EXCLUSIVE: Dave Grohl teases secret side projects with artists you 'wouldn't expect' 👀
PLUS: The new Foo Fighters record has been ready for a YEAR
Last updated 12th Nov 2020
Our very own Dave Berry caught up with rock legend, Foo Fighters star and all-around nice guy Dave Grohl this morning on The Dave Berry Breakfast Show - discussing everything from the COVID-19 pandemic to Japanese jet stream toilets...
The band's 10th studio album 'Medicine at Midnight' has now been announced for release in February 2021 - and fans have been replaying lead single 'Shame, Shame' a few hundred times a day since it dropped last week.
WATCH: Dave Grohl - 'Shame, Shame', Foo Fighters New Album & TESLA Problems!?
Of the new record, Dave told us it had been ready for a year - leading to some "creative restlessness" on his part, "I sort of figured it was time to sort of listen this thing out of its cage, bring a little bring a little music to the people. We waited long enough. We finished this record a year ago, man."
Foo Fighters began work on 'Medicine at Midnight' over two years ago, with the momentum swinging in their favour for a 10th album in their 25th year - but of course, things haven't panned out that way.
"We were gonna make 2020 the year of the Foo Fighters," he explained. "It was just gonna be touring and videos and documentaries, and all these sort of celebratory anniversary things. And then in March, everything just stopped."
Dave added that at that point, the album was done, "It was mixed, mastered, we had the t-shirts printed and tapes on the way to the pressing plant for the vinyl to be made, all the artwork... Everything was done. And then we just stopped.
"At first I was really nervous. Because I am creatively restless. I wake up every day with something new that I want to do and new song and your idea. And everyone just went their separate ways. I was just sitting there like, Oh my god, I'm gonna lose my mind. I'm not good at sitting on the couch."
Thankfully, 51-year-old Dave found a creative outlet - aside from his drum battles with 10-year-old Nandi Bushell, of course - writing short stories and posting them online, "I was writing short stories about things that have happened over my life. And then I really got into writing. And I just started writing tons and tons and tons of short stories.
"I didn't really want to make any music because I just finished making a record that we worked on for months and months, which I thought was the best thing we'd ever done. So I'm like, I'm not gonna just go in and start writing more songs."
This has, rather thrillingly, led to a number of musical side projects - and although Dave kept shtum about which other artists he'd been working with, he did admit that it's with people "you wouldn't expect."
"What I found is that, in the last six or seven months, I started getting emails from all these different musicians that are doing the same thing," he went on. "They're sitting at home, and they're creatively restless. Basically saying, like, 'Hey, Dave, I've been doing the same thing. For years, I've been stuck in this one sort of creative way for a long time. It's time to get weird. Do you want to do a side project with people you would never expect?'
"We're like remotely recording with each other and send I'm sending drum tracks, and they're sending guitar tracks. And you know, I'm playing on stuff here in my own studio and then sending it back." We wait with baited breath...
Dave's biggest hope for the new album is that it speaks to the fans, "You know, I want you to enjoy the record, I want you to sing along with it. I want it to be in your car. I want it to be on stage, I wanted to be at a festival. But ultimately, I just want you to hear this song so that maybe like, you know, we connect with our audience through our music. That's it."
Foo Fighters' 10th studio album 'Medicine at Midnight' will be released on 5th February 2021.
Scroll through to see Dave Grohl's biggest career moments through the years:
1991 - Dave Grohl with Nirvana
Nirvana's Dave Grohl, Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic in a toilet in 1991. Where else?!
September 1992 - Dave Grohl with Nirvana
Nirvana's Dave Grohl, Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic backstage at the MTV Video Awards in 1992
December 1993 - Dave Grohl with Nirvana
Nirvana perform at MTV Live and Loud in December 1993.
June 1994 - Dave Grohl at the MTV Movie Awards
Dave Grohl at Sony Studios in Culver City, California, United States in June 1994 - the year he formed Foo Fighters in the wake of Kurt Cobain's death.
November 1995 - Dave Grohl
Dave Grohl performs in Brixton in November 1995.
July 1996 - Foo Fighters at the Phoenix Festival
Dave Grohl performs with the Foo Fighters at Phoenix Festival, Stratford Upon Avon, in 1996.
June 1997 - Tibetan Freedom Concert
Foo Fighters perform at Tibetan Freedom Concert in New York in 1997.
1998 - Dave Grohl in Australia
Just a photo of Dave Grohl with a dolphin on holiday in the Gold Coast, Australia in 1998.
