Dave Grohl on Them Crooked Vultures reunion: ‘We’ll do it again’
His band Them Crooked Vultures has been silent since 2010, but perhaps not for much longer.
When I spoke to Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl last week, I wanted to ask him about his involvement with one of the truly universal feel-good stories of the year when he accepted the YouTube challenge of a young British drummer named Nandi Bushell, who had attracted millions of viewers while playing along to rock songs by bands such as Nirvana and Foo Fighters.
“When she called me out, I didn’t know what to do,” Grohl told me. “I really didn’t. I didn’t know how to go about it. I’ve never been in a drum battle, especially with a 10-year-old girl from England.”
“It took about a week and about 50 texts from 50 different people, basically saying, ‘Dave, step up. Come on – you have to respond to this. You have to represent’,” he said. “So I did.”
My story on their unlikely and adorable online friendship was published earlier this week. Like Fleetwood Mac responding to a cranberry juice-swilling TikTok user named Nathan Apodaca, Grohl’s exchange with Bushell is a lovely example of globally famous musicians making a rare leap into the murky world of social media while stuck at home because of the pandemic, and putting plenty of smiles on faces as a result.
Another project that has occupied Grohl’s time in lockdown this year is Dave’s True Stories, where he began to write long-form yarns from his life in music, such as jamming with Prince, playing heavy metal festival Ozzfest for the first time and cultivating an email relationship with David Bowie. The stories were published on Medium.com and found a wide audience, including an Instagram account with 464,000 followers.
An excerpt from my interview with Grohl follows.
Andrew: I loved Dave’s True Stories. What are your long term plans for that series?
Dave: “Well, I started that Instagram page when the pandemic shut everything down, because as a creatively restless person, I can’t just sit on the couch and make lasagne every day. I just can’t. And we had just finished making a record; this record was finished in February [the 10th Foo Fighters album, Medicine at Midnight]. So I didn’t really feel inspired to make music because we had just spent three or four months making a record.”
“Both of my parents were writers: my father was a journalist and a Republican speechwriter on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, and my mother was an English teacher for 35 years. She taught creative writing and public speaking, as an English teacher. So it’s been in my family and somewhere in my DNA zipper, there is that little gene that just loves to put pen to paper. And most people that know me know that I’m an annoying storyteller. I just tell f..king story after story after story, all day long.”
“So I figured what the hell? I’ll just… I didn’t have my own Instagram page. I’d never participated in social media. I didn’t want to put, like, thong selfies up there. I thought, ‘Okay. I’ll just write some stories’, and spent afternoon after afternoon writing out some of my fondest memories. And I’ve actually continued to do so; I haven’t put much up on that page for a while because the band has been in full swing. But I have continued to write, so I’m sure you’ll be hearing — or reading — more of that.”
As well as Nirvana and Foo Fighters, Grohl is a member of another globally popular rock act in Them Crooked Vultures, a trio formed with Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones and Queens of the Stone Age singer-guitarist Josh Homme. With Grohl behind the drum kit, the band released its self-titled debut album in 2009 and played a world tour of about 70 shows; their last performance was July 2010 at Japan’s Fuji Rock Festival.
This year, after a long period of silence, there has been a little activity on the supergroup front: Homme performed a solo acoustic version of the band’s song Spinning in Daffodils for the digital Lollapalooza festival in July; and in response to Nandi Bushell’s drum-off request, Grohl challenged her to learn and perform Dead End Friends, another track from the Vultures’ debut album.
Another excerpt from my interview follows.
Andrew: Another thing that I wondered whether you’d been giving more thought to this year, during the downtime, was making more music with Josh and Jones.
Dave: “Oh, yeah. You know, we talk about it all the time. I had a conversation with Josh about it not too long ago. I mean, Them Crooked Vultures is a drummer’s dream. You’re playing with the best bass player in the history of rock ‘n’ roll, and then Josh Homme, who’s just a conceptual hurricane. And when you sit down to jam, it only takes a minute and a half before you have something good. I mean, John Paul Jones is such an amazing bass player that he locks in to you, and your groove and your feel. He’s like glue. And so you become a rhythm section in a matter of seconds.”
“And Josh is really exciting; I mean, he and I are like brothers. We’ve known each other for almost 30 years now, so we have a great relationship, on and off the stage.”
“Yeah, I mean, we talk about it all the time. Unfortunately, all of us have other day jobs. It’s, I think, one of our favourite bands we’ve all ever been in, and we flirt with each other about it every once in a while. I’m sure it’ll happen again. It’s only a matter of time.”
Well, Jones is 74, so if you’re serious about doing something with him, you better not leave it too long.
“Listen, man! [laughs] Okay, first of all: if that guy’s 74 years old, then I’m 74 years old. He’s in such great f..king shape, and he plays better than he ever has.” [Note: Grohl is 51.]
“So I’m not saying you’re wrong, but… it’s one of those things that happens when it feels right. That’s why it happened in the first place. Most everything that I do happens when it’s time; meaning, you have a gut feeling, and you just kind of go for it.”
“We’ve been swirling around each other for years now, and we know we have to do it again. I’m not sure how, when or where. But we do know that we’ll do it again.”
mcmillena@theaustralian.com.au
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