listen to that. Woo-hoo!

Yeah!

I'm enjoying this.

I'm meeting Dave at Foo Fighters headquarters, Studio 606.

(LAUGHS)

G'day! (LAUGHS)

Sure makes mine looks like shit.

It's good to see you, my bonny lad.

Good to see you! It's been...it's been a while.

It has been a while.But this is fantastic what you're doing.

Thanks for taking time because I know you're a busy dude.My pleasure.

But I love as soon as you said vans,

I just went, you know, it's just, you know,

something from the early days, they're the happiest memories.

Oh, yeah.You know what? I've got something for you.

Hang on. This is a photograph of our very first van.

Really? Yeah. And it was a...

What do you think of that?

It's a Morris J2.

My very first band was '63, '64. I was only 16.

Two of the fathers put the money together to buy the van for us.

But, I mean, it was a dog.

You know, the early days, you know,

when you were gonna go and do a gig.

The moment you waited in the house,

and the group van would drive around the corner

and everybody in the street saw it.

And you walked down, "I'm a musician," you know.

(BOTH LAUGH) In a laundry truck.

# You got me, you got me, you got me, whoo! #

And what's this old dog here? OK. So this is our van

from the very first Foo Fighters tour.

When we started the band, rather than just

kind of jump on a bus and travel around,

we thought, "Well, we got do it the way we've always done it.

Let's get a van." And so we bought this thing new in 1995,

but I'd never been on tour in a new van.

This thing had power windows. It had air conditioning.

Ooh!I mean, it was... it was like a limousine.

You know, it was unbelievable.

(ROCK SONG PLAYING)

(WOMAN LAUGHS)

We would kind of build like,

a plywood platform in the back of the van.Yeah.

So we could put all the gear under that.Yeah.

And then you could sleep on top of it.

The platform was higher up here so you'd have this one shelf.

If you were brave enough, you could sleep up on top of this.

But you'd have to figure out the configuration of how to pack it.

Oh! It was very... It was really important.

There's only one way to do it. It's like Tetris.

And so you had to put all these things in a really specific way.

So you're loading out, like, you pull at it super-fast.

(SINGING)

When I was 18 or 19 years old, when I first started touring,

we didn't have any of this fancy upholstery.

It was just like a metal-bottomed submarine, you know?

We did this one tour of Canada once where it was so cold

and there were 11 of us in this van

like sardines in our sleeping bags and we were sleeping in the van.

The condensation from our...from our breath

would hit the ceiling, freeze,

and you're trying to sleep

as these little drops of ice are hitting you on the face.

Especially when it was mixed with nicotine.Yeah, exactly!

Or maybe something else.

But, yeah. I mean, when we got this van,

this was absolute luxury for us.

This will be in a museum one day. I don't know. I'm not giving it up.

I gotta use it. Yeah.Yeah.

What, are you gonna use it on this latest tour that you're doing?

We're actually gonna do...

We're doing this tour where, since it's our 25th anniversary,

we're going to play in the round in the middle of the arena...Yeah.

..which we've only done once before. One show before.

And, erm, when the lights go out...

..we're gonna drive in, in the van, park it next to the stage,

jump on stage.

Play for two and a half hours. Get back in the van and back it out.

Oh, what a... (BOTH LAUGH)

Still smells of band.

You know what's so funny? After our first tour, you know,

this becomes your home.

When you're in a club, there's no backstage,

you hang out in here.

When there's nowhere to sleep, you sleep in here.

You do everything in here becomes like your little cocoon, your home.

And so there were shows where after a show,

you'd walk offstage, you're just soaking wet.

And you come in here, you change clothes, you throw your...

T-shirt. Yeah...dirty T-shirt on the floor. So I came home from this tour

and we unloaded all the gear and this thing was out in front

of my house for a couple of weeks.

And I came out, opened it up.

God! It just smelled like a morgue. It was disgusting.(LAUGHS)

And I looked and I saw this T-shirt that I had thrown in there

like, three or four weeks before, this wet T-shirt.

And it was on this plywood platform thing.

And I pull up the T-shirt and it's... It's just solid as a rock.

And I looked down and there were mushrooms

growing under there. Was there? (LAUGHS)

You know, but some of the smells of vans, guys...(LAUGHS)

We were coming back from London once in my first band, Geordie.

It was about 1972, and we had a big old Ford Transit double wheel.

That meant you were making it.

Yeah.And our roadie at the front let off a biblical fart.

I mean it was biblical. We had... We were...

We had to pull over at the side of the road.

And what made it extra funny was the radio was on,

and just then, this song started. Do you remember that song...

# There's something in the air #

(BOTH LAUGH)

# THUNDERCLAP NEWMAN: Something In The Air

# Because there's something in the air #

You know, the other great thing is when you're that close to each other

in close proximity for that amount of time, you know,

you either become best friends

or you become enemies or you become both.

But when you're in this thing driving for so long,

you can't wait to get out and do a gig.

And because you've been like this for hours and hours or weeks or months,

when you get onstage, it makes you tighter.

# FOO FIGHTERS: All My Life

# I love it but I hate the taste

# Weight keepin' me down

# Don't let it go to waste

# I love it but I hate the taste

# Weight keepin' me down #

Look at this baby, ho-ho!

We're playing musical vans here.

That's beautiful, my son. Isn't that great?

And it's original as well. This looks like a family bus.

Exactly, yeah.

I think it was the BMW thing started it, didn't it?

Remember the big W, little buses, you know, from Germany,

the servicemen bringing them over and the manufacturers here

suddenly went, "Hang on a minute. They're on to something."

ANNOUNCER: 'The work-loving, fun-loving, Econoline station bus.

