Foo Fighters: Page out of a scribe’s diary

It is about an hour after the Foo Fighters finished the first of a two-night-stand at the Wembley Arena and it was a triumphant affair; the members have showered, donned freshly laundered apparel and were ready to receive well-wishers and hangers-on. Dave Grohl is sitting on a sofa furthest from the door, surrounded with some ‘friends’ but keeping a scoring scan on who’s entering the inner sanctum.

When Grohl spots the record company person and yours truly, he stands up and heads in our direction. Before the rec-exec could re-introduce us (it is months since we saw each other), Grohl is shouting my name and embracing follows.

“We did a good job, didn’t we?,” he asks in his excitable manner, referring to the interview that was used for the DVD-Extra with the initial copies of ‘One By One’.

“Sure did but it is easy with you guys,” protestation-cum-compliment ensues. “It was a brill hang-out in Dublin.” After congratulating him on an incredible show, Grohl admits to having had huge nerves before it all happened.

“It wasn’t easy and yet, it was not the first time we played in front of a huge crowd,” Grohl always sounds frank and without any trace of stardom. “But we managed to overcome it and really played a solid show.”

It was very interesting how you confined the stage to keep it to the more familiar size, only to discard with the drapes after three songs and use the whole space; did you psychologically need that?

“Yeah, well spotted,” Grohl smiles and he does it a lot, “and I feel that really helped us overcome the jitters. It kept it to our human-sized environment; otherwise it would have be an alien setting that could have contributed to our edginess. I feel that was one of our smarter moves.”

Elitism and dissing

The band’s been together for seven years – Grohl alone completed the debut album, started before Kurt Cobain joined the celestial brotherhood – and really have earned every little bit of their success. Although Nirvana T-shirts were on display among the 12,000 strong fans, the percentage continues to drop. Still, many of them criticised/were disgusted with the Foos move into arenas…

“When that was reported,” Grohl gets visibly emotional, “it did really hurt me. Sold-out, no, we’d never… It is simply normal for a band to progress to playing larger places, otherwise you’d end up playing a series of nights in a smaller venue. It might not be ideal but instead to play 6 nights at the Brixton Academy, we just do two at the Wembley Arena.”

At least, since we met last, the dispute and possibly prolonged legal battle with Courtney Love had been resolved but ‘Greatest Hits’ appeared just a week after your album; unfortunate planning?

“That was some bad planning on record company’s part,” Grohl nods his head, “or it was a good one? They (Universal, Nirvana’s parent company) could get some reflected promotion… I’m glad it is out because it has been such a long battle, a really draining experience. It is a good compilation but that is history to me; I don’t really have any feelings about it, anymore.”

In the drum shadow

The former Nirvana drummer has felt the need to go back drumming lately, not only for the Queens Of The Stone Age’s album ‘Songs For The Deaf’, but also for an underground singer/songwriter, Cat Power; her real name is Chan Marshall and the album in question, ‘You Are Free’, is released on 18 February (on Matador).

“Yep, I played for her,” Grohl confirms looking a bit surprised with the enquiry, “I think she is brilliant and it was a pleasure to drum for her. Not that she needs a lot of drumming and it was a case of restrained, controlled work, a bit of a challenge… She played live in London? While we were touring North of England? I wish I had seen her… I bet it was good…”

Well, instantly sublime; it appears that you are missing drumming as you expressed a wish to join Led Zeppelin if (or when, as it is rumoured) they are to regroup next year?

“The Zepps are my all-time favourite band,” Grohl perks up, “and I’d drop everything to play with them! It would be a fulfilment of a childhood dream, man! I doubt it would be a long stint and it wouldn’t really interfere with the Foo’s activities. I don’t know who could be my competition for the drum-stool but I decided to announce my candidacy early on!”

At that moment his girlfriend returns from the restroom and the frontman perform introduction: “This is SashaS, the best interviewer in the world!”

Please, don’t make me blush, but thank you. Quickly changing the subject, assuming you are a man-who’s-got-everything he wants, what would you like in the next 12 months?

“For the world to have a future,” Grohl sounds really concerned, “brighter than it has been of late.”

Seasonal greetings to u2.