The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music

Grohl looks back fondly on his days touring in Canada with Scream, particularly in Toronto and Montreal. Grohl recalls the consistently sold-out shows, the hospitality of Canadian band friends, and the welcoming atmosphere of Canada in general. On one particularly pivotal day, Scream was booked at a club called the Rivoli on Queen Street, Toronto. Before their band was to perform, Iggy Pop was scheduled to have a record release party and small performance at the renowned club. Grohl refers to Iggy Pop as “the Adam AND the Eve to what we now refer to as punk rock” (103). Although Scream was asked to leave while Iggy was present, they were lucky enough to see him entering the venue as they sat in their van, and Grohl recalls this as the first time he had been close to a “bona fide rock star” (104).

As Grohl sat in the van thinking about how he had just seen Iggy Pop, a knock came on the glass, asking for the band’s drummer. Grohl was asked if he wanted to play with Iggy Pop, and Grohl enthusiastically agreed. He met Iggy Pop, who introduced himself as Jim, and found him more approachable than he imagined. Grohl jammed with Iggy Pop, playing some of his songs, and then was asked to join Iggy Pop on stage later that evening. Grohl suggested that Scream’s bass player join them, and Iggy Pop agreed. Before the show, Grohl had the privilege of hanging out with Iggy Pop, smoking cigarettes and hearing stories of his life. Grohl realized that Iggy Pop was nice, cool, and professional—a normal guy. He found himself relishing the attention and deference he received as a temporary member of Iggy’s band and went on stage that night to play with him. Iggy Pop provided Grohl with the feeling of realness and reassurance that he needed to move forward with his own career.

In this moment, Grohl once again felt like he had achieved his dreams. Reflecting back on this experience, he notes that he was “in the right place at the right time” (114). After this life-changing experience, Grohl and the rest of Scream toured back to Washington. Grohl ends the chapter by foreshadowing the end of his time with Scream.

The chapter opens with a photo of the band members of Scream. After a few years in the band, Grohl felt like a seasoned pro, having toured across America and Europe by this point. Along the way, he stayed with various musicians, punks, and anarchists, who often lived in abandoned buildings. He found their sense of community and protests against the norms of “materialism, greed, and social status” (118) inspiring and intriguing. Grohl and his bandmates performed odd jobs and relied on each other to get by, and Grohl felt a sense of freedom and adventure that he had never experienced before. Grohl reveled in the experience of traveling from country to country and being exposed to new languages and cultures, and he became especially fond of Amsterdam. Grohl recalls the risks they took, like crossing borders with hash stored in Skeeter’s dreadlocks. The dangerous and unpredictable nature of many of Grohl’s experiences is something he enjoys and thrives on, as he sees every day as a new adventure full of possibility.

In the spring of 1990, Grohl and his bandmates woke up to find Skeeter, their bassist, was missing. He had disappeared without warning before, so the bandmates didn’t worry too much. Grohl speculates that Skeeter may have felt overwhelmed by the lifestyle, and that he got on a plane and flew home without warning. Grohl regretted the loss of Skeeter from the band, as Skeeter taught him to play with discipline and “respect the simplicity and power of a groove” (123). As expected, Skeeter returned a few weeks later, and the band welcomed him even though they worried he would disappear again.

Surprisingly, the band was offered a management contract. At first, they disregarded it, but they ended up signing it in what Grohl considers a naïve mistake and his first introduction to the seediness of the music industry. The band returned to Los Angeles after their tour, and Grohl was offered a motorcycle by Franz’s sister, Sabrina. The bike became his escape and a prized source of solitude. He rode it every day until his eyes were swollen, reacting with the dirt and dust on the road.

