Jo Whiley That was Suede and 'The Beautiful Ones' which is a really great song isn't it Dave?
Dave Grohl I love it.
JW Mmmm....good.
DG I have it at home.
JW Do you really?
DG I was listening to it on the way over, and I usually listen to it before we play just to get excited for the show.
JW Well you can take it away with you to play before you go onstage at Reading.
DG Could I have this?
JW You certainly can.
DG Well, I have one of my own at home.
JW (laughs) How are you?
DG Fine.
JW Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters joins us today.
DG How are you?
JW I'm very good, thank you. So when did you arrive?
DG ...uhhh, day before yesterday.
JW And what have you been doing in that time?
DG We did Top Of The Pops last night.
JW Who else was on?
DG Robbie Williams was on.
JW Does he like you? Did you have people coming up to you and saying 'your great, we like you'?
DG Just people that we know. (laughs)
JW People from the record company?
DG Just the people who are paid to say that. Who else was on?
JW I guess we'll watch it and find out.
DG Some girl named Alda?
JW (laughs) That's going to be huge.
DG (laughs) I bet, it looked pretty......
JW Maybe you'll start playing that one before you go onstage.
DG Probably should. Sheryl Crow was on too
JW Lets talk about 'Walking After You'. It's from the X-files movie soundtrack, which is probably way, way back in your memory now?
DG Yeah.
JW You've seen the film though?
DG No.
JW No?
DG Still haven't.
JW Too busy?
DG It's because all we do is tour. We don't have any time to do anything other than play and travel and play and travel.
JW Right.
DG So I haven't had chance to see it.
JW They don't send you, like, a video you can watch on the bus?
DG No, they don't do stuff like that. They just give us hundreds of thousands of dollars to make a song.
JW That's fair enough!
DG What you gonna do?
JW So if they asked you to do a cameo appearance in the TV show, if you had time I guess you'd do it?
DG I'd make time to do that. I mean I always wanted to dress up, I wanted to be the monster or the alien, something like that instead of like a dumb little cameo. I thought that'd be kinda fun.
JW What kind of characteristics would you have? What kind of alien would you like to be?
DG I'd probably be a leech, maybe like a human bloodsucking leech.
JW Did you ever get into Doctor Who?
DG No.
JW They probably had those 20 years back in Doctor Who. What are the Foo Fighters up to at the moment? Is there another waiting to go?
DG Well we have a lot of new stuff we're waiting to work on and ummmmm...
JW What, stuff that's written?
DG Like, half-written.
JW So, scribbled notes you're talking now.
DG Yeah, and we're probably gonna record in the Fall or early next year. I don't know, were gonna kinda take a break because we've been working hard for the last 3 years with the first record, then we had a pretty short break and went straight into the second record. We've been touring constantly for the last year and a half for this album so I think we're gonna take a break and concentrate on writing.
JW You must be knackered. It'd be pretty difficult to find stuff to write about I'd imagine.
DG It's strange because after a while it feels un-natural not being on tour. When you're at home you feel out of place.
JW Do you walk around bellowing like your onstage?
DG Exactly. (laughs) I answer the phone; 'GOOD EVENING!'
JW (laughs)
DG So we're just gonna take a break. Franz our new guitar player is an amazing songwriter. Taylor our new drummer, he's writing songs all the time so now there are songs coming from all ends of the group.
JW Ok. What are your memories of Glastonbury this year because that must have been the grimiest moment of any festival because....
DG (sarcastically) Thanks Jo!
JW No, I remember walking through the mud and just thinking, 'Oh no, the foo fighters are just about to go onstage'.
DG Well, it was cold and it was wet and I'd never been before. I actually requested to play.
JW Really?
DG I said 'Oh man, I don't wanna do festival this or festival that, I wanna do Glastonbury, everybody says it's the best and we've never done it.' So we show up and it's like a monsoon man!
JW It was just a time when the heavens opened. Did you enjoy it?
DG We had a good time playing, I thought it was fun. I had a really great time but I can't imagine being in the audience.
JW No, it must have been a very tough job.
DG And I couldn't imagine, like, camping out in that.
JW They're music fans.
DG I don't know. Maybe if I was 18 and was still that in love with....James or some other band that was playing. (laughs) I wouldn't do that for us!
JW You've never done that?
DG No, I don't think I ever would - it'd be too uncomfortable. But, y'know?
JW It's been and gone.
DG Yeah.
JW We'll talk about Reading in a bit, first we'll play 'Walking After You'

'WALKING AFTER YOU' PLAYS

JW It's Foo Fighters on Radio 1 and 'Walking After You' Dave Grohl from Foo Fighters is my guest today. Didn't you play at Reading 2 or 3 years ago in the tent?