It's priced less than most compact station wagons.

Yet has twice the room of the biggest full-sized wagon,

and it converts to a load carrier in a jiffy!

They're at your Ford dealers now. The trucks with a new shape,

a new design, and the new name: Ford Econoline.

For the most part, it is as it was.Yeah.

There was one day when I was driving my daughters to school

right after I got it on the road

and they were sitting in the back and they said, er...

They said, "Dad, everyone's looking at us."

And I said, "Yeah, I know." And my daughter Harper said,

"I think it's because all new cars look the same.

And this one looks different. It has style."

And I said, "That's it." Well spotted, girl.

And she's gonna go far. Yeah, that's right!

Getting on in the world. In this van!

She's gonna want this when she grows up. But, yeah.

I drive this van almost every day.

Yeah. Erm...

I take the kids to school in it. I mean, to me,

if you've got an old van, if you've got any van, you should use it.

Yeah.I love this thing so much. Don't you! Look at him.

He loves it. My baby.

But the other great thing about a van like this or a van like that

is the experience of driving it.

I mean, you're really driving it. Yeah.

When I'm taking this thing around turns, it's like steering a boat.

No, I'm just saying, with the vans,

I remember my first band, that I saw was The Pretty Things.

Oh, wow.You know, # Don't bring me down #

But the greatest moment was when

we'd go to the back to see if we could catch sight of them

and they got into the van, and then drove off in it.

"Oh, I wanna do that." Exactly. No, that same thing.

And that was always my favourite thing when I was young,

and we'd be at a club waiting for our favourite band.

You know, we'd never seen them before.

We've never seen them in person. And you're outside of the club

having a cigarette, waiting for them to show up.

And then you see their van pull up. Yeah.

The door opens... The lead singer walks out of the van...

And then the roadie opens up the back

and you can see all the gear and you just go... (SCREAMS)

And then they blow your mind.

And then you see them sweaty, and loading stuff back in the van,

and then they disappear. Another destination.

They're not gonna stay here like you have to.

# Weight keepin' me down

# Done, done and I'm on to the next one

# Done, done and I'm on to the next #

# FOO FIGHTERS: These Days

# I bet your heart'll be broken

# I bet your pride'll be stolen

# I'll bet, I'll bet, I'll bet, I'll bet

# One of these days

# One of these days #

This is our studio that we built maybe 15, 18 years ago.Oh.

We kind of wanted to have our own little headquarters,

a place where we could rehearse, record,

have all of our equipment and a lot of memorabilia.

These things were given to us by the Australian record company.

You see, they got... they got my smile right.Yeah.

Everything else, a little off. (LAUGHS)

You know, over the years, we've just gathered a bunch of stuff.

But the great thing about recording here is,

you know, if you need, if you need a specific sound

you could just kind of come back and pull from whatever we have.

Wow. Look at this.

But also, you know, we have other bands record here as well.

So when younger bands come in

and they don't really have enough equipment,

they can just pull from the things that we have here.

But pretty much almost everything in here,

we've used on one track on an album at some point.

Do you know, see this one here,

this reminds me so much of the very first, er...

..PA system I had. Oh, wow.

It was a Selma 10 Watt. Oh, really?

And how was that? It cost £21

and seven shillings and six pence.

My dad had to sign the agreement for the hire purchase

and I had a crystal mic with four foot of wire on it.

So you couldn't really move anywhere. You had to stand in place.

# You're a no-good woman you took my money

# You said it was just too bad

# You don't wash my clothes or call me honey

# But I don't feel so sad

# So tell me, maybe that's true

# Still I say to you #

We like to collect artwork that fans do for us.

Oh, yeah. These are nice ones. Argentineans!

Aren't they just fantastic? Oh, my God, they're the craziest!

They're the craziest of all. You said once, to watch them...

Oh, bouncing?..bouncing in unison, the whole stadium.Nothing like it.

(CROWD CHEERING AND SCREAMING)

(SCREAMS)

Look at the tackle in here.

And then those guitars, too. Oh, man, there's so many guitars.

It's ridiculous.

When we built the studio, we finally had a place

to put all of these things which were just in boxes, you know?

Cos I mean, we've never really had any of these in our houses.

Our wives would never let us do that.

And so we finally had a place we thought like, "OK."

Then it was nice because when we would make a record here

you walk up and down this hall

and you realise, "OK, we gotta make it good."Yeah.

Cos if we've done...All of this. If we've done all of this and this,

we gotta make it good.

# It's times like these

# You learn to love again

# It's times like these

# Time and time again #

That's... (CHUCKLING) That's an Anton Corbijn picture

from this MTV advert I did.

Erm, he put me in drag.

That's not drag. That's Scottish, laddie.

Is that what that is?It's a kilt. Ah, that's right.

That's from our first tour in Vancouver.Yes, yes.

Erm, and this is a Grammys performance

where we did a tribute to Joe Strummer.

Yeah. And, so there's Elvis Costello

and Springsteen, Little Stevie and me.

We did London Calling. That was great.

And then, oh, here's an old Nirvana picture from one of our last tours.

And we were young. I mean, this is, I think I was 24 maybe.

It was... (LAUGHING)

Anything. I can do anything. And then...

(EXCLAIMS) Would you look at this?

Home sweet home. The Neve. The Neve.

This is a one of a kind. It was custom-built

for a studio just down the street called Sound City.

The head engineer designed this board with Rupert Neve

and they installed it in the early '70s and it sat there...

Uh-huh. ..until about ten years ago.

The studio started going under because most studios, you know,

have kind of swapped over to digital stuff, right?Yeah. That's right.

So, something like this old Neve or the old Studer tape machines,

most people don't really need them any more cos you could do everything on a computer now.

