Dave Grohl, the genial frontman of the Foo Fighters, is well-known for publicly applauding his colleagues and forebears. His influences are many, ranging from his 1980s obsession with Prince to his adolescent years spent drumming along to Ringo’s beat on Beatles songs till his fingers were bleeding.
Grohl, who rose to prominence as Kurt Kobain’s drummer in Nirvana, had the opportunity to perform with some of his musical influences. In 2021, Paul McCartney inducted the Foo Fighters into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and performed beside them on stage. McCartney reciprocated at Glastonbury 2022, inviting Grohl on stage for a performance of ‘Band on the Run‘.
Grohl and McCartney first met in 2002. Dhani Harrison had invited him to perform at the Royal Albert Hall for the Concert For George following George Harrison’s death. The Foo Fighters and former Beatles have maintained a strong bond since then, spending many star-studded evenings together. On one such occasion, the two ended up dining with the Australian hard rock pioneers AC/DC.
In a 2021 interview with Anders Bøtters Tiny TV, Grohl also remembered his first meeting with AC/DC. “I wasn’t performing at the Grammys, but I was giving an award or something. I consider myself fortunate to be friends with Paul McCartney, whom I adore. As much as he is a hero to me, he is also a genuinely nice man and a friend. So he was also in town. He called and asked, ‘What are you doing after the Grammys?’ I said, “I think Pat [Smear] and Taylor [Hawkins] and I are just going to have dinner.”
“He said, ‘Do you mind if me and Nancy come?'” Grohl continued. “I’m like, ‘No. That would be great. So he runs across AC/DC at a hotel or something. Then they ask, ‘What are you doing after the show?’ And he says, ‘I’m going to dine with the Foo Fighters.’ And Paul asked, ‘Do you want to come?’ So Paul’s wife phones my wife, who then says, ‘Hey, do you mind if AC/DC comes to dinner?’ “And I’d never met AC/DC.”
Grohl’s list of luminaries included a slew of heavy rock bands like as Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and AC/DC. Grohl recalls falling in love with AC/DC after seeing one of their concert DVDs in the cinema. “When I was maybe — I don’t know — ten years old, I went to see that movie Let There Be Rock, the live concert film, in a movie theatre,” he told me.
“This was before I was punk rock,” Dave Grohl explained. “That was the first time I witnessed a performance and heard music that made me want to fucking shatter something. I still use that as a guide for how I like to play a concert. I also want to be like AC/DC’s ‘Let There Be Rock’. “That is a live band!”
“So we had this wonderful night. And there was also a jazz band. “And it was one of the best nights of my life,” Grohl reminisced.
After Malcolm Young died in 2017, Dave Grohl paid respect to the late rhythm guitarist. “Thank you, Malcolm, for the songs, and the feel, and the cool, and the years of losing control of your rock and roll,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
Grohl’s 2021 book The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music includes a list of his favorite 1970s music. AC/DC was well represented in the runnings, with songs performed by Bon Scott and Brian Johnson. See the list below.
Dave Grohl’s favorite AC/DC songs:
- ‘Let There Be Rock’
- ‘Whole Lotta Rosie’
- ‘Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap’
- ‘Highway to Hell’
