Foo Fighters
“When I was young I cut off the tip of my finger in a shop class accident, so I have to wear plastic tips,” says Dave Grohl, the leader of the Foo Fighters, on the morning of Summersault 2000’s first show in Vancouver.
His guitar playing is remarkable considering his disability so you’ll have to get real close to the stage to tell if what he’s saying is true, but it’s the cross-Canada tour he’s really excited in talking about. Going on at length about his favourite aspects of Canada, you just want to give him a little hug, hand him a toque and jug of maple syrup and give him a free “Good through all of Canada” bus pass.
Here’s what he had to say:
Getting excited about the tour yet?
Dave Grohl: I’m excited to do it. I’m really looking forward to it. The Deftones are playing today and I’m extra looking forward to seeing that. I’ve never seen them play and I really do like their record a lot. And, um, everybody else can go fuck themselves.
What’s the deal with the “Foo-B-Cue”?
We brought a barbecue tech with us on this tour. We are traveling with our own barbecue on this tour. So we’re going to set up right outside our bus and have a barbecue at every stop on the tour. We don’t have a pig on a spit or anything but, I wish…
Are you gonna play Molly Hatchet at the barbecue?
There’s gonna be a whole lotta Skynyrd, Foghat and a lot of fuckin’ death metal while we eat ribs.
Shouldn’t you eat the ribs raw for death metal?
We’ll just eat each other’s hearts or something.
So what’s it like to be back in Canada?
We were actually just here with the Chili Peppers a couple months ago. Canada to us is one of the best places to play only because, for whatever reason, they’ve embraced our band here more so than almost anywhere else in the world. The audiences here are greatly enthusiastic, so I’m looking forward to it. There’s a lot of things I like about Canada… not only is it beautiful country, the people seem to be genuinely, nice.
Now you’re sucking up.
I’m serious! There’s few countries in the world where people are actually warm and receiving. There’s Italy, there’s Spain and then there’s Canada.
How’s dealing with Our Lady Peace?
I don’t deal with anybody and you know what? We’re the easiest fucking band in the world to negotiate with because we just don’t give a shit! We don’t care! All we need is a barbecue and Crown Royal. That’s it. And some Coors Light.
Well, you are in the home of Crown Royal.
I know, that’s why I’m fucking psyched! This tour’s gonna be great!!
What do you think about Canadian chicks?
Canadian chicks are fuckin’ hot!
…As you say that winking.
Yeah. I know a Canadian chick that’s REALLY hot.
Ever heard the Fred Schnieder & The Shake Society song “Monster?”
I haven’t heard it. But anything Fred does is solid gold anyway.
It goes [singing] “There’s a monster in my pants/And he likes to jump and dance/When he comes into the room/People hit it with a broom [chorus] Oh no monster, Oh no monster…”
Wow!! Swe-eet! We have a song called “Watershed” and we went to do it acoustic on radio once but on record it’s this wild, fast, screaming punk rock song and we tried it acoustic and I realized there was no way I could scream over it. There wasn’t really any way I could sing it so I thought that I would tell a story in the voice of Fred Schnieder. The story was actually about coming to Vancouver.
More and more Canadian angles!
See what I’m talking about! I love Crown Royal! Canadian chicks are hot…
At what point do we have to declare you an honorary Canadian?
I guess whenever I get my green card. Do you have those here? I guess once I become spokesman for Crown Royal.
You could get your bus in the shape of a Crown Royal bottle.
Now that’s going a little too far man, c’mon. I don’t want the kids drowning themselves in Crown Royal every night. I’ll just wear a fuckin’ crown every night, how’s that?
That could work.
And I could make a cape out of all those purple bags! I think all the Crown we’ve drank in the last six months we could probably make a blanket or something.
What are your favourite Canadian cities?
I really like Montreal a lot and I really like Vancouver. Montreal’s good if you want to score some sticky and hang with death rockers.
Yeah, Montreal’s big on that.
I know. I love it. One of my favourite bands ever was this band Voivod. I worshipped them when I was a kid.
Iron Maiden and Rob Halford played here a couple days ago.
Hey, run to the hills everybody.
In honour of Iron Maiden and Rob Halford I stole this idea from a website called Metal Sludge. I’m going to give you a list of records for you to rate, 1 being something you should burn to keep from the ears of children and 10 being a record that’ll make you want to bust stuff in a real cool way:
Motley Crue Shout At The Devil
I give that probably about a 7.
Heart Dreamboat Annie
Ooh. That’s a fuckin’ 9!
Culture Club Kissing To Be Clever
That’s a 1.
Iron Maiden Powerslave
I’m not too familiar with that, but because it’s Maiden I give it a 6.
Judas Priest Turbo
That’s probably gonna have to take a fuckin’ 8. He was comin’ out record by record. It was gonna happen. Everybody knew, everybody fucking knew, but all the dudes that liked the music didn’t want to admit it to themselves. “He’s not gay, this rocks. No way man, no way, he’s not a fag.”
Depeche Mode People Are People
I give it a fuckin’ 2.
WASP The Last Command
2. I hate WASP.
Styx Kilroy Was Here
That’s gonna get a fuckin’ 8.
David Lee Roth Eat ‘Em And Smile
10 baby! 10 right there! That one never goes away. Did you ever hear the Spanish version of that record?! It’s so hilarious.
Foreigner Double Vision
Dude. That gets a fuckin’ 20! That’s off the chart! You can’t get any cooler than Foreigner. On that list Foreigner’s the baddest! There are legions of Foreigner fans in America.
This interview was originally published August 4, 2000 via Chart Communications.
Risky Fuel 