The Hilarious Reason Dave Grohl Says the Foo Fighters Aren’t ‘Cool’
The Foo Fighters have been around for a long time. They recorded their first album in 1999, now 20 years ago. That means some of their original fans are well into their thirties. Most of the Foo Fighters fans are loyal. That’s largely due to the fact that Dave Grohl and his band have continued to reward fans with great music.
Even 20 years on the band is still around, still performing, and still enticing new listeners. That doesn’t change the fact that the group is, at this point, old. Grohl knows it, and he doesn’t hide from it.
Grohl called the Foo Fighters ‘dad rock’
In a recent interview, Grohl was confronted with the term “dad rock” to describe his music. The interviewer may have wanted to get Grohl to defend how cool his band is, but that’s not Grohl’s style. He embraces the term. According to Grohl, the Foo Fighters are “totally dad rock.”
At his age, “dad rock” isn’t exactly an insult. “Look, I’m 50 years old, I have f***ing grey hair…But the funny thing is, I have never considered our band cool and I like that.”
He doesn’t want to be cool, and he says that was never the goal of the project. He created the Foo Fighters to be able to play music. If that puts him in the “dad rock” category, so be it.
The Foo Fighters style has remained consistent throughout the years. Grohl makes the point that if he and his band had wanted to be edgy, the would have followed the rock trends that have come and gone over the last 20 years.
The Foo Fighters don’t follow trends
Instead of revamping the Foo Fighters style every few years, Grohl has stuck with one consistent, recognizable, “dad rock”-ish sound.
Grohl thinks that the reason he and his band have survived for two decades is because of their bucking of trends. They’ve stayed true to themselves, and that gives them staying power.
“And I think that the reason why we’re still here is because we do kind of disconnect ourselves from the popular stuff that’s going on, but also because what the f*ck do we care. Like honestly, I just wanna play music. Having watched a lot of my friends not survive, I just want to be alive and play music and I really don’t give a f*ck if we’re cool or not.”
Being uncool is sometimes cool
It sounds backwards, but sometimes acting uncool is the coolest thing anyone can do. In Grohl’s case, his shunning of anything mainstream or popular gives him an air of confidence that fans love.
The former Nirvana drummer has definitely seen some ugliness in his life, but Grohl doesn’t let that stop him from making music. In fact, we don’t think anything stops him from making music.
For example, in 2015, Grohl fell off the stage during a concert and broke his leg. While injuring himself during a performance is certainly “dad rock”-ish, what he did next was not.
Although the Foo Fighters did have to cancel a few shows, Grohl was back on stage in no time, even with a cast on his leg. He performed in a giant throne made out of guitars, since he couldn’t stand during the show.
It’s that kind of attitude that makes Grohl and the Foo Fighters cool, whether he thinks so or not. At this point, nothing will get him out of the “dad rock” category. We have to disagree with Grohl on the cool point though. “Dad rock” or no, the Foo Fighters are very, very cool.