So they were closing. And I have a personal connection to this board

because this is the board that Nirvana recorded

our Nevermind album on. Yeah.

So this is really the first board

that was like a real quality piece of equipment, you know.

# NIRVANA: Smells Like Teen Spirit

# With the lights out it's less dangerous

# Here we are now, entertain us!

# I feel stupid and contagious

# Here we are now, entertain us #

Since it was installed in Sound City, everyone from Fleetwood Mac

to Tom Petty to Ronnie James Dio

to Metallica to Slayer,

hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of bands have made albums on this.

Nine Inch Nails and Johnny Cash.

# Too cold to start a fire I'm burning diesel

# Burning dinosaur bones #

Like, everyone has made an album on this board.

And so when they were closing, I said, "What are you gonna do with that board?"

Cos I thought it was just gonna go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

And the woman that ran the studio, she said,

"I'd sell my grandmother before I sell that board."Right.

Then as they were going under, they said, "Are you really serious about buying it?"

I said, "Absolutely." Cos I'd hate for it to go somewhere where it wouldn't be used.Oh, yeah.

You know? Because it has a very specific sound.

And because it's one of a kind, erm...

It should be used to make music, you know.

So we pulled it out of there. It was like the Titanic.

You know? Trying to pick that up and move it. Drove it over here.

It hadn't moved since the early '70s.

Put it on the floor, plugged it in. (CLAPS) Straight up.

# Give me some rope I'm coming loose

# I'm hanging on you

# Give me some rope I'm coming loose

# I'm pulling for you now

# Give me some rope I'm coming, out of my head

# Into the clear when you

# Go, I

# Go

# Loose

The great thing about recording in a simple analogue process,

it's just the musician and a microphone,

this board and that tape, and there's really nothing in between. Yeah.

So it really comes down to your hands and your heart, you know.

So when you strap on an instrument, the way you play it

is what you're gonna hear when it hits the tape.

And that human element,

I mean, it's one of the things everyone loves about AC-DC.

When it's the combination of people

in that configuration, it sounds like that.

If you remove one of those things, it sounds different.

It's the human element, I think, that makes music really exciting

because it inspires people to do it themselves.Yeah.

So when you see someone onstage singing their heart out,

it has that energy and that passion, then you look at it and you think,

"That's a human being doing this thing. Maybe I could do that, too."

Yeah.And then you've got the next generation of bands.

# Give me some rope I'm coming, out of my head,

# Into the clear when you, go

# I, go

# Noose #

I found out early on in life I hated to be in there singing.

I hated to be in the booth. And so I said to them,

cos you see, you know, I'm not lying. I said, "Can I stand in here?"

And he went, "Well... Yeah. I think you can.

But, you know, you cannot have any effects in or nothing."

But the good thing is, when you do that, what you hear is what you get.

And you really have to try hard cos there's other people in there,

and if they're just sitting, going like this,

but if you can get them going...

Yeah. And so you're performing. Yeah.

In a funny kind of way you're performing in here.

And you're knocking shit over, cos I get all excited, you know.

It doesn't matter because at the end of the day you've performed.Yes.

And in there you're just singing, and then you'd look inside

and somebody's reading the paper or getting a pizza delivered.

And you're going, "What the fuck's going on out there?" (LAUGHS)

When we've built this studio, I thought, "OK, well,

let's have another clubhouse."

Cos it's kind of cool when it's you and your friends, you know?

You don't feel like it's some professional laboratory.

You're just fucking making music, you know?

Shut off the world and just do this. So...

The contractor said, "OK.

Like, what colours, what kind of materials do you want to use?"

And that day, Taylor, our drummer, had brought us...

..as a gift, this ABBA book.

I turned to this one page

of ABBA's recording studio... (WHISPERING) Oh, shit, where is it?

And I said, "I want it to look like that."Ah, wow. It is.

But we had to do it quick because we were about to make a record.

So there were times where I was out there doing a vocal on a song,

I'm screaming my heart out and someone walks by with a two-by-four.

Because we're still building the place.

# Give me some rope I'm coming, out of my head

# Into the clear when you, go

# I, go #

# MCCARTNEY, GROHL, NOVOSELIC AND SMEAR: Cut Me Some Slack

Dave and I sat down to talk about the early days,

and when his love of rock music started.

I had never been to a rock concert.Yeah.

And we used to vacation up in Chicago...All right.

..er, during the summers

because my mother's best friend from high school

lived in this beautiful big house that was right down the street from Lake Michigan.

And there were four kids. There was Tripp, Todd,

Troy and Tracey.

So, Tracey, you know, she was kind of like the tomboy.Yeah.

So, one year we come up to Chicago, we get to the house,

walk up the front steps, Aunt Sherry meets us at the door

and she says, "Tracey, they're here." Tracey comes down the stairs,

and she's a punk-rocker. Oh. Great.

She's got like this leather jacket.

She's shaved her head and she's got, like, bondage pants and boots.

And I'd only seen that on TV. You know?

I thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. She was like a superhero.

I think I was maybe 13 years old and I knew nothing about punk rock.

And that night, she was going to a gig

to see this local punk rock band in Chicago.

They're called Naked Raygun.

Brilliant name. So, we take the subway down there,

and, erm, get to the club.

And I'm surrounded by punk rockers in a tiny stage.

And it smells like beer and it smells like bleach and it's...

And there's only a few lights on the stage,

and this band comes on and just destroys.

# You're not one of them You're pure

# You're something special

# Yeah, that's for sure

# You are my electric Got a black jag for you

# And that's why I call you

# My sweet vanilla blue #

I mean, they only had three or four chords,

and they were these three guys in the band and the singer was jumping in the audience,

and people were banging into each other and dancing around.

