Foo Fighters… man, those guys are a whole different story.
I first heard them in the summer of ’95 when that first album came out. I remember being at the record store and someone put on “This Is a Call” and I just stopped what I was doing. It was Dave Grohl playing almost everything himself. After everything that happened with Nirvana, hearing him sing and play like that felt kind of healing in a weird way.
By the time they started touring as a real band I was able to see them live quite a few times. One night at the Paramount in ’97 with The Colour and the Shape tour was insane. The place was packed and Dave was just going for it — smiling and sweating, giving everything he had. It felt like he was carrying a lot on his back, but he made it look fun.
A lot of people around Seattle had mixed feelings at first. Some old-school fans said it wasn’t “real” Seattle or that it was too clean. I never saw it that way. To me it was Dave doing what he needed to do after losing Kurt and the whole band falling apart. I respected the hell out of him for picking up the pieces and starting over.
They’ve put out three records now and they’re still going strong. The last one, There Is Nothing Left to Lose, came out a couple years ago and I think it’s their best one yet. Dave’s become this huge rock star, but he still seems like the same guy who used to play in the back of tiny clubs with Nirvana.
These days in 2002 I still throw on that first Foo Fighters record sometimes. It takes me right back to the mid-nineties when everything felt chaotic but also full of possibility. Foo Fighters aren’t really “grunge” anymore, but they came straight out of it. And for a lot of us who were here when it all happened, they feel like family.
Dave Grohl is one of the good ones. I’m glad he’s still making music.