Songs In The Key Of Life

NME 1999

Dave Grohl on the tunes that made him a man

FIRST RECORD YOU CAN REMEMBER:
'FRANKENSTEIN'-THE EDGAR WINTER GROUP

"I think it was 1976 or 1975. We didn't have a record player in the house. My mother was a school teacher in the public schools and she would sometimes bring home the school issue record players which were the biggest pieces of shit you've ever seen. But we didn't have any albums so we went to the drugstore and saw this K-Tel greatest hits compilation that had Chic on it and things. The song that I remember the most, though, was 'Frankenstein' by the Edgar Winter Group which to this day is still one of the most amazing songs you've ever heard in your life. It's an instrumental - my first favourite song was a prog rock instrumental when I was five years old!! It changed my fucking life. I swear to God!"

RECORD THAT REMINDS YOU OF SCHOOL:
'BOY'-U2

"This reminds me of the beginning of high school more than any of my hardcore records, more than any of my punk rock records. That was the record that dominated the first two years of my high school. I remember drinking beer on weekends with all my friends under this bridge that was near our neighbourhood and the police would usually raid it every weekend but it felt so good to be young and rebellious. I don't know... there was something about that album that was sort of liberating."

RECORD YOU FELL IN LOVE TO:
'TROMPE LE MONDE'-PIXIES

"That album was released just as Nirvana started touring for 'Nevermind' and we listend to it over and over and over again. For most Pixies purists, nothing after 'Doolittle' was worth shit but, for me, the last record became my favourite because of everything that was happening with Nirvana and I met the woman who I married while listening to that record. I remember driving round in our tiny van going from show to show as our lives became more insane by the minute and all I could do was put on the headphones, listen to the Pixies and think about the woman who stole my heart. And we eventually got married. But then we got divorced! (laughs) The End. By Dave Grohl!"

HEARTBREAK SONG:
'ORDINARY WORLD'-DURAN DURAN

"Fucking Duran Duran!!I'm such a geek! It's all true!! That song haunts me. Every time I think of my ex-wife, I think of that song. It was because of our honeymoon and we were going around Ireland and that song was playing and it was beautiful... and now when I hear it, it makes me want to fucking puke! I wish I was cool and could say I fell in love to Goldie's last single or I broke my heart to James Brown but it's true, I'm a sucker for crap, I really am!"

RECORD THAT EVOKES THE GREATEST SUMMER OF YOUR LIFE:
'SURRENDER'-CHEAP TRICK

"I remember being on the beach in Ocean City Maryland, drunk as all hell, sitting on a lifeguard chair at three o'clock in the morning staring out into the ocean and singing that song at the top of my lungs. And realising that it actually felt good to sing and release like that."

A RECORD FOR A NIGHT ON THE TILES:
'SECOND HELPING'-LYNYRD SKYNYRD

"Where I live a good night out means listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd and getting into a car accident or something! So it'd have to be that."

RECORD THAT INSPIRED YOU TO FORM A BAND:
'ROCK FOR LIGHT'-BAD BRAINS

"I think they inspired pretty much everyone in a band. They inspired a nation of hardcore teens to go and explore the energy of the music. They were by far the greatest live band and they inspire the whole of Washington DC to become a music scene it eventually did. They were the godfathers of DC hardcore."

RECORD GUARANTEED TO CLEAR THE TOURBUS:
NATALIE IMBRUGLIA

"Probably one of our records!! Mmmm... that's a good question. We all have such different tastes in music that it's hard to say. One person could put on an album and everyone else would leave but something that would clear everyone of the bus would have to be, er, I dont know... Natalie Imbruglia? Something like that!!"

NEW YEARS EVE 1999, WHATS ON THE HI-FI?
'MEXICOLA'-QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE

"Definietly not the Prince song anyway! Queens Of The Stone Age would be a good way to start the New Year and it's one of the best CDs to come out in the last five years. We all love it so much that every time it winds up in the CD player, it's a cause for celebration. I love that band."

RECORD YOU WOULD LIKE PLAYED AT YOUR FUNERAL:
ANYTHING

"I've never thought of that before. It's a morbid thought! (chuckles) I could think of a thousand really hilarious things to say but I dont know whether I should try to say something deep and meaningful! Maybe 'Tubthumping' by Chumbawamba! or '1999' by Prince! I dont know! Fuck 'em they can listen to a Rage Against The Machine record and look at my corpse in a box! I won't have to listen to it! Thats such a weird question... it's kinda bumming me out- I honestly don't care. But now I cant stop thinking about it and picturing myself in an open casket with all of my family and friends staring at me. I know it wouldn't be one of our records. The last thing I want to do is go out looking a narcissistic weirdo!"