A few weeks later, Grohl was asked by a friend if he had ever heard of Nirvana. Grohl knew the band well, although they were still underground; their first album, Bleach, was widely popular in the underground scene. He describes the album as “blending metal, punk, and Beatles-esque melody” (128). Grohl heard that Nirvana was seeking a drummer and decided to take a chance and call their bassist, Krist Novoselic. His request to audition was declined at first, as the band had found someone else; however, he received a call back a few hours later, asking if he wanted to speak to Kurt Cobain. Grohl called Kurt, and they discussed their love of various bands and found they had a lot in common. Kurt asked Grohl if he wanted to come up to Washington to audition.

Grohl was faced with the difficult decision of leaving Scream for Nirvana, a huge risk. Grohl had grown and changed with his bandmates over the past couple of years and felt they were more like brothers than friends. He called his mother for advice, and she told him he needed to put his needs first. Grohl took her advice, as well as everything he learned from his time with Scream, and headed to Seattle.

Grohl opens the chapter with an anecdote that serves as a metaphor for the impact of many of his decisions and experiences—times in his life that stayed with him forever. He recounts a time when he sat in a chair as a nervous tattoo artist attempted to give him a John Bonham three-circle bracelet tattoo. Grohl doubted the artist’s skill and feared the result, but notes that it was a situation he had to see through—one he started there was no turning back. He resumes telling his personal music history, jumping to fall 1990 when he was settling into his new life with Nirvana. Grohl and Kurt were living together in a tiny and dilapidated apartment. Kurt’s pet turtle tapped the glass of his tank each night, in what Grohl describes as a desperate attempt to escape the mess and squalor. Grohl related to the turtle; he survived on three corndogs a day from a local gas station, and when he received his first paycheck with Nirvana for $400, it was the most money he had ever earned playing music. After buying a BB gun and a Nintendo, Grohl used the rest of the money to get his first professional tattoo (he had given himself a DIY tattoo using black ink and a sewing needle at age 14).

Grohl and Kurt had a dream to be the superstars and were willing to make the sacrifices needed to get there. Their rehearsal studio was a small building outside the city. Grohl describes the way that a typical session would go, beginning with an improvisational jam to encourage music to flow naturally. The type of “quiet/loud dynamic” (140) that became the hallmark of many Nirvana songs is something Grohl credits to the Pixies, who served as an inspiration for the band. As the group prepared their famous Nevermind album, Grohl watched as Kurt came up with new music regularly. Kurt would spend time playing and writing in his room at night, springing new songs on the band when he was ready. When Grohl joined the group, Nirvana had already recorded some Nevermind songs like “In Bloom” and “Lithium”, but he recorded drums on other songs on the album such as “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Come As You Are.”

Much like Kurt’s new songs often took the band by surprise, their new album would soon change the world of music altogether. The band signed with the David Geffen Company (and manager John Silva) and hired Butch Vig, who also worked with the Smashing Pumpkins, to be their producer. As Nirvana’s success started to become more and more certain, Grohl felt like everything was about to take off. The band heard of a recording studio called Sound City in California that sounded perfect, but needed money to get there. The band booked a show at a small Seattle club, and Kurt introduced their new song, “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” to a room of loyal fans. Grohl describes the reaction as an explosion in a “sea of denim and wet flannel” (144). It was clear that the new song was something special and extraordinary, and Grohl knew that the past years of suffering and missing his family and friends “had been a test of [his] own strength and perseverance, the music being [his] only consolation and reward” (145). He looks back now on these first few months with Nirvana and knows that they changed him forever.

In the fall of 1991, Nirvana was in the middle of their condensed North American Nevermind tour. Grohl describes this period of Nirvana as an “ethical crossroads” (150), in which Nirvana went from largely attracting small groups of people in the underground scene to acquiring a more mainstream audience. Grohl felt a growing inner conflict, torn between his punk-rock beginnings and the joy of experiencing massive success with Nirvana and the music reaching more and more people. He wondered how people who once cast him out and mocked him could now be considered on his side. Grohl notes that this dilemma was both motivating and harmful for the band, and Kurt’s internal conflict on this issue was even stronger than Grohl’s.