November 1999 - Dave Grohl works as a cashier
Dave Grohl works as a cashier at Tower Records to support their album release in 1999.
October 2000 - Foo Fighters at The Bridge School Benefit
Foo Fighters perform at The Bridge School Benefit held in the Shoreline Amphitheater, California. Lovely hat!
August 2001 - Dave Grohl at V Festival
The Foo Fighters perform at V Festival in 2001.
December 2002 - Foo Fighters at MTV New Year's Eve Pajama Party
Foo Fighters perform at MTV New Year's Eve Pajama Party at the MTV Times Square studios in New York City. December 31, 2002. Nice glasses Dave!
October 2003 - Dave Grohl and his wife Jordyn Blum
Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters and wife Jordyn Blum during Spike TV Presents The 2003 GQ Men of the Year Awards.
May 2004 - Rock in Rio Lisboa
The Foo Fighters performing at the Rock in Rio Festival in Lisbon in 2004.
December 2005 - Foo Fighters at Earls Court, London
Foo Fighters performing live at Earls Court, London in December 2005.
June 2006 - The O2 Silver Clef Awards
Foo Fighters pose with Brian May at The O2 Silver Clef Awards in 2006.
July 2007 - Dave Grohl at the Britain Live Earth Concert
Dave Grohl performing with the Foo Fighters at Britain Live Earth Concert in 2007.
February 2008 - Dave Grohl at the pre-Grammy Awards
Dave Grohl performs at the pre-Grammy Awards party in 2008.
October 2009 - Dave Grohl with the Foo Fighters on VH1 Storytellers
Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters performs on VH1 Storytellers on 28th October 2009.
March 2010 - Dave Grohl at the 25th Independent Spirit Awards
Dave Grohl poses with Glenn Five, Steve 'Lips' Kudlow and Robb Reiner of Anvil.
February 2011 - Foo Fighters play Wembley Arena
The Foo Fighters perform at Wembley Arena in 2011.
January 2013 - Foo Fighters
Foo Fighters at the Sound City film premiere in Los Angeles in 2013.
October 2014 - Foo Fighters: Sonic Highways
Rami Jaffee, Nate Mendel, Taylor Hawkins, Dave Grohl, Chris Shiflett and Pat Smear attend the premiere of HBO's Foo Fighters Sonic Highway, in New York in 2014.
June 2015 - Foo Fighters play Rock Am Ring festival
Foo Fighters perform at the music festival Rock Am Ring in Mendig, Germany in 2015.
February 2016 - Grammy Awards
Dave Grohl with the Foo Fighters at the Grammy Awards in February 2016.
June 2017 - Foo Fighters play at Glastonbury Festival
Foo Fighters storm Glastonbury Festival in 2017.
October 2018 - Foo Fighters' Cal Jam 18
Dave Grohl performing with the Foo Fighters at the Cal Jam 18 Pop-Up Event at the Hollywood Palladium, LA.
November 2019 - Dave Grohl on Sesame Street
Mr Grohl appeared on the 50th anniversary episode of Sesame Street, singing a joyous, rock-tinged tune called 'Here We Go Song' with Big Bird and Elmo as various iconic backdrops from across the USA appeared on the green screen. Of course, Dave is no stranger to Jim Henson's creations as he once had a drum-off with Animal from The Muppets.
August 2019 - The Foo Fighters' tenth album
In August 2019, drummer Taylor Hawkins confirmed that the Foo's latest album would be coming in 2020, telling RockSound: "From what I've heard from our fearless leader Dave Grohl, he has a lot of demos that he's worked on and I think we'll start, once this tour is over. I think not too soon after that we'll start the process of putting the songs together as a band."
The band's tenth studio album 'Medicine at Midnight' was later released in 2021, after being pushed back due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
May 2020 - Foo Fighters' tenth studio album gets postponed
In May 2020, Dave Grohl announced that the Foo Fighters' tenth studio album was being put on hold for the time being, due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Speaking about the album to Q Magazine, Dave said: "We've kind of shelved it for now to figure out exactly when it's going to happen."
February 2021 - Foo Fighters tenth album 'Medicine at Midnight' is released
In February 2021, the Foo Fighters finally released their tenth studio album 'Medicine at Midnight'. After the release of the album was postponed from 2020, the band amped up the excitement with the release of three singles - 'Shame Shame', in November 2020, 'No Son of Mine', on New Year's Day 2021 and 'Waiting on a War' in January 2021.
