Dave Grohl’s Tales of Life and Music

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

Politics, Arts, News, Wnyc, Books, David, Storytelling, Society & Culture, Yorker, New, Remnick

4.2 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 26 November 2021

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

At The New Yorker Festival, Dave Grohl talked with Kelefa Sanneh about Grohl’s new book, “The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music.” Grohl, who was the drummer for Nirvana and then the frontman of the Foo Fighters, recalls his earliest experiences of taking music seriously—harmonizing with his mom to Carly Simon on the car radio. Grohl also talks about what it was like to collaborate with Kurt Cobain, who was known for his capricious genius, and about stepping out from behind the drums to lead his own band. “After Kurt died, I was, like, I’m not playing music anymore—it’s painful,” he remembers. “And then I eventually realized that if music saved my life, my entire life, this is what’s going to save my life again.”

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
0:11.4	Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Ramneck.
0:14.8	Hi, I'm Kellifacane. I'm a staff writer at The New Yorker Magazine, and on behalf of the New Yorker
0:20.2	Magazine and the New Yorker Festival, and on behalf of the New Yorker magazine and the New Yorker
0:22.4	Festival, thanks for coming out, whether you're with us here. Last month, a crowd gathered in
0:26.9	Brooklyn to hear from a special guest. The guy I'm sitting next to has been destroying
0:33.3	stages ever since the 1980s when he was a rambunctious punk kid playing with hardcore bands in the
0:39.4	D.C. area. Rock musician Dave Grohl. It's true. He changed the world with Nirvana and then kept
0:46.0	changing with foo fighters, who were now 10 albums into one of the most epic rock and roll runs
0:52.2	of all time.
0:59.1	Dave Grohl's epic run began as the drummer for Nirvana.
1:08.8	Come as you are, as you were, as I want you to be.
1:14.2	And then after the death of Kurt Cobain, Grohl became a frontman with his own band called The Foo Fighters.
1:19.9	On this Thanksgiving weekend, we wanted to take a break from the news of the world and
1:26.0	bring you a conversation from last
1:28.1	month's New Yorker Festival. Dave Grohl's new memoir is called The Storyteller. And he talked about
1:33.8	the book, his early days, and everything in between with staff writer Kellefassane. They were on
1:39.7	stage at the Skyline Drive-in, out on the Brooklyn Waterfront. and you might hear something creaking in the breeze off the East River.
1:49.3	Please freak out for Dave Grohl.
1:57.6	Awkward.
1:59.2	So Dave, we're here at the New Yorker Festival,
2:02.9	and we're here to talk about your literary career,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from WNYC Studios and The New Yorker, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.