And I was like, "That's what I'm gonna do with the rest of my life, right there."

# Lost control again today

# Lost control again today

# Lost control again today #

The thing that I loved about it the most,

which still applies to what we do today,

is that they were all doing it themselves.

The band was loading into the gig by themselves. Yeah, that was the way it was.

The band was plugging in and tuning their stuff by themselves.

They were making their records by themselves. They were going

to the little studio down the street,

spending their hard earned money to make a recording,

and they'd send that to the pressing plant and then they get the pressings back.

And then they'd make the covers themselves and stuff the sleeves,

and go to the record store and say, "Could you sell our record?"

I thought that was so cool because it was like, "I could do this, too."

Like, you know, I only know four chords. I could mow lawns

until I get enough money to go down to the studio and make a record.

So that was really a huge inspiration to me.

Yeah, but you said "The record store was my church."

Oh, yeah."The rock stars were my sins."Yes.

"And the music were my hymns." Yeah.

It would sound fabulous in Latin.

In a tattoo, like right here.

No, I mean, honestly, music became my best friend.

I couldn't wait to get home from school and play my records.

I couldn't wait to pick up my instrument and learn a new riff.

I couldn't wait to get the sticks and figure out one little trick.

And something happens with children

where it's kind of in between the ages of

maybe ten and 13 years old

when you're discovering identity.

So you're no longer really, like, so attached to your parents.

You're becoming independent. So you get to decide who you are.

And if you have any sort of musical inclination or ability

in that little window of time... Aye.

..if you get the spark and the fire

to do it then...Uh-huh...then you decide like, that's who I am.

Like, I'm a musician.

# Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you?

# Is someone getting the best

# The best, the best, the best of you? #

Where did you play for the first time?Oh, man.

Well, I mean, one of the first shows I remember playing

was with my neighbourhood band.

Someone at the school asked if we would go play at a nursing home.

Oh... OK.

It's so weird. (BOTH LAUGH)

You know, we were little boys. We were 13, 14,

maybe 15 years old.

And we'd load all the equipment into the nursing home,

and they wheel everybody into the room.(CHUCKLING)

And...I just remember that we played, er...

Time Is On My Side by the Rolling Stones.Yeah.

I didn't realise the cruel irony of that until much later.

But there's a bunch of 13-year-old kids playing to some senior citizens.

But it's the best way to learn how to do it.

You know? To get out there and do it.

# FOO FIGHTERS: Run

Dave has revisited the nursing home gig

in the video for the Foo Fighters song Run.

# Run for your life with me

# In another perfect life

# In another perfect light

# We run

# We run

# We run

Dressing up and larking around in videos

is a bit of a trademark for Dave and the Foo Fighters.

# The rats are on parade

# Another mad charade What you gonna do?

# The hounds are on the chase

# Everything's erased What you gonna do? #

You can't take yourself too seriously.No. Well...

That's why I love 'em. Because you're just sitting, going...

Yeah, I'm kidding. We're gonna make a rock video.

I mean, like the You Shook Me All Night Long video.

It's a great example. Here you've got this...

..song that's just like, "This, man. It's great."

And then you watch the video. And you guys are having a good time.

You're taking the piss.

# AC-DC: You Shook Me All Night Long

# She was a fast machine She kept her motor clean

# She was the best damn woman I had ever seen #

As a teenager, Dave played in

a variety of bands around Washington, DC,

before joining hard-core punk band Scream.

PETER STAHL: Scream. Got something in my heart, something in my soul.

Trying to get it out, there's something in my head.

(CROWD CHEERING)

(ROCK MUSIC PLAYING)

Some people like me that were dreaming of being in a rock band,

but you jumped straight into the dream and went off and did it.

At 17 you joined the Scream. Yes.

And there you were, a teenager in Amsterdam,

of all places, walking around, going...

"Everything's legal here. I mean, everything."Yeah.

You must have had a ball there.

When I was that age, the fucking world was a mystery.

Yeah.Around every corner there was something new

and I loved that. But the most important thing to me

was always, "I got to get to the gig."Yes.

It didn't matter how much I had to drink or smoke.

"I got to get to the gig." Yeah.But, you know, like,

when you get to Amsterdam for the first time

and you walk into one of those coffee shops

like, you're afraid to ask... For a joint.A joint.

And, so I'm sitting with my friend that I grew up with, you know,

and we're like, "You ask him." I'm like, "No, you ask him."

Everybody else in the coffee shop is just blazing weed everywhere.

And finally, one of us had the nerve to say, like, "Erm...

Excuse me, sir, could we have two joints, please?"

The guy looked at us like... Fuck, yeah.

"This your first time in the coffee shop?"

You know, in those days, we wouldn't stay in hotels and things.

And we, for the most part, wouldn't even play in clubs.

Most of the places we played were squats.

So they were just buildings that weren't being used

that were occupied by these rockers or punk rockers

and they'd pirate the electricity.

You'd play the gig and all these punk rockers would show up and maybe you got $100.

Yeah.And you'd use that for gas money to the next town.

And then the people who lived in the squat,

they'd give you a bed, they'd maybe make you a big bowl of pasta.

Uh-huh.That was it. A simple exchange.

I'm gonna rock you tonight and then afterwards you're gonna

give me some pasta and then I'm off to Hamburg.

# SCREAM: Fool Like That

(VOCALISING)

In 1990, Kurt Cobain saw Scream play

and he asked Dave to join his band Nirvana as the new drummer.

# I'll take advantage while

# You hang me out to dry

# But I can't see you every night

# But I can't see you every night

# Free

# I do

# I do

# I do

# I do #

Grunge at that time, it was like a sledgehammer

to the music industry.