DG It was....1995. Right?
JW Yeah, 3 years ago - what were your memories of that?
DG It was just crazy.
JW It was wasn't it?
DG I didn't expect it to be that out of control, when we went on Bjork was on the big stage and I thought everyone was gonna watch Bjork y'know? I think the reason it was so out of hand was because we were the only rock band.....
JW At a rock festival.
DG ..that day. On the big stage was Bjork and Tricky...
JW Fireworks and all that kind of stuff.
DG So all these people tried to cram into a tent and I guess the capacity was like 2 or 3 thousand and they had ten thousand people in there.
JW They were climbing up poles.
DG Swinging from the rafters, yeah. It was fun but we had to stop every song to check people weren't getting crushed. I knew it was out of control when I saw the security guards carrying security guards out. Then I thought 'This is a little crazy'.
JW (laughs) Bit Mad. This year you're playing on the Saturday, Beastie Boys headline, Prodigy before that.
DG I'm so excited, I can't wait.
JW Who are you looking forward to seeing?
DG I'm looking forward to seeing Beastie Boys and Prodigy, Supergrass, Lee Scratch Perry, Roni Size...uh...and Bis.
JW And are you one of these people who will go out there and watch the bands?
DG Well, yeah.
JW Because a lot of people don't they just stay in a tent with the beer.
DG (laughs) You know what? If it was raining like Glastonbury I couldn't care less who was playing because I'd be on the way back the hotel. No, I can't wait it should be a lot of fun.
JW Good. I'll just throw a few quick Q+A questions at you.
DG Ok.
JW Can you cook?
DG Not.....well, a little bit. I'm good on the grill. I can fake cooking.
JW Can you?
DG Kind of, I fake it. (laughs) I know when things are done and I know when things are well done. But I'm not that good a cook, no.
JW Jokes, are you good at jokes? Drummer jokes are your speciality I seem to remember.
DG Because I've had a million of 'em thrown at me.
JW What was the last good joke you heard?
DG I can't tell you on the air.
JW Oh, no!
DG I'll tell you afterwards.
JW Ok, tell me in a bit.
DG Ok.
JW What does make you laugh then, comedians or TV shows?
DG You know what makes me laugh? I like seeing people fall down. (laughs) That makes me laugh a lot. Those stupid like, 'Americas Funniest Home Videos' shows, they're so ridiculous but man I love 'em. I swear to God. I'm not into comedians, it just seems to shtick, I think it's funnier when someone just trips and falls on their face.
JW Do you have a favourite shop?
DG A favourite like, clothes shop?
JW It's the Army surplus store isn't it? I can see you've got your camoflauge on today?
DG Well, at the Right Aid drugstore down the street from my house the have Hanes t-shirts, like, 3 for 6 dollars. That's pretty good.
JW So your a cheapskate.
DG (laughs) It's either that or the Prada store downtown.
JW Ok, what record would would get you up on the dance floor?
DG Uhhh...probably, Prodigy or the Beastie Boys or Roni Size. That's why I'm psyched for Reading because it's a big deal, these are bands I really love a lot.
JW How are you goning to spend New Years Eve 1999?
DG Oh God, I don't know, probably on tour. (laughs)
JW Yeah, working. What's your idea of hell?
DG My idea of hell? Uh...press tours.
JW So, speaking to people.....
DG ....About yourself from 9 to 5.
JW You can't do that?
DG Can't do that, drives me insane.
JW Your doing fairly well today.
DG This is the only one today.
JW Fantastic! Biggest curse of being famous? I guess it's the same thing isn't it?
DG The biggest curse of being famous is just having to talk about yourself all the time.
JW Yeah. Do you make up things?
DG Nah. Don't even wanna waste the energy making up lies about us. (laughs)
JW (laughs) Ok. We've got some X-Files soundtracks to give away, you've signed them haven't you?
DG (laughs) Yeah. You wanna do a little giveaway?
JW (laughs) That's a really good idea.
DG Heyyyyy!
JW I don't suppose you can think of a question.
DG Ok. (reading) If you answer this simple question you can win an X-Files soundtrack featuring Bjork, the Cure, the Cardigans, Noel Gallagher, Foo Fighters and blah, blah, blah. Ok, here's the question - What spooked me as a child? Was it A, a strange tree in the garden. B, Bigfoot aka Sasqwatch. C, Large Squirrels.
JW So it's the strange tree, bigfoot or squirrels?
DG Yeah.
JW Ring in now and you can win those, 0500 110100. Have you done radio dj-ing before?
DG I used to do morning announcements at my high school.
JW I thought you probably did somehow. Kinda like Grease.
DG Kinda.
JW Thanks for coming in today, enjoy yourself at Reading.
DG Thanks Jo.