My Year: Dave Grohl

Kerrang!


Dave What was the highlight of your year?
"The highlight of my year was the birth of my daughter Violet. She was born in April. It's been the highlight of my life actually. Nothing compares to that! We released a record and did some touring and had a good time, but nothing comes close to having a child. Sorry rockers! I have a baby and you don't!"

Was the Hyde Park gig a musical highlight?
"Hyde Park was definitely a highlight! It was such a huge event that we were all really overwhelmed. When someone first asked me if we wanted to play Hyde Park I thought they were out of their fucking mind. I asked what the capacity was and they said 85,000. I was like, 'There's no way we'll ever sell that many tickets! That's fucking enormous! It's impossibly huge!'. Honestly, I can't imagine doing Hyde Park ever again because, to be perfectly honest, it was too fucking big. We've always taken pride in the connection we make with the audience at a show or festival. At Hyde Park it was almost impossible to do that. It was like a backyard barbecue backstage. An hour before we went on I was behind a grill backstage cooking up food for people."

Who is your villain of the year?
"Our president George W Bush! He's everyone's villain of the year! Fortunately, the Democrats just edged out the Republicans in the House and the Senate. The country's fed up with our president and his administration and I think he's probably the world's greatest villain at this point. I'm positive! We're halfway through his second term, they have two years left and then he's fucking out of there! And this country's screaming for change! I'm sure that even the slightest shift of the balance of power is probably encouraging for the world to hear. Not even Americans like our president! Nobody likes our president!"

People hate Bush so much, you could argue it's been great for music.
"Yeah, when he was elected I was kind of excited because some of the best punk rock and my favourite music came out of the Reagan years. We used to go to the Rock Against Reagan shows in '83 and '84 and see bands like MDC, Bad Brains and Reagan Youth. They were these great shows. Whenever you get a really conservative President, the music and the underground lashes back and you get great results!"

We got emo this time!
"Yeah, what fucking happened? Instead of fighting about it kids are crying about it!
  So I was really exited when he got elected, thinking it was gonna be a good thing for music, but it got to the point where I thought, 'Fuck music! We need to get rid of our President!'."

Who's the biggest celebrity you met this year?
"Bob Dylan. He was a very nice man. We toured with him for a couple of weeks when our acoustic band was opening for him. If it wasn't for Bob Dylan, people would still be singing doo-wop, we'd still be singing Chubby Checker songs and rock 'n' roll would have no danger to it at all. I believe that he was the one that really brought an edge to rock 'n' roll: lyrically he inspired music to become a vehicle for rebellion. I mean, Elvis can shake his hips for the ladies and that might have been some sort of sexual revolution, but any sort of intellectual or political revolution was definitely put into motion by Bob Dylan. He's fucking badass! And he still boxes every day on the road."

Did you get onto MySpace this year?
"No. I've seen the MySpace but I don't do the MySpace. It's interesting enough but basically it's just like a bathroom wall. It's great if you're a teenager and you want to get laid. but I can't really see much use other than that, except maybe musically. But MySpace is a slippery slope: you don't wanna wind up doing self-portraits on a digital camera having virtual sex!"

What's the best movie you saw this year?
"The best movie I saw this year was 'An Inconvenient Truth'. It's a documentary that Al Gore put together about the effects of global warming. I sound so Fugazi at the moment! But it's a great movie and everyone should see it. I can't imagine anyone thinks global warming is a hoax anymore. It was 120 degrees in my backyard this summer! It's turning into the desert! But there are things that you can do to balance it out and if everyone were to make an effort we could at least slow the effects of global warming so that my daughter doesn't have to live underground. If you guys could do that for me? Just as a favour..."

How do you celebrate Christmas?
"Christmas has always been a big family event around here. I'm within 10 miles of everyone in my family so it's a week long thing with dinners, parties and turkeys everywhere. It's pretty traditional. My wife's family is Jewish so we do a little bit of Hanukkah. It's a very festive time. You open some presents and see friends you haven't seen all year and then you go home."

Do you have any New Year's resolutions?
"I never make resolutions! Well, I do make resolutions, but I never pay attention to them the day after. Quitting smoking is the one I make every year but it never happens. We're planning on making another record next year. I believe we're gonna start recording in March. We have a lot of songs already. We already have next year and 2008 kind of mapped out. We don't waste any time! I don't let any grass grow."

What are you doing for New Year's Eve?
"I don't know. I have no plans. Things are a little different now that I'm in babyland. Daddy Grohl can't go out and gobble down bottles of fucking Jagermiester every night! The hangovers are worse and there's nothing more horrible than having to baby-sit hungover! You don't want to get on your hands and knees with your baby and unload last night's Jagermiester all overthe crib! It's not cool!"