(Credits: Raph Pour-Hashemi)
Fri 21 November 2025 17:00, UK
The former Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters frontman, Dave Grohl, has seldom avoided discussing his apical influences.
While more obviously a fan of heavy rock groups like Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, detectable from both his beard and his drumming technique, Grohl was always an avid disciple of The Beatles as well. As a child, he listened to his Beatles records on repeat and learned the drums by playing along to Ringo Starr’s beat.
The Nirvana drummer has also expressed his love for 1980s pop icon Prince. When the Purple Rain singer covered Foo Fighters’ ‘Best of You’ at the 2007 Super Bowl, Grohl explained that he had been shocked. “As my tears hit the keyboard like the Miami rain that night, I realised that this was without a doubt my proudest musical achievement,” he wrote in Dave’s True Stories.
Adding, “All of those years spent in my bedroom practising alone to Beatles records, sleeping in cold, infested squats on winter fan tours across Europe, battering my drums until my hands literally bled… it all paid off in this moment.”
In a 2019 interview feature with BBC Radio 2, Grohl picked out one of his favourite Beatles tracks and revealed his particular affinity with the late great George Harrison. “I would like to play my favourite song by George Harrison, called ‘Something’,” Grohl said.
Foo Fighters’ lead singer, Dave Grohl. (Credits: Far Out / Raphael Pour-Hashemi)
Adding, “I think that of all The Beatles – of course, each one of them is so entirely different, melodically they’re so different, songwriting, lyrically – but George Harrison, there was something about him that I almost preferred the most.”
“I loved every single one of them for different reasons, but I connected to George Harrison’s sense of melody more than anyone,” he added. However, the Foo Fighters’ man had to find his own feet before he could fully appreciate Harrison’s complex ways.
Grohl’s interest in music was undoubtedly elevated by the Fab Four and his bloody drumming sessions, but his first musical love came with his very first record. “It was a compilation album on K-Tel,” Grohl told Q when asked about his debut purchase. “I bought it at a drugstore for maybe a dollar.”
It turns out it was the best dollar he ever spent, considering he has now sold over 100million records over his career with Nirvana, Foo Fighter, Them Crooked Vultures, and even his Bee Gees spin-ffo disco album, as he continued, “On that record was the foundation of my musical being – ‘Frankenstein’ by The Edgar Winter Group. That was the first song I fell in love with.”
The song captures a wild sense of fun that has always resided in his output. But there was a sense that this fun was mystic depth – an understanding of why fun is needed in life, if you will. This opened a young Grohl’s eyes.
As the conversation evolved, Grohl was asked whether, at the dawn of the 1980s, early hip-hop or synth-pop music entered his collection. “Fuck, no. I mean, after The Edgar Winter Group, I was given The Beatles’ greatest hits records, you know, the early red one and the later blue one.”
“After studying The Beatles albums for a few years, I moved on to Kiss and Rush and The B-52’s and Devo. Then I discovered hardcore punk rock, so I put all those other records in the attic. I have to say that some of the most influential albums in my collection weren’t rock but comedy records.” He concludes, “Steve Martin was just is much of a hero to me as The Beatles were when I was a kid. Comedy Is Not Pretty! and A Wild And Crazy Guy; those two albums were huge to me. I wrote a letter to Steve Martin.”
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