{"id":599690,"date":"2026-04-11T08:31:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T08:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/599690\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T08:31:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T08:31:10","slug":"ill-write-something-i-have-a-hard-time-saying-it-feels-good-to-scream-that-shit-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/599690\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019ll write something I have a hard time saying … It feels good to scream that shit\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s the morning after the night before, and Dave Grohl<\/a> is looking slightly bleary-eyed. <\/p>\n

Flanked by his Foo Fighters<\/a> bandmate Nate Mendel in a plush hotel room overlooking St Stephen\u2019s Green, the rock god is gently bemoaning the fact that he had a terrible night\u2019s sleep. <\/p>\n

Mendel, meanwhile, is questioning his decision to start drinking whiskey sours at 1am, after the band landed in Dublin following their Other Voices gig<\/a> in Dingle, 300km away.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe never sleeps anyway, so it\u2019s fine,\u201d the bassist says, nodding at Grohl, who is sipping a black coffee. \u201cWe\u2019ve got two drummers in our band. One of them is always asleep, and one of them can\u2019t sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grohl momentarily perks up. \u201cI think Ilan has a disorder. I think he\u2019s narcoleptic \u2013 we need to get him to a doctor,\u201d he says of Ilan Rubin, the band\u2019s newest addition. \u201cIf he\u2019s not shredding on the drums, he\u2019s dead asleep. It\u2019s f**king crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n

It could be the late night; it could be the whiskey hangover. Grohl, who is witty and as reliably quotable as Noel Gallagher<\/a>, of Oasis<\/a>, seems a little more subdued than usual. <\/p>\n

Still, there\u2019ll be no trace of it later on, when the band play the comparatively tiny Academy and blast through what amounts to a greatest-hits set, with some of their wives watching from the balcony of the Dublin venue. On stage he is a consummate frontman: funny, charismatic and as keen to entertain an audience of 800 as he is a stadium crowd in the run-up to the release of their 12th album.<\/p>\n

Perhaps Grohl, who is now 57, is also a little wary of going through the press cycle for Your Favorite Toy knowing the line of questioning that awaits. Foo Fighters have been through a lot in the past few years, and none more so than their frontman, who issued a statement<\/a> in September 2024 that read: \u201cI\u2019ve recently become the father of a new baby daughter, born outside of my marriage. I plan to be a loving and supportive parent to her. I love my wife and children, and I am doing everything I can to regain their trust and earn their forgiveness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Nirvana:Nirvana: Dave Grohl, Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic in 1991. Photograph: Paul Bergen\/Redferns <\/p>\n

For someone often described as the nicest man in rock, the revelation dealt a blow to his good-guy image. It also came off the back of a turbulent few years for Grohl, as he dealt with the death<\/a> of the band\u2019s drummer Taylor Hawkins<\/a>, in March 2022, and his mother, Virginia, less than five months later.<\/p>\n

The band\u2019s publicist has warned journalists not to ask about Foo Fighters\u2019 personal lives. The closest Grohl comes to referencing it is acknowledging the way music has been a life raft during emotionally tempestuous times. \u201cThat\u2019s how this band started, after Nirvana.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hawkins was the second bandmate he lost, following the death of Kurt Cobain<\/a>, in 1994. \u201cAfter losing Taylor, I\u2019m so grateful that we had this to help us live. I rely on it as a therapy \u2013 outside of the therapy that I already do,\u201d Grohl says; the singer recently admitted to going to more than 400 therapy sessions in the past year and a half \u2013 six days a week for 70 weeks.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Foo Fighters turn St James\u2019 Church, Dingle, into the world\u2019s smallest stadiumOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I really do rely on it. There are times where I\u2019ll write something that I have a hard time saying in conversation, and the end result is something real that you wind up singing every night. It just feels good to f**king scream that shit sometimes, you know? But, yes, very much. There\u2019s not a lot of fiction on this record.\u201d<\/p>\n

Each Foo Fighters album, Grohl says, represents a specific period in their lives, and there was a lot of catharsis during the making of But Here We Are<\/a>, their album from 2023. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s funny, because I can kind of map my life emotionally by the three-year cycle of each album: where your head\u2019s at, where your heart\u2019s at. You really never know what is around the next corner in life and music.\u201d <\/p>\n

He shrugs. <\/p>\n

\"FooFoo Fighters have been through a lot in the past few years. Photograph: Elizabeth Miranda <\/p>\n

\u201cThe last album was a challenge, and difficult, but necessary. I think we all find comfort in the music, we all find comfort in the band, but we also all find comfort with each other. We\u2019ve known each other for so long that we\u2019ve been through every up and down together.\u201d <\/p>\n

He looks to Mendel, who nods in agreement. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the great thing about this band is, when needed, we really do rally around each other. But there weren\u2019t many high-fives, because it was a f**king bummer,\u201d he says, grinning. \u201cI just completely browned out the entire room. Very depressing of me.\u201d<\/p>\n

