Dave Grohl gets together with Pat Smear and host Chris Shiflett in a brand new interesting episode of the Shred With Shifty podcast – and the first of its second season to break down how they work together as a three within the band.
Grohl may well have linked the trio’s likeness to drum rhythms due to his legendary drumming background in Nirvana, and as they demonstrate with a short play through of Rope from their 2011 album Wasting Light, it starts to make absolute sense.
“Anytime I do a guitar interview people always ask, ‘how do you guys figure out who plays what and orchestrate it?’” begins Shiflett. “I always say, ‘we used to when you first came back [points to Smear, who rejoined in 2005 after leaving in 1997], it seemed like we thought about that a lot, and nowadays we just seem to kind of fall into it when we when we’re making records.’ So, what should we do to illustrate?”
Grohl replies, “It’s kind of drum related, the way it works. If you imagine playing a normal sort of 4/4 beat with two hands and one foot, you’ve got one hand that’s doing the eighth notes and then you’ve got your left hand that’s doing the twos and the fours, and you’ve got your kick drum that’s doing the one and the threes. So if you think of the way that we play together, each one of us is a different element of that thing. So you are typically the right hand [he points to Shiflett]. I’m typically the twos and the fours, and [Smear is] kind of on the ones. So if you put those things together, and this might ruin it forever for us now that we’re going to think about it, but it’s kind of that way.”
Rarely in the history of rock has a musician switched bands and instruments simultaneously with such a high degree of success as Dave Grohl.
Throughout history, great art has often been the result of taking risks, and Dave Grohl has never shied away from pushing boundaries. A perfect example of this is Nirvana’s iconic 1994 MTV Unplugged performance, which almost didn’t happen. During rehearsals, Kurt Cobain wasn’t happy with how the drums sounded when Grohl played with sticks. Tensions ran high until someone quickly ran to a nearby music store for hot rods, and Grohl, stepping out of his comfort zone, delivered one of the most unforgettable drumming performances in rock history. His sensitive, nuanced playing added just the right touch, proving that even rock drummers could scale back and perform acoustic sets.
Grohl’s willingness to take risks didn’t stop there. After Nirvana, he could have easily joined a high-profile band like Pearl Jam or Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, both of whom sought him out. But instead, he chose to strike out on his own, founding Foo Fighters and creating something entirely new. By following his instincts and embracing uncertainty, Grohl forged a path that led to some of the biggest hits in rock history. Without his fearlessness, Foo Fighters as we know them wouldn’t exist.