Everything else is done.

And it's funny how it all comes from one place.

Seattle, you know. Seattle in some way was...

kind of disconnected from the rest of the country.

You know, geographically speaking, it's just kind of way up there.

Because of that isolation... Yeah.

..they were just blissfully cut off from a lot of popular culture,

cos nobody thought like, "We're not gonna become fucking rock stars."

Yeah."But I wanna play rock and roll."Yeah.

So, get that old guitar that you've got at the yard sale,

and we'll practise in that guy's basement and play at that pub down the street.

And when you're doing it from there, and for these reasons,

is you get real rock and roll, you know?

# I like it, I'm not gonna crack

# I miss you, I'm not gonna crack

# I love you, I'm not gonna crack

# I miss you, I'm not gonna crack

# I love you, I'm not gonna crack #

I think I was 22 years old when...

er, the Nevermind record came out,

and really, nobody had real expectation

because at the time, that type of music wasn't popular.

So when we started the tour for that record,

we were in a van, you know, and we had a trailer

and we're driving around and we show up to a club,

and maybe it holds 90-100 people and we play a show.

We have a great show. Then the next night we play at another club.

That one holds a couple of hundred people

and there's another hundred people that can't get in.Yeah.

And then we play the next show. Now there's 500 people there.

And there's another 300 that can't get in.

You just saw that kind of building like that.

It blew up so quickly, that right before Christmas,

the album had only been out a couple of months.Right.

But we already had a gold record.

I remember the most important thing to me is,

I called the record company and said, "I need a gold record."

They said, "They haven't made them yet."

And I said, "You've got to at least make one cos I'm giving it to my mom for Christmas."

And I remember giving my mom the gold record for Christmas.

(MIMICS CRYING)

But I thought, like, "Oh, my God, maybe I don't have to...

Maybe I don't have to work at the furniture warehouse any more.

Maybe I don't have to go back to the record store or the pizza place."

All the jobs I had before, I thought, "Wow, I can...

Wait, I can survive just making music?" Unbelievable.

# I'm so happy because today I've found my friends

# They're in my head

# I'm so ugly, but that's OK, cos so are you

This is one of the reasons why we work so fucking hard,

it's cos I don't wanna work as Shakey's Pizza again.

No.You know what I mean? I think about that sometimes.

# Yeah, yeah, yeah

# Yeah, yeah, yeah

# Yeah, yeah, yeah

# Yeah, yeah, yeah

# Yeah, yeah, yeah

# Yeah, yeah, yeah #

# NIRVANA: Come as You Are

# Come as you are, as you were

# As I want you to be

# As a friend, as a friend

# As an old enemy

# Take your time, hurry up

# Choice is yours, don't be late

# Take a rest as a friend #

In April 1994, Dave's roller coaster ride with Nirvana

came to a sudden and shocking end

when lead singer Kurt Cobain took his own life.

Kurt's passing, must have shook you all to the core?

When Kurt died, even just listening to music

would break my heart because it reminded me of him.

You know, being in a band like Nirvana was a dream come true to me.

So, to have that rug pulled out from under you,

I just felt lost.

And I didn't know if I would ever

play music again or play the drums again.

And I don't know if anyone's ready for that to happen. Really.

It's hard, you know, when the band...I know.

..blows up and then life changes.

Fortunately, any time I felt overwhelmed with anything,

I'd go back to Virginia, to the house where I grew up in.

Yeah. And I'd ride motorcycles

and have barbecues with the people I went to elementary school with.

All of my oldest friends and all of that would go away.Yeah.

When Kurt passed away, I remember waking up the next day

and thinking like, "OK, I'm still here and he's not.

All right. So, what am I gonna do today?"Yeah.

"You know, I'm not just gonna sit on my ass. I can't do that."

Erm... and somebody sent me this card that basically said,

"I'm sure you don't wanna play music now, but someday you will.

And that's what will save your life."

That card was really the beginning of the Foo Fighters.

Because I thought, "I don't know what I'm gonna do,

but I have to do something."

And so going in to record the early songs

was more of a continuation of life...

Yeah. ..than any kind of plan.

# This is a call to all my past resignations #

The first Foo Fighters album was just Dave playing all the instruments.

He then had to find a band to play the songs live.

# It's been too long #

You put it so eloquently there that you have to keep going,

or you will die inside.

I don't know what else I would do. I mean, it's kind of a running joke

with everyone in my life. Yeah.

Where after I've been on the road for a year and a half,

I come home from tour and I say, "I'm never doing that again."

Yeah."That's it. That's the last time. I'm never doing this.

Never, never again. I'm gonna take two years off."

And all of my friends look at me they say, "Bullshit."Yeah.

There's no way, "Am I gonna watch this?"

And after a month and a half, I got a guitar in my lap

and I'm writing songs, I call the guys, "OK, let's make a record."

You know, I do it every time, you know.

# Is someone getting the best

# The best, the best the best of you?

# Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you?

# Has someone taken your faith? It's real, the pain you feel

# You trust, you must confess

# Is someone getting the best, the best,

# The best, the best of you? #

(VOCALISING)

Once you said Nirvana in a small club,

you could feel the intensity in the air.

And then, we had to go at arenas.

You said, "I felt like I was playing in clothes that didn't fit me yet."

Remember that?

When Nirvana became popular, it happened so quickly,

that it really was a quick jump from a place the size of this room

to headlining a festival in Europe.

(VOCALISING)

That transition can be really difficult.Yes.

Erm... With the Foo Fighters, you know,

we've had this really slow 25-year

steps building to where we are now.

Had we gone straight from a room this big,

to playing at Wembley Stadium, I wouldn't know what to do.

