Dave Grohl, The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music

 

Dave Grohl, The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by Dave Grohl

First thing’s first: This is NOT an autobiography. I kind of wish it was. I imagine it would have been quite brilliant. As soon as you accept that this isn’t an autobiography, you’re likely to enjoy this much more. Dave Grohl is a great storyteller.  I would also argue that he’s probably the most revered musician of the last 30 years. Not only has he played in two of the most popular and respected bands, but he did so utilizing two different instruments. (For those of you who stopped listening to music sometime in the 1980s, this would be “drums with Nirvana” and “guitar with Foo Fighters”.

He's also a genuinely great guy. Yeah, he parties. Yeah, he drinks quite a bit, and this book (as well as his vocabulary) is always littered with four letter words.  But how many rockstars do you know who would postpone a sellout concert in Australia so he can fly back home and attend a “Daddy Daughter Dance” with his young girl? And then quickly jump back on the plane for an 11-hour flight to get to the rescheduled show the very next night?  That’s one of the many great stories featured here.

So, yes, there are a lot of personal stories here, but there are plenty of musical ones as well.  Grohl wisely keeps his childhood memories to a minimum, but we read about his early love of music while being raised by a divorced mom who encourages her son to live out his dreams.  One early dream that comes true is when Grohl drops out of high school to join the punk band “Scream” and then he goes on a nationwide tour.  Don’t, however, confuse, “nationwide” with “lucrative”.  He and his bandmates drive cross country in a pot-soaked nasty old van and Grohl is given a $7.50 per diem. It doesn’t take long before a slightly more popular band named “Nirvana” recruits him, and it doesn’t take long, either, when Nirvana goes from being “slightly more popular” to “the biggest band in the world”.

The Scream and Nirvana stories are told in sequential order, yet after Nirvana explodes in popularity, the rest of the book goes back and forth highlighting different areas of Grohl’s life. I was surprised to find that there is nothing (I mean NOTHING) in this book about the In Utero album and/or working with Steve Albini.  So, yes, I was discouraged, but again, this isn’t an autobiography.

As talented as Grohl is, it seems like many of his great stories are the result of him being at the right place at the right time. In fact, many of the stories here focus on impromptu spontaneous meetings with celebrities.  And Grohl is ALWAYS surprised, flabbergasted, and gracious.  From Iggy Pop to Elton John. From George W. Bush to Joan Jett. From Neal Diamond to Lemmy Kilmister.  Grohl always comes across as a wide eyed, jaw dropped kid who just won a golden ticket to a chocolate factory when he meets such personalities.

So you get a great understanding of the man, and what makes him tick. This was a joy to read, but I can’t help but wanting more “facts” and maybe not so much “feeling”. We read, for example, very little about the formation and success of Foo Fighters. Maybe Grohl figures that most who read this book already have a thorough understanding of these many aspects of his life since they are so well documented. (Remember, Foo Fighters had an 8-part, 8-hour long special on one of the band’s albums that featured 8 songs on HBO not too long ago.)

He's also very good about keeping these stories out of the sewer.  These are mostly happy, fun stories. You don’t read anything at all, for example, about the tumultuous relationship with Courtney Love. We do read about her husband’s passing, though, but most of the details focus on the happiness and sadness about the lost relationship as opposed to the gritty details of Kurt’s death.

Although Grohl has had an awful lot of luck in his career, you can’t help but feel that if Grohl never had “made it” and ended up working at a Tire store for the rest of his life as opposed to joining Nirvana, he still would have been grateful for the experiences that he had, and he probably couldn’t care less if his career ended up differently and he was forced to play in front of 20-25 people on a good night.  He tells all of these stories with relish, and you can’t help but feel uplifted when he shares so many of these experiences with you.