If But Here We Are wasn\u2019t a \u201chigh-five record\u201d, Your Favorite Toy is comparatively gutsy, simmering with vitriol \u2013 as on the title track and songs such as Of All People, which was written after Grohl bumped into a heroin dealer he knew in the 1990s \u2013 but also shot through with vulnerability.<\/p>\n

Both the title and the lyrics of Unconditional \u2013 \u201cCan\u2019t say what\u2019s on my mind, I\u2019m just not sure \/ I\u2019ll find a better way to explain this to you \/ There are better days awaiting, it\u2019s true\u201d \u2013 take on a weightier meaning, for example, if you imagine a father singing it to his children. The considered Window, meanwhile, was inspired by his daughter\u2019s love of The Breeders.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Taylor Hawkins was Foo Fighters\u2019 heart and soul \u2013 a bad boy in an age of dull musiciansOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cShe plays the bass, and she\u2019s very much a child of the 1990s,\u201d Grohl says of Harper, who is turning 17, laughing. \u201cHer bedroom posters are Elliott Smith<\/a>, and Ween, and The Prodigy<\/a>, and The Breeders, and Sonic Youth<\/a>, and that\u2019s her world. Her heroes are Kim Deal<\/a> and Kim Gordon<\/a> \u2013 amazing friends and role models. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo I came up with this riff that I considered to be like a Breeders song, and she [played on it] and it wound up on our list of demos. And I thought, Okay, well, let\u2019s do it. It sort of changes the tone for a few minutes on the album; otherwise, it\u2019s a really noisy record.\u201d<\/p>\n

Musically, Your Favorite Toy was about going back to basics in many ways, and the band were eager to get it done quickly. Rubin did his tracks in seven days; the whole recording process was completed in four weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt certainly makes for a different kind of record \u2013 \u2018I\u2019m gonna make it in a garage.\u2019 There\u2019s a deadline which is approaching fast, and the songs are short and fast; we\u2019re not going to be getting into detailed compositions and engineering and production,\u201d Grohl says. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a consistency, like a band went into a studio in a short period of time and made a record. There\u2019s no \u2018Where\u2019s the harp gonna fit on this song?\u2019 So it\u2019s completely different. A lot of the demos were a bit more fusion metal or something.\u201d <\/p>\n

He laughs. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey got a bit too involved. So it was really about just doing it quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

This time they enlisted Oliver Roman, who has worked in-house, at their Studio 606 HQ, for more than a decade, on production duties instead of returning to the studio with Greg Kurstin<\/a>, whom Foo Fighters made their last three albums with. <\/p>\n

Grohl and Mendel have nothing but good things to say about Kurstin \u2013 \u201ca f**king genius in the true definition of the term\u201d, the frontman says \u2013 but recording with Roman reminded him of working with Butch Vig<\/a>, who produced Nevermind, Nirvana\u2019s biggest album, from 1991, \u201cwhere the guy\u2019s just having the best time of his life, and you\u2019re hanging out and making music, and at the end of the day you\u2019re, like, \u2018Wait, what do you do?\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

Grohl chuckles. <\/p>\n

\u201cBecause all we did was laugh all day long, and then it turned out sounding great.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was a slightly more contentious change in band personnel last year. Josh Freese, who had been drafted in to replace the late Hawkins, posted that he was \u201cshocked and disappointed\u201d after being told that the band had \u201cdecided \u2018to go in a different direction with their drummer\u2019\u201d after two years behind the kit.<\/p>\n

\"JoshJosh Freese and Dave Grohl, performing as The Churnups, play on the Pyramid Stage on day 3 of Glastonbury 2023. Photograph: Oli Scarff\/AFP via Getty <\/p>\n

Given the public nature of his announcement, it\u2019s clearly a tricky topic. Grohl and Mendel choose their words carefully.<\/p>\n

\u201cA drummer\u2019s playing is based on feel,\u201d Grohl says. \u201cThat\u2019s all drumming is: feel. It\u2019s hard to define when you\u2019re playing with someone and it feels \u2018right\u2019, or when you\u2019re playing with someone who feels \u2018really good\u2019, and then you\u2019re playing with someone and it feels \u2018f**king amazing\u2019. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s personality, it\u2019s your connection, your rhythm that you have together. It\u2019s just a combination, or a recipe \u2013 when you\u2019re cooking something and it says, \u2018Salt and pepper to taste\u2019 at the end of the recipe; that\u2019s defined by you. <\/p>\n

\u201cLike the chef Marco Pierre White; if you ever watch him make something \u2013 which I\u2019m obsessed with; like, the guy\u2019s a f**king a hero of mine \u2013 he talks about \u2018feel\u2019 the whole time. It\u2019s the way he moves a pan, the way he sets it aside, the way he pulls it up, the way he\u2019ll season things. So he knows \u2013 and f**k, man, if he knows, then it must be good. So we know what feels best for our band.\u201d<\/p>\n

These are measured responses to the crises that have engulfed the band in recent times. While irritation and indignation are audible at various points on Your Favorite Toy, there is no obvious target for them.<\/p>\n