No, it is a different art, isn't it? Yeah, it is.

And to me, the interaction and the connection to the audience

really is the most important thing.

# I

# I'm a one-way motorway

# I'm the one that drives away

# Then follows you back home #

When you sort of, break down a lot of those walls

and the audience feels like you're their friends.

I mean, like, I grew up listening to you.

You know, we can sit here having a talk,

but I've known you for 40 fucking years.

When you guys break into Back In Black

or Highway to Hell or Have A Drink On Me,

things like that, everybody's singing that song.Yeah, I know.

And it's one of those things that you've got that chorus,

everybody's gonna sing it together

and they might be singing it for 100,000 different reasons.

When everybody sings that song together,

that's something politicians can't even do.Yeah.

# Well, I'm back in black

# Yes, I am

# Ooh, I'm back

# Hey, hey, hey, hey

# Hey, hey, hey

# Back in black

# Well, I'm back in black #

I'm gonna jump to your mom.

Your mom comes on the road with you sometimes.

And she was the one that recognised right from the start.

You know what? What better education than going out in the world?

And she's written a book which I'm gonna get my hands on some day:

From Cradle To Stage, which would mean it could be embarrassing

cos moms have this nasty habit of bringing out the baby pictures.

"This is our Dave when he was peeing up against the wall

when he was four," and you go, "No, Mom!"

My mother is a huge inspiration to me

because here you've got this woman who's a public school teacher.

She's raising two kids on her own.

There are times where the heat's turned off

because she couldn't pay the bill.

There were times where the lights were turned off, the phone is off,

and there's times where it's scrambled eggs for dinner

because there's not much else.

But I was happy.

Yeah. I never felt poor.Yeah.

She was a public school teacher for 35 years.

So, she had to deal with assholes like me her entire life, right?

I say, like, "OK. I'm not really good at this school thing."

Yeah. And she says, "I know."

I said, "I've had a chance to go out on tour with this band."

And she said, "You know what? Go, just go do it."

So then when she retired, you know, most people when they retire,

they go on one of those cruise ships or they go with a group of people.

And I was like, "Fuck that, I got a cruise ship."

Yeah. "It's called a tour bus."

# FOO FIGHTERS: No Way Back

# Lately, I've been

# Living in my head

# The rest of me is dead I'm dying for truth

# Make me believe

# No more left and right

# Come on, take my side I'm fighting for you #

She instilled a few things in me, in my life.

One of them is the love of being a parent.Yeah.

Cos I had such a great mother. She made my childhood so much fun.

Also, her work ethic. Not only was she a school teacher,

but she worked at Bloomingdales, a department store, twice a week.

And then on the weekends she worked at this carpet cleaning place.

So, she worked her fingers to the bone, man.

Now, when I'm on stage at the Reading Festival,

and I'm getting paid more than she ever made in her entire career,

she's on the side of the stage, I'm looking at her like,

"How could I not feel like the luckiest person in the world?"

So she's got a fucking house with a swimming pool.

I'm like Elvis with that shit. Yeah, right.

You know, I actually did the thing where I bought my mom a new car,

put a bow on it and on Christmas morning, open up the curtains.

And I went like that because, you know,

it's a fucking dream come true. Buying your parents a house.

You're right. You just think, "I made more money

in a couple of gigs than my dad made all this life..."

Yeah. "..working in a foundry."

See, I never take that shit for granted.

I wrote the foreword to my mother's book and one of the things I realised

is that, I think DNA has a lot to do with it.

If it weren't for these women, there would be no music.I know.

It's funny because, you know, my mother interviewed Dr Dre's mother,

and Warren Haynes' mother and Michael Stipe's mother

and Pharrell's mother and all of these really incredibly brilliant,

successful musicians' mothers.

But all the stories are basically the same.Yeah.

Where you've got this kid who falls in love with music

and you're trying to keep their nose in the books at school

and trying to keep them on the field for sport or whatever.

But there's just nothing you can do.

And so, all you have to do is give them love and get out of the way.

# There goes my hero

# Watch him as he goes

# There goes my hero

# He's ordinary

# There goes my hero

# Watch him as he goes

# There goes my hero

# He's ordinary #

# One in ten

# Don't wanna be your monkey wrench

# One more indecent accident

# I'd rather leave than suffer this

# I'll never be your monkey wrench #

Moving from drummer to front man doesn't happen much, does it?

I think that there's a lot of lead singers that are also drummers.

I know a few. I mean, Kurt also played the drums.Yeah.

I know Steven Tyler from Aerosmith is a drummer.Yes.

I mean, you know, Phil Collins from Genesis

obviously went from being an amazing drummer,

to then a lead singer of a band.

I think one of the great things about playing more

than one instrument is understanding how they all work together.

Yeah, I guess, for yourself,

it must've been quite a move from complete anonymity

to being right in the front. It's all on you.

Took a really long time before I felt comfortable with it.

I mean, like a good ten years. You look like you've always done it.

I mean, if you had a cavalry uniform on,

the men would follow you.

Well...You know what I mean? That kind of presence is what you need.

I think that some people feel the need

to get on stage and be someone else.Mm.

Which makes you kind of self-conscious.

You're always thinking about, "Do I look cooler?"

"Am I moving the right way?" Or something like that.

And we did this one show with Bowie

at a festival in, like, Switzerland in the '90s.

And I was still trying to get used to just standing there and singing.

And I remember watching Bowie on stage

and he was just so cool, you know.

And he would he just walk up to the mike and sing a couple lines

and light a cigarette.

Even just like a flick of his shoulder,

the audience would be like, (GASPS) they thought it was so cool.

But he was being David Bowie. Yeah.

