Credit: Raph Pour-Hashemi
Mon 12 October 2026 19:17, UK
Dave Grohl is one of 29 people, alive or dead, who can count themselves fortunate enough to be a double Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, but his journey to reach that position is the same as that of any music lover.
Grohl wasn’t born into a family in the entertainment industry, where it seemed like being a rock star was an achievable aspiration. However, he wasn’t prepared to let the 99 per cent chance that things wouldn’t go to plan prevent him from throwing everything he had into turning that one per cent likelihood into his reality.
From an early age, he was laser-focused on ensuring that he’d make a living from music, and at the first opportunity, Grohl dropped out of high school to follow his dream. While it would have been wise for him, aged 17, to continue with his education to allow him to have a backup plan if his musical ambitions failed to materialise, there was nothing else he wanted to do.
He lied about his age to join Scream as a teenager, began touring the world, and four years later, Grohl was taking the world by storm in Nirvana.
There were various crucial steps along the way that brought him to this position, such as discovering The Beatles, who acted as his initial gateway into music. Their songbook taught him how to play the guitar and the art of structuring arrangements. Naturally, his tastes evolved, and new influences, such as Kiss, entered his life and ignited a fire in his belly to make loud music.
Credit: Far Out / Alamy
There was an air of serendipity involved in how Grohl discovered Kiss when his eyes gravitated towards their 1976 album Destroyer. He knew nothing about the band or how they sounded, but Grohl instinctively felt it was made for him.
Upon finally getting home and pressing play, Grohl’s assertion that Destroyer was designed just for him was proved to be true, blowing his tiny mind. While he’s no longer the eight-year-old child who first heard Destroyer, the same feeling is evoked whenever he hears the band that changed his life forever.
Further reading: From The Vault
In 2015, Grohl had the honour of giving the band an award at the ASCAP Pop Music Awards in Los Angeles. During his impassioned speech, the Foo Fighters frontman delved into his lifelong love affair with the hair metal pioneers.
Grohl began by returning to the beginning of the story, reciting his memory of hearing Destroyer for the first time, sharing: “With nuclear anticipation, I let the needle drop on that legendary intro to ‘Detroit Rock City,’ perhaps the greatest introduction to any rock ‘n’ roll album ever recorded. It filled my speakers and my imagination. 34 minutes and 27 seconds later, Kiss had filled my soul. I was now a member of the infamous Kiss army.”
After his introduction to Kiss, an addiction was formed. Grohl’s bedroom quickly morphed into “a fucking shrine” to the rockers, filled with posters, action figures and whatever other memorabilia his pocket money could afford. He continued: “Every morning, I would wake up in my tiny bedroom and take a good look at my superheroes before walking to school. They got me through those years and ultimately inspired me to follow this unreasonable dream of becoming a professional rock ‘n’ roll musician.”
At the height of his obsession with Kiss, he used his mother’s money, without her knowledge, to buy an official radio by the band, which she swiftly returned upon its arrival. Thankfully, it did have a happy ending for Grohl, who revealed he now spends his days talking to “Paul Stanley in the parking lot of our kids’ fuckin’ elementary school, chatting about Zeppelin and Electric Lady and touring and school fundraisers.”
He also has used his connections and money to good use too, adding, “And I finally got my Kiss radio — it’s the cheapest fucking A.M. radio I have even seen in my life! With the Kiss logo on it.” Hallelujah!
Growing up, Kiss, thanks to the larger-than-life personas they adopted, didn’t seem like just another band; they were superheroes to Grohl and sold him the dream of rock ‘n’ roll, which seemed unattainable for a kid from Virginia.
Yet, he held out hope of following in their footsteps and while he’s done it in his own terms, without the help of any facepaint, it’s safe to say that Grohl succeeded in his mission.