I try to love everyone, because I think that\u2019s what you\u2019re supposed to do \u2013 and I do<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0Dave Grohl<\/p>\n

Foo Fighters have never written an outwardly political song, but they have staked their flag by forbidding Donald Trump<\/a> to use their song My Hero on his campaign trail for the US presidency in 2024; they subsequently donated royalties from its usage to the campaign of Kamala Harris<\/a>, his Democratic Party rival.<\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t it difficult not to feel angry and disillusioned about the state of the world, and particularly their homeland?<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, we\u2019re getting old,\u201d Grohl says. \u201cf**king Neil Young is angrier than ever \u2013 jeez, Louise. But, yeah, of course. It\u2019s hard not to feel political living in America, where we\u2019re deeply divided. And there\u2019s injustice, and there\u2019s so much hate and fear, and it\u2019s such a drag.\u201d <\/p>\n

He tugs at his beard. <\/p>\n

\u201cI try to love everyone, because I think that\u2019s what you\u2019re supposed to do \u2013 and I do. But there needs to be change in that direction, and it\u2019s been hard to find in the States.\u201d<\/p>\n

Foo Fighters have officially been a going concern for more than three decades. In 2021, Grohl told The Irish Times that the prospect of the band ending<\/a> \u201cwould be like your grandparents getting a divorce … It just makes no sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"EachEach Foo Fighters album, Grohl says, represents a specific period in their lives. Photograph: Elizabeth Miranda <\/p>\n

Still, becoming one of the biggest bands on the planet has its downsides, too. Is there anything they particularly miss about those early days, when the weight of expectation was perhaps not as cumbersome or difficult to navigate?<\/p>\n

\u201cI miss the hair that used to be right about here,\u201d Grohl quips, gesturing to the crown of his head. \u201cBut it\u2019s an interesting question. I don\u2019t look back and miss it, but …\u201d <\/p>\n

He thinks for a moment. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a thing when you\u2019re first starting out where it\u2019s scrappy. You\u2019re travelling in a van, you\u2019re staying in two-star hotels and there\u2019s not as much logistical support for what you\u2019re doing \u2013 and it opens up more windows for weird shit to happen. Most of our good stories are from the first five to 10 years of the band, because after that …\u201d<\/p>\n

He trails off, but Mendel picks up the thread. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt gets really dark,\u201d he says, smirking. \u201cYou\u2019re just together in more wacky situations. And there\u2019s a lot of good memories from that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s funny,\u201d Grohl says contemplatively, \u201cbecause my daughter Violet is embarking on the beginning of her musical career. She made this incredible record\u201d \u2013 Be Sweet to Me, to be released at the end of May \u2013 \u201cand she is legitimately incredibly talented. She has perfect pitch; she can learn an instrument in a day. <\/p>\n

\"DaveDave Grohl with his daughter Violet and Jordyn Blum. Photograph: Axelle\/Bauer-Griffin\/FilmMagic <\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s really excited for this to begin, and I\u2019m completely uninvolved. I don\u2019t want to smother her with old-man dad advice. But I really hope that she gets those same experiences that we had.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope she winds up sleeping on someone\u2019s couch in a sleeping bag. I hope that she winds up in a van with six people in a trailer, late for load-in and they\u2019ve blown a tyre and their cell phone\u2019s out.\u201d <\/p>\n

He looks around, gesturing at our five-star surroundings. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s those early experiences that really do lay a foundation for the appreciation of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do Foo Fighters have another 30 years in them? Will they become The Rolling Stones of their era? Grohl and Mendel both momentarily wince at the idea. <\/p>\n

\u201cThirty years? That\u2019s 87 for me,\u201d the singer says, frowning slightly. \u201cI can\u2019t imagine stopping, that\u2019s for sure. But we\u2019ll have AI at that point \u2013 we\u2019ll be holograms.\u201d <\/p>\n

He shakes his head before perking up again. <\/p>\n

\u201cHave you seen the Abba show?\u201d he says about Voyage. \u201cUnbelievable. I walked out of there just thinking, f**king amazing.\u201d <\/p>\n

Grohl throws his palms up. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo we have something to look forward to, at least. Holograms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Your Favorite Toy is released by Roswell\/RCA on Friday, April 24th<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s the morning after the night before, and Dave Grohl is looking slightly bleary-eyed. Flanked by his Foo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":599691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,292411,134396,292412,2490,292409,134,31238,292410,17127,203390,218858,8152,136,63532,45961,250173,218861,197805,118980],"class_list":{"0":"post-599690","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-butch-vig","11":"tag-dave-grohl","12":"tag-dingle","13":"tag-donald-trump","14":"tag-elliott-smith","15":"tag-entertainment","16":"tag-foo-fighters","17":"tag-greg-kurstin","18":"tag-kamala-harris","19":"tag-kim-deal","20":"tag-kim-gordon","21":"tag-kurt-cobain","22":"tag-music","23":"tag-noel-gallagher","24":"tag-oasis","25":"tag-other-voices","26":"tag-sonic-youth","27":"tag-taylor-hawkins","28":"tag-the-prodigy"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/599691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}