Dave Grohl Quotes & Sayings

Ramones or AC/DC are two bands that have managed to keep their signature sound and their signature formula for years and years and album after album after album, without it seeming like a dead-end street. — Dave Grohl

I'd love it if everyone knew one Foo Fighters song. — Dave Grohl

My whole life, I have listened to people like Neil Young, or Crosby, Stills & Nash, and artists that have made a career out of the mellow, folky, acoustic dynamic. — Dave Grohl

Wow, I get to wake up again? Ok. You have to make good with what you've got. — Dave Grohl

The best time for gum is just before getting onstage. I need a minty-fresh microphone. — Dave Grohl

A lot of the records you buy, there's nothing you can hold in your hand, it's all 1's and 0's, this digital cloud floating in the ether. but with analog albums, you can hold it in your hand. — Dave Grohl

The late '60s and the '70s, a lot of this really beautiful equipment was being made and installed into studios around the world and the Neve boards were considered like the Cadillacs of recording consoles. They're these really big, behemoth-looking recording desks; they kind of look like they're from the Enterprise in Star Trek or something like that. They're like a grayish color, sort of like an old Army tank with lots of knobs, and to any studio geek or gear enthusiast it's like the coolest toy in the world. — Dave Grohl

And later, if I ever felt that I was getting swept away by the craziness of being in a band, well, I'd go back to Virginia. — Dave Grohl

There weren't a lot of career opportunities in crazy-fast hardcore punk, so you didn't have a lot of ambition, just the love and passion to play music with your friends. — Dave Grohl

Usually, when you go in to make a record, you have 30 songs, and you record 30 of them, and 12 of them make it to the record. — Dave Grohl

Joining a band without ever having really met the people before, you just want to be musically powerful. — Dave Grohl

I was ready to quit music. It felt to me like music equalled death. — Dave Grohl

No one is you, and that is your power. — Dave Grohl

No, there's something about the sing-song cadence of children's music that has its place in rock. — Dave Grohl

A lot of people from my generation of music are so focused on playing things correctly or to perfection that they're stuck in that safe place. — Dave Grohl

I'm a skinny, geeky, high school dropout - it works, kids! Sensitive guys always get the girl. You'll get laid 10 times as much as that guy on the football team 'cause he's on steroids and he's gonna get fat. — Dave Grohl

I'm told that my blood sugar level was twelve times the legal limit - I was sweating honey. — Dave Grohl

I love to play music. So why endanger that with something like drugs? — Dave Grohl

I dropped out of high school and I couldn't go to college 'cause I wasn't smart enough, so I'd resigned myself to loading trucks and playing punk rock on the weekends. — Dave Grohl

When you're young, you're not afraid of what comes next. You're excited by it. — Dave Grohl

My songwriting is like extending a hand to the listener. — Dave Grohl

Through Kurt I saw the beauty of minimalism and the importance of music that's stripped down. — Dave Grohl

CBGB was a wild place, ... The first time I ever played there was in 1987, I think, with my hardcore band, Scream. And I remember the craziest [thing] about that club was you could be in
front of the stage and it could be louder than any show you've ever been to in your life. But if you were towards the back of the club at the bar, you could sit and have a conversation with
someone. It was the weirdest thing to me. — Dave Grohl

The whole slacker generation totally didn't apply to us musically. — Dave Grohl

Music will never go away, and I will never stop making music; it's just what capacity or what arena you decide to do it. — Dave Grohl

Different boards do different things to the sound that's coming through them. An old Neve desk does embellish it in a way that makes it sound sort of bigger or warmer. It doesn't change the performance but it does enhance the way that it sounds. — Dave Grohl

I think maybe people see bands and musicians as some sort of superhero unrealistic sport that happens in another dimension where it's not real people and not real emotions. So, I grew up listening to Beatles records on my floor. That's how I learned how to play guitar. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't be a musician. — Dave Grohl

I'm so not macho. It's crazy. My man cave is so not a man cave. — Dave Grohl

Rock stars are like sports stars: If you snap your ankle, you're done. — Dave Grohl

It's tough to go to sleep at night, and I wake up after five hours because I feel like I'm wasting time. I just sit up at night and think about what I can do next. — Dave Grohl

I think actually singing the words is more therapeutic than just sitting down to write them, because then you are letting it out, and it's coming from your gut. — Dave Grohl

From one generation to the next, The Beatles will remain the most important rock band of all time. — Dave Grohl

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 silk-screen my own T-shirt. I could do this all myself. — Dave Grohl

Every band should study Queen at Live Aid. If you really feel like that barrier is gone, you become Freddie Mercury. I consider him the greatest frontman of all time. Like, it's funny? you'd imagine that Freddie was more than human, but ... You know how he controlled Wembley Stadium at Live Aid in 1985? He stood up there and did his vocal warm ups with the audience. Something that intimate, where they realize, 'Oh yeah, he's just a f***ing dude. — Dave Grohl

I hate the solo artist aspect of rock-'n'-roll. I don't have enough personality or charisma to be a solo star. — Dave Grohl

