Joel On the phone right now is one of our heroes, from the Foo Fighters Dave Grohl.
Dave Grohl Oh, you're so sweet. Flattery will get you nowhere.
J Dave, how are you mate?
DG I'm doing good man. I just woke up, had a breakfast buritto and I'm about to fly to the desert to play a show.
J You're in LA right now?
DG I'm in Los Angeles yeah.
J What's it like right there now. What's the vibe like.
DG Right now, it's a beautiful day, there's not a cloud in the sky. It's a comfortable 78 degrees, slight breeze, the flowers are in bloom, I have tomatoes in my garden, the corn is starting to come up. I couldn't ask for a nicer day.
JK Seriously you can't imagine the heat that we've had here in the UK at the moment it's been like 30 degrees.
DG Really?
JK That's good for the UK.
DG You guys could use a little sun couldn't ya?
J Definitely. First off Dave I want to ask about playing One Big Weekend. You went down a storm & were the headline act - what was it like for you?
DG Sunderland was a little scary because it was kinda the first show we'd played in over a year and just a few days before that I got laryingitis and my voice was completely shot. One our way up to that festival I thought 'Maybe we should do something mellow or maybe we should do an acoustic show'. Then as we were driving up I was looking at these storms that were coming up; hail and raing and I thought 'I hope there aren't people who've been standing out in the rain all day and I'm gonna turn up and sing some stupid acoustic song. So we had to go in balls-out and just rock it. I had a blast. It was really fun.
JK By the way I'm loving the album. I actually listend to it on the way into work today. You said to Jo Whiley it's the best thing you've ever done.
DG I think it is. I mean, my opinion is different to everybody elses because albums to me are more personal because our records are more than just making a CD. The songs mean a lot more to me than they would to anybody else, so when you go in to make a record in a studio you've built from scratch with your bare hands, if you go in and do something like a double album with rock stuff and acoustic stuff it becomes a big personal achievement. In all the things I've done in my life this is the hardest I've ever worked on anything and when I listen to it, at the end of the day, it's exactly as I'd hoped it'd be so it is my favourite thing I've ever done.
JK So what you're saying Dave is you've earned your money.
DG I've earned my money on this one yeah. No more winning the lottery I finally had to work for it.
J It's a two disc album so why not release it as two seperate albums.
DG I know some bands do that and stagger the release by six months or something but to me the most important thing was to have an album that showed a really wide range of musical dynamic, a real wide range of musicality and in splitting them up you wouldn't really get that. Honestly, to me it's more about music than anything else and I don't need to go around making a bunch of money on albums six months apart. I just kind of figured 'put 'em together and make 'em as cheap as you can and people can dig a lot of different kinds of music on one CD'. Y'know?
J We're going to play a track off the album which goes into number two in the album chart this week so congratulations on that.
DG Oh, thank you so much.
J We want you to choose the track, so if you could pick any song for us to play off the album what would it be?
DG Ugh! For me, I'd probably have to say the first song, which is called 'In Your Honor' it's sort of the intro to the album. I think it's a barn burner. I love it.
J 'A barn burner' - we don't have that expression in the UK.
DG Oh you don't have that there? Yeah it's a barn burner though - you'll know what I mean when you hear it.

'In Your Honour' plays

J Let's talk about the band. You've been going for ten years.
DG Yeah.
J Now, yourself Taylor, Nate & Chris - do you have major beefs? Do you fall out a lot?
DG No, no, no. We annoy each other constantly. We just spent three months on a promo tour where we had to listen to each other talk. But at the end of the day we're like brothers, y'know?
J Obviously a load of guys in a van together must play practical jokes on each other.
DGWe play impractical jokes on each other.
J Are we talking Jackass sort of stuff?
DG No. I would never smear my own shit on someones face.
J Ewwww. Please!
DG Oh, sorry is this a family show? No, the thing is we're becoming adults. I'm 36 years old now, so I'm more likely to hang out and have a drink with someone quietly than pour a beer over their head and light their pants on fire.
JK Are you saying the rock and roll years have gone?
DGThe music is still around but me? I have my moments. Motorheads 30th anniversary party I definitely had my moments - I was back to being 18 again. The hangovers last a little longer now.
J You're doing Reading & Leeds and T In The Park are we going to expect acoustic stuff.
DG No. We're gonna save the acoustic stuff. The big festivals deserve field-stoming rock. I wanna see an army of kids bouncing up an down for an hour and a half.
J Dave, thanks for talking to us.
DG Alright you guys.
J Have a safe flight and I was really nervous speaking to you today but it was really cool.
DG Thank you sir.
JK Stay rock and roll - don't move to a big mansion.
DG I'll stay in the suburbs I promise.
JK Cheers Dave.
DG Thanks guys take care.