The night that the music video for “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was released on MTV’s 120 Minutes broadcast, Grohl and Kurt sat in their hotel room eagerly awaiting the moment. When Grohl saw himself on TV, he marveled at the fact that it was all real and happening before him. This moment changed everything. The video’s theme, an ode to “disaffected teens, tattooed cheerleaders, and young punks, leaving their angst and frustration behind in a smoldering pile of rubble and ash” (153) touched millions of youths around the world.

At the Trees club in Dallas, Texas, the band played their set and the crowd became more and more riotous by the minute. After a few songs, the audience swarmed the stage so much that Kurt could barely sing without the microphone being pushed around. He became increasingly irritated, and in what Grohl describes as standard for Kurt when he was irritated, he smashed his guitar against the soundboard repeatedly. The audience cheered, seeing it as entertainment, but “this was not an act. This was real” (155). Kurt was not only sick of that night but of the intense rush to fame that he had experienced over the past several weeks.

The set continued nevertheless, and Kurt dove from the stage and played guitar as he crowd surfed. When he jumped back on stage, he landed on a security guard, who pushed him off. Kurt reacted instinctively by hitting the guard in the head with his guitar, causing him to bleed. The security guard punched Kurt in the face, and once the moment settled the band continued again, fearing a riot if they ended the show early. After the show, the guard and a few of his friends were waiting outside to kill Kurt. An escape plan formed, and the band—minus Grohl—left out the back in a taxi. Grohl did not make it to the door in time and got a ride home with a girl he met. Much like feeling surrounded and trapped at the club, Grohl describes the situation that Nirvana was in with fame as being “surrounded…. [with] no way out” (158).

The narrative skips to New Year’s Day 1992 in San Fernando Valley, after Grohl toured the West Coast with Nirvana alongside Pearl Jam and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The band played to sold-out arenas at this point and “a radical cultural shift was imminent” (162). Underground music blasted into the mainstream and there was no turning back. Nirvana was set to perform on Saturday Night Live, a show Grohl’s had loved since childhood. He was inspired by the musical performances on the show, particularly the B-52s’s performance of “Rock Lobster”. At age 10, Grohl saw this performance and felt comforted by the fact that people in music could be “powered by their pride in their weirdness” (163). The SNL performance alerted Grohl’s nerves to the level of fame he and the band were reaching, but they got through it. At this point, the bandmates were living in separate cities and saw each other less often. It seemed as though the group was beginning to fracture.

When the group met to shoot the video for “Come As You Are,” Grohl saw that Kurt was frail and had the look of someone who had been using hard drugs. When Grohl first learned of Kurt’s heroin use in January 1991, Kurt assured him he only used it once and Grohl believed him. Grohl still finds it difficult to watch the music video, knowing now how Kurt was actually feeling. Times brightened for a period when the band headed to Australia, Japan, and Hawaii. Grohl received his first-ever credit card, a life-changer and step up from the poverty he was used to. He bought a house in North Carolina and enjoyed the faceless style of success that the drummer of a grunge band receives. Kurt, on the other hand, was recognizable everywhere.

Grohl was invited by his friend, Bryan Brown, to stay at the house where the Manson murders took place. Having grown up with a fascination for the macabre, Grohl agreed, and when they arrived they found Nine Inch Nails recording their second album there. Grohl shares that he believes that the place where music recording has a bearing on its impact and feels that the dark atmosphere of the house was perfect for the recording. However, he personally disliked the morbid undertones of the house and spent most of his time there outside. Grohl realized that while he was fascinated by the dark side of music, he preferred the light and joyful side of it, and he decided to pursue a peaceful life. Grohl got into a car accident on his way to the Los Angeles airport but was fine other than a swollen eye. He heard the news of Kurt being admitted to rehab and was relieved that he was finally getting help. Grohl believed that rehab would fix Kurt and was looking forward to a brighter future.