If you play a Nickleback song backwards you'll hear messages from the devil. Even worse, if you play it forwards you'll hear Nickleback. — Dave Grohl

Give me something to assemble, I won't look at the directions, I'll try to figure it out by myself. It's why I love Ikea furniture. — Dave Grohl

I like the rock documentaries that make it seem real. Some rock documentaries are meant to make the bands look larger than life. — Dave Grohl

Once I got into punk rock, I started mail-ordering albums, because a lot of the record stores in my area didn't carry the punk bands from England or Sweden or Chicago or Los Angeles — Dave Grohl

I love everything about my job, except being away from the kids. — Dave Grohl

What I really miss these days in music - is the music. I prefer to listen to melodies and songs, not just sounds. — Dave Grohl

All I really had was a suitcase and my drums. So I took them up to Seattle and hoped it would work. — Dave Grohl

When I joined Nirvana, I was the fifth or sixth drummer - I don't know if they'd ever had a drummer they were totally happy with. And they were strangers. There was never much of a deeper connection outside of the music. — Dave Grohl

I get confused between the rock and roll thing and my movie star thing ... We're f - -ing movie stars. — Dave Grohl

I don't think of Kurt as 'Kurt Cobain from Nirvana'. I think of him as 'Kurt'. It's something that comes back all the time. Almost every day. — Dave Grohl

It's important to me that people feel connected to the band through the music, you know? I don't want it to be wallpaper. I don't want it to be background music. I want it to be clear: This is the song. These are the words. If you feel the same way as I do, sing it as loud as you can. — Dave Grohl

It's funny, there aren't too many musicians that also moonlight as studio engineers. There's a few - the really brilliant ones. — Dave Grohl

When you have kids, you see life through different eyes. You feel love more deeply and are maybe a little more compassionate. It's inevitable that that would make its way into your songwriting. — Dave Grohl

You look up to your heroes and you shouldn't be intimidated by them, you should be inspired by them. — Dave Grohl

When I listen to music these days, and I hear Pro Tools and drums that sound like a machine - it kinda sucks the life out of music. — Dave Grohl

Mick Fleetwood was one of my first interviews. And if you've ever talked to that dude, he's the sweetest guy in the world - he's just a trip. — Dave Grohl

In a way, as much as we love to be a big, loud rock band, the acoustic album was a lot easier to make than the rock records. I think because it was brand new territory for the band. — Dave Grohl

The Nirvana unplugged album was something we'd always knew we were capable of doing, but it was just a matter of doing it right. — Dave Grohl

The thing that will never go away is that connection you make with a band or a song where you're moved by the fact that it's real people making music. You make that human connection with a song like 'Let It Be' or 'Long and Winding Road' or a song like 'Bohemian Rhapsody' or 'Roxanne,' any of those songs. They sound like people making music. — Dave Grohl

There's a big difference between falling in love with someone and falling in love with someone and getting married. Usually, after you get married, you fall in love with the person even more. — Dave Grohl

For every Foo Fighters record, we've had two or three beautiful, acoustic-based songs, but they never usually make their way to the record, because we want to make rock records. — Dave Grohl

Actually, I didn't start sweating until I had children. — Dave Grohl

Dude, maybe not everyone loves 'Glee.' Me included. I watched 10 minutes and it wasn't my thing. — Dave Grohl

I'm happy that I have my family, and I'm happy that I had Virginia, where I grew up, to retreat to any time I felt overwhelmed. Whenever there were times when I felt like the rug was being pulled out from under me and I was floating in this crazy space, I would stop and go back to that neighborhood and realize nothing's changed, really. — Dave Grohl

In this day and age, when you can use a machine or computer to simulate or emulate what people can do together, it still can't replace the magic of four people in a room playing. — Dave Grohl

Your personal history is a part of what happens with your hands and your head as you play music. — Dave Grohl

What we feel most comfortable doing is playing loud, screaming rock songs. — Dave Grohl

When I was a teenager, working towards dropping out of high school to starting to tour with bands, I'd drive around in my VW Bug every morning before school, very stoned listening over and over to Zeppelin. This song got to me because it just seemed mystical. There is something about those Celtic tunings that almost sounds Eastern. Somehow it would sweep me up into my own little trance-like state, like Sting with those shamans in the Amazon. But all I had was a bong and a Led Zeppelin cassette. — Dave Grohl

After 10 years, I have been touring for 20, playing basically the same type of music, a four-piece or three-piece type of music with loud, crashing drums and screaming vocals. It gets to the point where you're looking for something new, and you don't want to do something that's way too left-field, for fear that it might seem contrived. — Dave Grohl

I think maybe what happened was the convenience of technology overshadowed the experience of holding an album in your hands, and sitting on your bedroom floor, and staring at a picture of John Lennon or Gene Simmons or Johnny Rotten. That tangible experience can sometimes become an even more emotional experience, because it's really happening. — Dave Grohl