And I had this realisation, I thought,

"He feels completely at ease onstage.

Well, maybe if I just go up and be myself,

I'll feel a lot more comfortable."

And then over the years, I've watched our audience

go from being these 18-, 20-year-old kids

to now people that bring their 18- and 20-year-old kids to our shows.

And so in a way we've kind of grown up together.Yeah.

And I don't walk out on stage and think,

"These are a bunch of strangers." Right.

Someone once told me that when you walk out on stage...

people want you to do well. Yeah.

Like they're already on your side.Yeah.

They're holding you up. It's true.

So now before the show I go out

and I sort of poke my head around and I look at the arena,

I look at the audience and I think to myself, like,

"I'm gonna fucking light this place on fire tonight." And I go back to the dressing room

and I say to the guys in the band, I'm like, "We're gonna tear this shit up tonight."

Every show I do that. I look out and I'm just like,

"Oh, I'm gonna give it to 'em."

# Stack dead actors stacked to the rafters

# Line up the bastards All I want is the truth

# Stack dead actors stacked to the rafters

# Line up the bastards... #

You can't be a rock and roll singer

and say, "I'll take it easy tonight." You can't do that.

It's just impossible. If you do, you shouldn't be there.

I agree. Still to this day, I'm still learning.

I still, I walk out on stage and I never know what's gonna happen.

That's one of the things I love about it, is you walk out on stage,

you're like, "Right. This is the 46th time I've played St Louis.

What's gonna happen tonight?" I don't know.

It's never the same, is it? No.

Never the same. You proved that by the leg break.

# Don't wanna be your monkey wrench #

THOMAS RITTER: It happened during the second song of the evening,

at a Foo Fighters concert in Gothenburg, Sweden.

I don't know how many times I've nearly done it,

you know, with all the modern lights and the dazzle,

razzle dazzle around you, and you keep forgetting

there's a big black chasm there.

Just weird. But it must have hurt.

No, it didn't actually. It didn't?No, because...

And you'll understand this. You know, also when you're on stage,

this adrenaline kicks in...

Oh, yes. Right? When I walk out onstage,

the most important thing to me is that

the energy in the house goes like this.

So whatever it takes, right? So I'm thinking about the people.

And I've got this adrenaline going. And it was a beautiful night.

It was a stadium. 50,000 people. It was great.

And then the second song, they're going nuts and it's great.

I'm shredding this guitar thing

and I go running over to this side of the stage

and there's a cable on the stage and I trip over it.

I see the lip of the stage right there and it's an 11-foot drop.

And I'm kind of doing one of these. Whoa...

And I think, "OK, I'll just jump, you know, I'm fucking Superman.

I'll just jump. It'll be fine."

But I land on my feet.

I land so hard, man,

but I don't feel anything, so...Jesus.

..I get up to get back on stage and my leg is gone.

So my ankle is out and I've broken this bone right here. And no pain.

But, you know, when it's gone, you know it's gone.

And I just... (GASPS) And I sat down and I'm looking at my security guy.

I'm like, "I broke my leg."

So the band can't see me, though.

They're still on the stage, so they're like, going for it like that.

And they're like, "Where's Dave? Where did Dave go?"

And I'm lying on the thing down there. The song stops.

(BASS GUITAR PLAYING)

Paramedics come over, they've got the gurney thing

and they said, "You've broken your leg."

I go, "Gimme the mike."

So I get the mike and the whole audience is like, "What's going on right now?

This is weird." I said...

I think I've just broken my leg.

(AUDIENCE EXCLAIMS)

I think I really broke my leg.

So, look, OK.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you.

Right now, I'm gonna go to the hospital.

I'm gonna fix my leg.

But then I wanna come back

and we're gonna play for you again.

(CROWD CHEERING)

I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry.

But I didn't know what I was talking about.

It was just coming out of my mouth. So I looked at Taylor and those guys

I'm like, "Just play a Rod Stewart, a Queen song, just play something."

So they pulled me over the side. The guy looks at me.

He's like, "Your ankle's out." Right.

"And I got to put it back in right now."

You see, you're saying it didn't hurt but God damn it, seriously.

And so I looked at my tour manager and I said,

"I need the biggest cup of whisky you could find right now."

So I went...hit this whisky. They put it back in.

And... So then I was just sitting there

and then these guys are playing.

The whole stadium is like, "What's happening right now?"

And I said, "OK, can I finish the show if I just sit down?"Yeah.

The guy said, "If I let go your ankle, it's just gonna fall out."

(WINCES)

I said, "Well, then you're fucking coming on stage with me right now."

And this Swedish guy comes up onstage and sits in front of me

and holds my ankle. I've seen the photographs.

It was amazing! I couldn't believe it. And then I thought, "Wait,

I'm telling you what to do. That's a bad idea."

# Chipping around, kick my brains around the floor

# These are the days it never rains but it pours

(VOCALISING)

To me, the most important thing that night really was like,

I'm not walking offstage after two songs.

You know, all these people came all this way to see the show.

I came all this way to do the show...

Two songs into a two-and-a-half-hour show.

Back then I knew I could do that.

# Watching some good friends Screaming 'Let me out'

# Pray tomorrow gets me higher

# Pressure on people, people on streets #

(CROWD CHEERING)

The next day sucked.

(CROWD CHEERING)

# Under pressure

# Under pressure

# Pressure # (CROWD CHEERING)

(SCREAMS)

# Ramble on

# Gotta find the queen of all my dreams

# Sing my song

# I'm going round the world I got to find my girl

# On my way

# I've been this way ten years to the day

# Ramble on

# Gotta find the queen of all my dreams #

The people you played with, I tried to write the list down.

