Foo Fighters: Back and Forth Page #2

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I can still see my hand

just putting the phone down,

and thinking, "OK, let's see what happens. "

There was a band in Seattle

called Sunny Day Real Estate.

And a good friend of mine told me

that Sunny Day Real Estate

were playing a show,

and it was gonna be their last show

because they were breaking up.

My band was falling apart

about the same time that

Dave found himself without a band.

We were broken up

while we were doing the tour.

We decided we weren't gonna do it anymore,

but had already booked this tour,

so we were like,

"This will be the last thing we do. "

It was ironic because that was the first tour

that we were playing shows

where people were actually showing up.

We were like, "Oh, well!"

I went to the show to see them play,

knowing it was probably the last time

anyone was gonna see them play.

And I was watching them thinking,

"That's a really good rhythm section. "

I gave them the cassette, thinking,

"Hey, check it out.

Maybe we could jam sometime. "

Dave was the first famous person I'd ever met.

He was just out of Nirvana, you know,

like, that was a very big deal.

I remember the first time that

Nate and William and I got together to jam.

It was over at William's parents' house.

I remember going up

to William's parents' kitchen

and sitting there after we played,

and Dave just goes,

"You guys wanna be in the band?"

And I was like, "Hell yeah!"

Playing in front of people

was very difficult for me.

I did have a conversation with Dave

and I said,

"I don't think that I should do it. "

Dave said, "That's exactly

why you're the guy that has to do it. "

I don't know what that meant

but that convinced me, I guess.

After that rehearsal, Dave brings up

that he wants a second guitar player,

and thinks it should be Pat Smear,

who William and I knew from him having

played in Nirvana and the Germs.

Then Dave came over,

and he gave me a cassette.

I listened to that whole tape,

just front to end,

and I thought it was all great.

I didn't have anything against Pat.

I didn't know him as a musician or as a person.

But he lived in Los Angeles,

and I just thought that was f***ing crazy.

The way I'd grown up,

you were in a band with your friend from school

that you saw every day.

You'd go home after school and get together

at somebody's mom's house or basement

and work it out.

You can't do that

if the guy lives in Los Angeles.

Pat came up, we played,

and he was perfect,

so I got over that "Him living in LA" thing.

I might have talked to him

about trying to move to Seattle.

All of us came from bands

that ended prematurely.

We didn't really talk about our former bands.

For me, it was always

kind of a touchy subject.

At this point in time,

Kurt had only been dead for a year,

and I didn't wanna talk about it.

So we all entered into this new band

like it was helping us get through the loss

of the bands we'd been in before.

I remember it really vividly,

Dave saying, like, "Let's have it be fun.

"Let's have things be out in the open.

"Let's talk about sh*t.

Just no drama. "

He was like,

"I don't want it to be a stressful thing.

"We're not gonna tour into the ground. "

And...

Which I was glad about.

The first tour that we did,

was with a musician named Mike Watt.

He is a legendary punk rock bass player.

And he asked me if I would tour with him.

And I said, "Yeah, man.

How about this?

"I'll be in your band

if my band can open up on tour. "

And Eddie Vedder, from Pearl Jam,

had done the same thing.

And we said, "Cool,

"Let's put together a tour

where Eddie's other band,

"they were called Hovercraft,

my band - Foo Fighters,

"would open up for Watt,

and we would all be his band. "

It was just this, like,

revolving cast of musicians.

Each song would have a different line-up.

Instead of getting a bus for the first tour...

"We'll get a van. "

I'd never done a bus tour, so to me it was

totally obvious, "Yeah, we'll get a van.

"What, we get to buy a brand new one?

Ha! Awesome!"

We played six shows a week,

and the places held maybe anywhere

from 300 to 600 people,

and Foo Fighters were making

As the tour was going on,

the venues were getting bigger,

and we started having that

really nice but weird sort of pressure.

There was a lot of attention,

because it was Dave's first tour after Nirvana.

The shows had

all of these Nirvana fans that came.

They didn't know the songs

because the record hadn't been out yet.

So there was a song called Marigold

by Nirvana,

that Dave had written and sang on.

It was the only thing they knew to yell out

when we were playing.

So you'd just hear, "Marigold!"

Marigold! Marigold! Marigold!

Shut up!

And we never played it.

How weird that must have been for Dave.

Arriving in record stores Tuesday

was one of the most buzzed-about

new releases of the year,

the self-titled debut album by Nirvana drummer

Dave Grohl's new band, Foo Fighters,

who wowed crowds

on Mike Watt's recent club tour.

Personally, to me, it was a big deal

when that record came out,

because rather than go in

and record something as a band,

we used the stuff I had recorded on my own.

That cassette.

That's the first record.

Making their network television debut

right here with us,

we couldn't be happier,

ladies and gentlemen, Foo Fighters.

Hi, Jena!

And the winner is...

Foo Fighters, Big Me.

I would like to think of this award

as some sort of closure, it's...

Stop throwing Mentos at us at our shows.

That's what I'm trying to say.

There were lots of interviews and,

you know,

Dave not wanting to talk about Nirvana.

Every question in every interview

was about Nirvana.

You can imagine what they were,

like, "Is this song about Kurt?"

Take any song from the record.

"Is that song about Kurt Cobain?"

What's it like to be at a press conference

and not be asked any questions?

Fine with me,

because I didn't wanna answer

any of the questions that were asked.

There were some people

that really resented me for starting this band.

"How dare you f***ing start another band. "

They asked me, like,

"Why did you decide to carry on

"and make music that sounds like Nirvana?"

I said, "Well, wait a minute.

"What do you mean,

like loud rock guitars and melodies

"and cymbals crashing and big-ass drums?

"'Cause that's what I do.

"That's... I was in that band and this is, like...

That's what I do.

"You want me to f***in' make

a reggae record?"

The first couple years,

I really felt like I had to explain

and defend what I was doing,

because, first of all,

"You're just a drummer.

"And, what, you're trying to sing?

"And also, you were in Nirvana,

so what the f*** is this sh*t?"

So there's a... You just get to the point

where you just think,

"F*** you people. "

I wasn't sure what was gonna happen.

"Can Dave write more songs?

"How is the writing process gonna work?

Will we suck?"

I had no idea.

"Does this band have a future?"

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