Dave Grohl is Reliving the 90s

Dave Grohl has been in the news quite a bit over the past 12 months and it's been shocking to see how quickly he's squandered away the goodwill that he's built up over the course of his career. From admitting that he has a child outside of his marriage to the news of the Foo Fighters moving "in a different direction" from Josh Freese, Dave Grohl's nice guy image has all but deteriorated. That is, if you bought in to the nice guy image to begin with.

The Foo Fighters have been a band for 30 years now, and it's strange to think that they weren't in the headlines with all the chaos that happened in the their first 5 or do years of existence. By the time they started recording their 2002 album, One by One, they were on their 2nd drummer and 3rd guitarist. This doesn't even count bassist Nate Mendel being courted to return to Sunny Day Real Estate for their 1998 album, How It Feels to be Something On. Their first 4 albums all had different lineups and they were constantly on the brink of imploding.

Whether it's how they were covered by the media in the 90s / early 2000s or because people were distracted by their extremely charming run of music videos, not all Foo Fighters fans are aware of all this turmoil, nor do all of them know that between their self titled debut and The Colour and the Shape, Dave went through a divorce with photographer, Jennifer Youngblood. If her name rings a bell, it's because her name is in the liner notes for Nirvana's Unplugged in New York as well as in the 1st Foo Fighters album, where she's responsible for the band photo.

Dave would start dating Veruca Salt's Louise Post. "Everlong" is about her. They wrote some incredibly sappy shit together. I'm not sure if she's responsible for him cutting his hair.

Part of the Dave and Courtney Love feud is that Hole took Veruca Salt on tour, when Dave was planning on taking Veruca Salt with the Foo Fighters, because Courtney Love always has to be part of Dave's drama.

According to Louise, Dave cheated on her with Winona Rider. Dave denies that. Courtney Love says the best Foo Fighters song is "All My Life" and that it's about his relationship with Hole bassist, Melissa Auf der Maur. I don't remember if Dave denies that.

Less than a year after the release of One by One (the album with "All My Life"), Dave married producer, Jordyn Blum. For the first time since Foo Fighters began, Dave finally had stability in his personal and professional life. The Foo Fighters would only get more popular from this point on, and people would become fans of goofy Dave Grohl, pulling pranks on Weezer during the Foozer tour, or starring in silly shorts. He also grew out his hair again.

In fact, fan favorite, Pat Smear (the 1st departing guitarist) would soon return to the band! Dave would reunite with Butch Vig to produce Wasting Light! The Back and Forth Documentary that came out around the release of Wasting Light featured former bandmates, William Goldsmith and Franz Stahl sharing about being booted from the band! It looked like not only had Dave found stability, but he was ready to take accountability for the past as well. It was time to fade to black and roll the end credits.

The Foo Fighters decided that the show must go on, and it seemed like their good fortune was never going to end. They were inducted to the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame, they added keyboardist Rammi Jaffe as a fulltime member of the band, and Dave became buds with super producer, Greg Kurstin! He had his mini "feud" with musician Nandi Bushell, and his daughters started showing up in Foo Fighters videos and singing on their albums.

Then tragedy struck in 2022 with the passing of both drummer Taylor Hawkins, and Dave's mother, Virginia. In between the two deaths (and 2 marathon tribute concerts for Taylor), Rolling Stone, heavily implied that the Foo Fighters' demanding schedule may have contributed to Taylor's passing. While a hiatus from the Foo Fighters would have been completely understandable, the Foo Fighters were back with a new album, But Here We Are, in 2023, with Dave subbing in on the drums. It's actually quite good.

With the new album, a tour followed, which meant that Dave needed to find a drummer, since he was not going to pull double duty in a live setting. Dave hired drummer Josh Freese, a good friend of Taylor and someone who has played with everyone from Nine Inch Nails to Devo to... Michael Buble.

The Foo Fighters made it seem like Freese was a going to be in it for the long haul, even making a video announcing him as the new drummer. The Foos would even cover songs that Josh played on during their set to further familiarize him with the fans. While it is impossible to replace the beloved Taylor Hawkins, it seemed like Dave had found as good of a replacement as he could find.

A year later, chaos reared it's ugly head when Dave disclosed that he was having a child outside of his marriage. For the first time in decades, Dave's sterling reputation of being the nicest mega rock star who recorded Tik Toks with his kids and BBQ'd for first responders had been tarnished. Dave requested privacy as he sought to regain the trust of his wife and daughters.

The Foo Fighters canceled all remaining tour dates. He gave no ETA of a return to the stage, but after a few months of silence, Dave started to make unannounced guest appearances. First with Nirvana at a benefit for the Los Angeles brushfires then to SNL to play "Smells Like Teen Spirit" with Post Malone.

Either Lorne Michaels holds way more sway than I'll ever understand or this was part of a very calculated PR move (or both). Dave would finally return to the stage with a guitar as a special unannounced guest for Dudamel's Coachella set. With that, it seemed like Foo Fighters activity was on the horizon. That assumption was correct, but I don't think anyone expected that the Foo Fighters would decide to part ways with Josh Freese.

The move has been pretty unpopular. Some have speculated that Taylor's son Shane will take the reigns, which I think is highly unlikely, since he's barely an adult, and expecting someone to drum for 3 hours a night when they haven't been a touring musician is a pretty tall ask. Whoever it is, I don't expect it to be a sexy hire. Taylor was met with a shrug back in 1997. He was the Alanis Morissette guy and not much else. It seems like all of us, Dave has certain patterns, and while it's probably naïve of me to think that Dave's infidelity only pertains to this one incident, it seems like he's repeating his behavior of the 90s, except this time, he's a way bigger deal and social media is documenting every second of it. I wouldn't say that Dave Grohl is at any sort of career crossroads, but I'm interested to see how he handles things from this point forward. I think he wants to return to making funny videos with Greg Kurstin, but we'll see if he can complete his redemption arc.

I know that some have decided they can't listen to the Foo Fighters anymore because he cheated on his wife, but I'll still be a fan as long as the music is still good. If I was a fan when he was firing band members and cheating on his lovers in the 90s, why would I jump ship now? Maybe we'll get an album that rivals The Colour and the Shape!