NME
No-one loves the Carling Weekend: Reading and Leeds more than Foo Fighters do
Hello Dave, where are you?
"We just got into Munich - we played a Portuguese
festival last night in the middle of nowhere. We got here
at five, so I only got, like, two hours' sleep last night."
So are you looldng forward to playing Reading and
Leeds?
"Yeah, I've been there a few times. I just love being on
that stage, I know exactly what it looks like to stand at
the lip of that stage in front of 60,000 people. I know
exactly what it looks like, from the vending booths to
the fuckin' train tracks to the sound desk to... whenever
I think of Reading. I close my eyes and see it because
I've been staring out at that audience since 1991."
What do you remember about the two Nirvana shows at Reading?
"The first time I was horrified because I was 21 years old and I'd never played to more than 750
people in my life or something. so it
was a shock. I was horrified, I was so
fuckin' scared, and we had a great show
in '91. And then in '92, when we came
back to headline, that was the show that
wasn't supposed to happen, that was a
show that was supposed to be a fuckin'
Babyshambles train wreck, but it turned
out to be one of the best shows we've
ever played. And it was at a really
disconnected time for the band. Some
sort of magic brought it all together that
night and I blamed it on Reading. I didn't
blame it on the band. I thought that was a
great show because of the Reading
Festival and not because of the three
people playing the music."
So better than '92 with Nirvana?
"Oh my God yeah, it's a totally different
experience, but this feels sweeter."
What makes Reading so special?
"Reading just does it for me because it was my first
experience of a festival. I spend my life telling people
in America about the Reading Festival, because we
don't have them in America and they always wonder
why. I spend my life wondering why we don't have rock
festivals in America. But there'd be fighting. there'd be bottles thrown everywhere, there'd be a fucking war.
That's the thing about America; they'd rather have a war
than a rock festival."
Who do you want to watch?
"I think Kings Of Leon are playing on the same day as
us. They're good guys. Obviously I would love to see
Pixies and Queens Of The Stone Age, but I think that
we're on opposing days. But you know what else?
I would really like to see Iron Maiden at the Reading
Festival. Because I understand that this is a bit of a
return to the spirit of the festival in the '70s and '80S,
is that right? So for Iron Maiden to headline this year,
I think that's fuckin' awesome!"
What's your festival survival secret?
The main thing I would just say is to bring Guinness.
I'm telling you man, Guinness works."
Where is the best place to have sex?
"Under the stage, definitely! When we're on? Yeah, under
the stage during Foo Fighters! But it's just the darkest,
most private place you can find. Under the stage."