The album flew to the Number 1 spot on the UK Albums Chart.
May 2021 - Dave appears in a documentary with his mum
Dave appeared in From Cradle To Stage, a documentary he made with his mum about the mothers of famous rock stars. The series on Amazon Prime saw Imagine Dragons' Dan Reynolds, Pharrell Williams, Miranda Lambert, Brandi Carlisle, Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello and Rush's Geddy Lee all interviewed.
May 2021 - Foo Fighters are inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
In their first year of eligibility, 25 years after the release of their debut album 'Foo Fighters', the band were officially inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in May 2021.
June 2021 - 26 years of Foo Fighters
Sadly, the Foo Fighters had to cancel their 25th anniversary tour dates back in 2020 for obvious reasons. The band didn't let that keep them down, however, rescheduling the dates to 2021 and celebrating '26 years of rock'.
October 2021 - Release of 'The Storyteller'
2021 was a busy year for Dave Grohl as he also wrote a book, 'The Storyteller' where he shares stories from a 'life lived loud'. It was released on 5th October.
February 2022 - Foo Fighters' Studio 666 premiere
Dave attended the premiere for Foo Fighters' horror/comedy Studio 666. The film was based on a story written by Dave Grohl, and was directed by BJ McDonnell (pictured).
The grisly horror comedy follows the Foo Fighters as they move into an Encino mansion to record their 10th album.
March 2022 - Death of Taylor Hawkins
Dave long-time bandmate and close friend Taylor Hawkins tragically passed away at the age of 50 in March 2023. In a statement issued to their social media channels, Foo Fighters said: 'The Foo Fighters family is devastated by the tragic and untimely loss of our beloved Taylor Hawkins. His musical spirit and infectious laughter will live on with all of us forever. Our hearts go out to his wife, children and family, and we ask that their privacy be treated with the utmost respect in this unimaginably difficult time.'
June 2022 - Dave pays tribute to Taylor at Glastonbury
Dave appeared as a special guest during Sir Paul McCartney's headline slot at Glastonbury 2023 in his first live appearance since Taylor's death. At the end of the performance, Grohl pointed to his right hand, which was emblazoned with Taylor Hawkins' initial 'T'.
June 2023 - Foo Fighters release 'But Here We Are'
The Foos released their 11th album 'But Here We Are' in June 2023, which was dedicated to Taylor and also Dave's mum, Virginia Hanlon Grohl, who had sadly passed away in August 2022. The album reached Number 1 in the UK charts.
June 2023 - The Foos perform a surprise set at Glastonbury
Foo Fighters performed a surprise set on The Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury under their pseudonym The Churnups. Glastonbury unveiled its full 3,000-strong line-up a month before the event, listing a mystery band called The Churnups - who turned out to be the Foos. Following 'The Pretender', Dave said: "Hi! You guys knew it was us this whole f---ing time! Well it's nice to see your face again, it's been a long time."
September 2023 - Dave guests on new album by his former hardcore punk band Scream
44 years after their formation in Washington DC in 1979, Scream unleashed their sixth album 'DC Special' on Friday 10th November 2023 - with Dave signed up as one of the guest performers on the first record in 30 years by his former hardcore punk band.
October 2023 - Paying tribute to 'hometown hero' Taylor Hawkins at Foo Fighters gig
At the Foo Fighters' headline performance at Ohana Festival in October 2023, Dave paid an emotional tribute to his late bandmate, Taylor Hawkins. Ohana Festival is held annually at Dana Point in Southern California just seven miles down the road from Laguna Beach where Taylor Hawkins was raised after moving with his family from Texas aged four. "He is, indeed, the hometown hero of this show," he declared, adding: "It's a trip. I came down here with him every once in a while (and) hung out at the house he grew up in. It was weird because I never really understood Taylor Hawkins until I f---ing came to Laguna. And then I was like 'Oh, yeah, OK, I get it. That's who you are!'"
March 2024 - Dave has the time of his life at final U2 Sphere gig
Video footage of Dave having a truly beautiful day at U2's final gig at the $2.3 billion Sphere venue in Las Vegas went viral in March 2024, as a wholesome 32-second clip of Grohl fanboying during penultimate song 'Beautiful Day' racked up millions of views on social media. Truly lost in the moment, Dave sings every word to the track as he gleefully dances and fist pumps.
You can hear the Foo Fighters on the Absolute Radio playlist.