There's always gonna be rock n' roll bands, there's always gonna be kids that love rock n' roll records, and there will always be rock n' roll. — Dave Grohl

Going out and playing music - that's what I do. I don't do much else. — Dave Grohl

You know, Nirvana used to start rehearsals with the three of us just jamming. For, like, a half an hour, just noise and freeform crap - and usually it was crap. But sometimes things would come from it, and some songs on Nevermind came from that, and 'Heart Shaped Box' and stuff on 'In Utero' just happened that way. — Dave Grohl

I love Black Sabbath. They made an amazing contribution to music today. Almost every band that made it big in the Nineties owed a debt to them — Dave Grohl

A lot of people are promoting records that are just throw-it-agains t-the-wall-see- if-it-sticks meaningless bullshit. Everybody has the responsibility to do the right thing and promote artists that mean something. — Dave Grohl

At school where you a dunce or a teacher's pet? All of the above. I was stupid so they thought I was cute. — Dave Grohl

A place like Sound City, which was just a big, beautiful room where you would hit record and capture the sound of the performer - a place like that isn't necessarily in demand anymore. — Dave Grohl

I once received a cape that was made from the little purple bags that Crown Royal Whisky comes in. — Dave Grohl

I believe the history of American music is just as important as anything political because it's changed generations of people. — Dave Grohl

I think I'm scared a lot. I'm scared of almost everything. And I'm constantly trying to work my way through each obstacle, whether it's a present, past, or future relationship. — Dave Grohl

I have crazy claustrophobic dreams, weird elevator dreams where the elevator closes in and all of a sudden I am lying down - oh my God, it's a casket. Just freaky stuff like that. — Dave Grohl

It's not until recently that I could even imagine myself as an adult. But these kids today, they look at me like I'm Neil Young. Nirvana is the band their parents listen to. — Dave Grohl

My mother was a public school teacher in Virginia, and we didn't have any money, we just survived on happiness, on being a happy family. — Dave Grohl

When it comes to making an album I take that very seriously. I am meticulous, overworked. That's my time to put everything under the microscope. — Dave Grohl

Don't look at the poster on your wall and think 'I could never do that.' Look at the poster on your wall and think 'I'm gonna do that!' — Dave Grohl

I've experienced great things, I've experienced great tragedies. I've done almost everything I could possibly ever imagine doing, but I just know that there's more. — Dave Grohl

We just do what we always do. We play shows and go home and rest and then play more shows. — Dave Grohl

'Some Kind Of Monster' is such a nightmare for any musician to watch because you're watching a band be honest to each other. Not a good idea, man! — Dave Grohl

I mean, I never liked being told what to do. It's one of the reasons I dropped out of school. — Dave Grohl

Never lose faith in real rock and roll music. Never lose faith in that. You might have to look a little harder, but it's always going to be there. — Dave Grohl

I'd like to imagine I won't end up in Hell, but I think I've done too much acid and listened to too much death metal to sit on a cloud next to God with angels floating above my head. — Dave Grohl

I'm kind of claustrophobic ... It's not even like enclosed spaces. It's like I hate being stuck in one band, you know? Just being stuck is the biggest drag, for fear that, you know, just that you can't get out. — Dave Grohl

When I listen to the radio, I just hear so much music that doesn't even sound like people. The vocals are all tuned, and the drums are all fake. — Dave Grohl

To me the most important thing is getting into a studio and making an album that is 12 or 14 amazing songs, getting up onstage, and making people happy by livening the rock. — Dave Grohl

Usually, when Nirvana made music, there wasn't a lot of conversation. We wanted everything to be surreal. We didn't want to have some contrived composition. — Dave Grohl

When Nirvana became popular, you could very easily slip and get lost during that storm. I fortunately had really heavy anchors - old friends, family. — Dave Grohl

There's some things in life that you really consider to be priceless. — Dave Grohl

When you're thirteen and listening to punk, the aggressive nature of music can sway you to the dark side. — Dave Grohl

My first instrument was actually the trombone, but that didn't last long. Soon I was playing guitar in bands from the time I was 11 or 12. — Dave Grohl

I know a lot of people who wouldn't be comfortable with everything that comes with being in a band as big as Nirvana. The thing that I don't understand is not appreciating that simple gift of being able to play music. — Dave Grohl

It's nice when people are happy to hear that you're still alive, rather than feeling like "Oh, finally he's dead?" — Dave Grohl

I think my biggest musical hero growing up was probably Ian MacKaye. He set a great example for all of us local musicians. Still, to this day, I see him as the best example of a right-on musician. — Dave Grohl

I don't want to say that most rock bands live these formulaic biography existences - but they kinda do. There's always a divorce. There's always an OD. There's always a bad business manager. — Dave Grohl

It's funny; recently I've started to notice people's impersonations of me, and it's basically like a hyperactive child. — Dave Grohl

'In Utero' was the first time I'd made an album that reached into the dark side. I remember the conflict and the uncertainty. I remember all those things when I hear 'Pennyroyal Tea.' — Dave Grohl