Drummer, Dave Grohl, is undeniably a rock superstar. His years with Nirvana and Foo Fighters have earned him inductions into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame twice! He’s pulled down 16 Grammy awards. Stereogum magazine has listed him as one of the three richest drummers in the world (only surpassed by Ringo Starr and Phil Collins). And it all started with his baptism into the world of punk rock when he was just 13 years old and attended a Naked Raygun show at the Cubby Bear in Chicago.
While Grohl was born in Ohio and grew up in Virginia, he has always had a strong yearning for Chicago as he spent the formative years of his early teens spending summers living with an aunt in Evanston.
When he and his mother arrived for one particular summer in Evanston expecting the usual time at the beach and milling around like a typical teenager, suddenly his cousin Tracey had emerged as a punk rocker. First, it was an introduction to her collection of independent DIY singles from Chicago’s legion of DIY alternative artists. Next was a trip into the city to experience one of those bands – Naked Raygun, one of Chicago’s original seminal punk bands – at the Cubby Bear. For Grohl it was an epiphany. The realization of the vibrancy of the music and of the meaning of punk rock. It was a sudden manifestation that would change his life and lead him down the musical path he’s paved.
Grohl details that experience in his new book The Storyteller (Dey Street) as he outlines that summer that changed his life. After the Cubby Bear experience, “The rest of the summer was spent going to shows, buying albums at Wax Trax! and hanging out with other punks, as I slowly learned this new language of records and tapes. I witnessed that this underground scene was a grassroots network of young music lovers like me.” As that summer ended, “The long drive back to Virginia was like a metaphorical journey from my past to my future. I had left something behind in Chicago. Long gone was the little boy who could never imagine his songs, his words, or his passions someday residing deep within the grooves of a dirty black slab of vinyl. Long gone was the little boy afraid of being ostracized for seeming different from all of the cool kids…I was now determined to begin my new life as a punk rocker.”
And that’s what he did. Returning to Virginia he first cut his teeth in bands Freak Baby, Mission Impossible and Dain Bramage; the latter two cutting some independent records of their own in 1985-86. Then on to Scream for an extended run of a couple of years touring the country, and even time in Europe. Although that sounds exotic, that period for Grohl was one of playing for the love of music. The band never made any money to speak of, would often be living out of their band van or in flophouses. In Europe they even had to borrow gear to play, staying in makeshift communes or having local musicians helping them with a place to stay. “Learning to survive on less than $10 a day,” was how Grohl would put it. That all came to an end when Grohl was left stranded in Los Angeles as Scream broke up and Grohl was broke.
Grohl’s talent as a drummer did not go unnoticed. Over the years with Scream, connections were made. Out of work, he got an opportunity to audition with GWAR. Then he got a lifeline. “I was informed that Nirvana was in between drummers and had seen Scream perform just weeks before,” wrote Grohl in The Storyteller. “Apparently, they were impressed with my playing, and I was given their phone number to call.”
Grohl would get the gig. But the band was not yet the stars they became. Moving up to the Pacific Northwest, he literally moved from the slums of Los Angeles to the squalor of Seattle. Home was a sleeping bag on a couch.
As their career evolved they started playing clubs to 100-125 people. Growing in popularity they soon moved to venues holding 600-1,000. And then in September of 1991 their album Nevermind was released, with the song “Smells Like Teen Spirit” propelling them to superstar status. “In just 40 days we had gone from three disheveled young men with nothing to lose to three disheveled young men with a gold record.”
Nirvana lead the way for the Seattle grunge scene of the late 1980s/early ‘90s, becoming the most influential rock band of Generations X and Y.
As is well known, the success of Nirvana also spelled their demise when in 1994 Kurt Cobain committed suicide. After a period of grieving and the disillusionment as to what to do next, Grohl formed the Foo Fighters and climbed back to the top of the charts.
With that success and being able to do whatever he wanted to do, and having played everywhere from the Grammy Awards to the Kennedy Center Honors to performing “Blackbird” as part of a program honoring Paul McCartney with the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize, one of Grohl’s most memorable concerts came in 2015 when he headlined a sold out show at Wrigley Field and asked favorite Chicago friends to join him as the lineup included Naked Raygun, Urge Overkill and Cheap Trick (he returned to Wrigley Field in 2018). It was a homecoming of sorts as he was in front of 40,000 people just kitty-corner from the Cubby Bear, the place he received his baptism into the world of rock & roll.
(Photos: Dave Grohl, Mission Impossible, Dain Bramage, Nirvana, Foo Fighters, The Storyteller)
Dave Grohl discography
MISSION IMPOSSIBLE
1985 Alive & Kicking (WGNS DM-5023)
Six-song various artist 7” EP compilation that included Mission Impossible’s “I Can Only Try”
1985 77 KK (77 KK Records)
14-song various artist compilation LP that included Mission Impossible’s “Life Already Drawn”
1986 Getting Shit for Growing Up Different (Sammich 1/Dischord 17½)
Six-song 7” EP that featured three songs by Lunch Meat on one side and three songs – “Helpless,” “Now I’m Alone” and “Into Your Shell” – by Mission Impossible on the flip side. Mission Impossible was Chris Page (vocals), Bryant Mason (guitar), David Smith (bass) and Dave Grohl (drums)
DAIN BRAMAGE
1986 I Scream for Not Coming Down (Fartblossom Enterprizes FBE-014)
Personnel: Reuben Radding (guitar, vocals), David Smith (bass) and Dave Grohl (drums)
Listen to album https://youtu.be/55WiFlWqYx8
SCREAM
Scream was a hardcore punk band from Virginia, formed in 1981 by brothers Pete (vocals) and Franz (guitar) Stahl, Skeeter Thompson (bass), and Kent Stax (drums). The band was later joined by second guitarist Robert Lee “Harley” Davidson. After the release of their 3rd album, “Banging The Drum,” Stax departed and was replaced by Dave Grohl.
1986 Banging the Drum (Dischord DIS 25)
“Banging the Drum” https://youtu.be/-ezmUJi0-Gg
1988 Live! at Van Hall – Amsterdam (Konkurrel K 001/113)
Recorded live on March 28, 1988 at Van Hall, Amsterdam https://youtu.be/mZSOzq8y7EU
1991 Your Choice Live Series #10 (Your Choice YC-LS 010)
Recorded live May 4, 1990 at Oberhaus in Germany
“The Zoo Closes” https://youtu.be/i7jot-GU56s
1993 Fumble (Dischord DIS 83)
Listen to album https://youtu.be/0VqbuWqDb9k
NIRVANA
1991 Nevermind (DGC 24425)
1993 In Utero (DGC 24607)
1996 From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah (DGC 25105)
FOO FIGHTERS
1995 Foo Fighters (Capitol/Roswell 34027)
1997 The Color and the Shape (Capitol/Roswell 55832)
1999 There is Nothing Left to Lose (RCA/Roswell 67892)
2002 One by One (RCA/Roswell 68008)
2005 In Your Honor (RCA/Roswell 70528)
2007 Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace (RCA/Roswell 8869711516)
2008 Skin and Bones (RCA/Roswell 8287688857)
2011 Wasting Light (RCA/Roswell 88697844931)
2014 Sonic Highways (RCA/Roswell 8884309008)
2017 Concrete and Gold (RCA/Roswell 8898545601)
2021 Medicine at Midnight (RCA/Roswell 1943978836)