Dave Grohl still gets “choked up” when playing his biggest hits at concerts.
The musician founded the Foo Fighters in 1994, after grunge group Nirvana split following Kurt Cobain’s suicide, with the rock group going on to find fame with songs such as My Hero, Best of You and Times like These and rack up 12 Grammy Award wins.
While the Foos continue to perform at sell-out shows across the globe, Dave confesses he still gets emotional when he sings tunes like Everlong – which was first released in 1997.
“There are nights where you’re thinking about what toppings are on the pizza on the bus and whether you need to do laundry tomorrow, but when you launch into a song like that, it immediately brings you back,” he told Rolling Stone magazine. “We’re not robots. What chokes me up is when I see people singing lyrics back to me with the same emotion. So if you hear me kind of giggling in the middle of a song, it’s because I’m trying not to just f**king totally break down in front of everybody like a fool.”
The Foo Fighters unveiled their ninth studio album, Concrete and Gold, last September. The record explores Dave’s concerns the future of the United States following the 2016 presidential election and was produced by Grammy Award-winning producer Greg Kurstin – with the collaboration having a major impact on the group.
“He is without a doubt the most talented musician slash producer I have ever met in my entire life,” the 49-year-old praised. “I honestly would put him up there with Brian Wilson or George Martin. It sounds insane, but I am not kidding. He can (co-) write and arrange a song as simple as Hello by Adele or make the most f**ked up Beck song you’ve ever heard in your life.”
During the interview, Dave also touched on his reunion with former Nirvana bandmate Krist Novoselic following the group’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014, with their one night only gig filmed.
However, the star isn’t sure what will happen to the footage.
“When we realised that we were going to do it, I just called the people from my production company and said, ‘We need to film this,’ and we loaded some cameras in there and shot it without knowing what would ever come of it… Someday, I’m sure everybody’ll see it,” he smiled.