I ran out of paper. I mean,

from Paul McCartney, Queens of the Stone Age.

You know, Jimmy Page.

I could go on forever.

First of all, I love being in a band. I love being with my guys.

Yeah. We're a gang of old dads now,

but like when we get together and do our thing, that's the Foo Fighters.

But I also like going out

and playing with other people because,

you know, you...you kind of get to know someone musically.

Maybe more so than like having a conversation.

You get to know someone when you strap on the instruments and do it.

Now you're sharing something that you can't in a conversation.

This is a musical conversation.

So we don't know what we're doing.

So we could just do anything. Just, yeah...

To start with?

(SONG INTRO)

Having the absolute honour

and blessing to play with Paul McCartney,

I mean, he's the reason I started playing music in the first place.

And we sat right here and wrote a song together.

Maybe then go to the... # A doo doo doo doo doo

# We don't know what's gonna come on top of this

# But something is Doo doo doo #

And for those two hours,

we actually got to like do this thing together. It's great.

(BOTH VOCALISING)

Sounds pretty cool. I love it.

Should we do in the other section, too?OK.

Why can't it always be this easy?

It is.

You learn things when you play with other people.

If you jam with the Preservation Hall jazz band,

you learn, like, you learn to swing a different way.

(JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING)

We should open our fucking doors, man.

(JAZZ CONTINUES)

If you play with someone like Queens of the Stone Age,

it's this whole other focus of determination.

# Indeed a fool am I

# Ah #

What you have is the great power of communication.

You have it in spades. And I was laughing the other night.

I said, you know, "I bet the only thing

that Dave Grohl could be ticked off about

was the fact that he's only got one pair of arms."

(LAUGHS) Hey, I need more.

DAVE: 'These people and their stories.

These cities and their history.

The culture, the accent,

the geography, the music.

These interviews have all been more like lessons.

And it's all led us here

to the greatest city in America.'

Dave's boundless energy has also led him

to directing music documentaries.

I think you're a great explorer of music,

cos the Sonic Highways series that's brilliant.

Cos it's so important to the history of music...

That kind of started with the soundboard that's in there.

Yeah?I made a movie about that studio

and that Neve console - it's called Sound City.

So then I started thinking about the environment

like where you make a record.

So why did Chicago get the blues?

What happened in Austin, Texas, to make that a capital?

What about Nashville? What about Seattle?

Why did that music happen in Seattle? And a lot of those reasons

aren't musical reasons at all.

A lot of them have to do with the geography, the accent,

the...the food, the tempo of life.

But, yeah, the process was amazing because I got to meet and interview

everyone from Dolly Parton to Chuck D from Public Enemy

to Tony Joe White to President Obama.

To me, the beautiful thing about our country is that...

you can be Buddy Guy and make your instrument

from a piece of your screen porch and wind up in The Kennedy Centre.

Or be a kid from Springfield, Virginia,

and then get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Or be a kid from Hawaii who becomes the President. You know what I mean?

Absolutely.

What's also nice, though, is how there is a connection...

all these different musical rivers that run together

to make American music.

There is nothing more unifying in this country...

..than our music.

The most important thing to me is to really humanise...

..the story so people understand

that it's not just this glossy image that you see on television.

It's real people.Yeah. Because the next generation,

if they could get that same feeling I had when I...

saw the punk rock band in Chicago.

Because that's all it took.Yes. It's not fucking rocket science.

You know what I mean? Like, if you... if you pick up a guitar,

three fucking chords and this and this, like you got it.

That's all you need.

You guys, I'd like to thank you for making this...

..the most unbelievable Foo Fighters show we've ever had in our lives.

(CROWD CHEERING) Thank you very much, all of you.

We can get dark or we can get deeper. We can get serious, sometimes.

I feel like we have to keep it real in a way.

Before we go on stage, I'm not like doing yoga and Pilates

and warming up my voice and stuff like that.

The most important thing to me

before we walk out on stage is that we're all laughing.

So the 20 minutes before we go on, there's a whisky out.

Everyone's having a drink. The tour manager's like, "Ten minutes."

"OK, five minutes." "OK."

And we're telling stories and we're all laughing.

And I don't wanna hit the stage and have the house lights go out

until we get that one big laugh backstage

and everyone's cracking up about something. It's like, "OK, now we can go on stage."

(SINGS)

(SCREAMS)

# If everything could ever feel this real forever

# If anything could ever be this good again

# The only thing I'll ever ask of you

# You've got to promise not to stop when I say when #

(AUDIENCE CHEERING) Thank you very much, Hyde Park!

You're a beautiful fucking audience.

Thank you!

It's been lovely to sit and talk to you.

I would give anything to be inside your brain just for one day.

You don't wanna get in there.

It's like sticking a hand in a fucking bees' nest.

Yes, it'll be fascinating.

And I know you're always busy.

I know you've got an album to finish before lunch.

And...That's easy. Cos you're always working.

But thank you so much for taking the time.

You have no idea. I mean, I could go on and on and on

about how much of an honour it is just to sit here.

Cameras or not, and be able to to chat with you.

You got everything you want? Yeah. Absolutely. Thank you so much.

Hey! (CREW CLAPPING)

(ENGINE REVS)

What a great day. I enjoyed every single second of it.

And, you know, just talking to him about rock and roll,

his attention to detail is just unbelievable.

So now I'm leaving Los Angeles

knowing that rock n roll is in good hands with Dave Grohl.

He's a great kid. And what can I say? He likes AC-DC a lot.

And that means we've done something right.

See ya next time. Ta-ta.

# FOO FIGHTERS: Wheels

# When the wheels come down

# When the wheels come down

# When the wheels come down

# When the wheels touch ground

# When the wheels touch ground #

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