Dave Grohl Looks Back At Foo Fighters Debut 25 Years Later was a top 20 story of July 2020: Dave Grohl released the Foo Fighters self-titled debut album on July 4th, 1995, and the frontman reflected on the 25th anniversary for an interview with Apple Music.
Excerpts from former NME New Music editor Matt Wilkinson's interview with Grohl from his Apple Music show have surfaced online.
Dave discussed changing his role from Nirvana drummer to becoming a frontman. He said, "Coming out and standing, I mean, f***, I'd been sitting on a drum stool for so long that, 'Oh my God. Now I have to stand in front of people.' And, 'How does my body move? What do I say in between songs?' These are the things that go through your head, and if you're not feeling it or you don't have that connection or confidence, it can be f***ing terrifying.
"And, I mean, it was for eight years or 10 years or so. It took a long time for me. I mean, now when I walk out on stage, it's just, like, 'Hey. Okay, let's go.' But a long time ago, even doing interviews, I was shy. I was just insecure, self-aware. I just felt like I wasn't used to being put in the forefront like that and I can not even watch interviews from those days back then."
Dave also touched on some of the pushback that he faced by launching the post-Nirvana project. He said, "There's some journalists that are just like, 'How dare you play music after Nirvana.' I'm, like, 'What am I supposed to do?'
"We tried really hard to do it right. Instead of jumping on a tour opening up for some massive arena band at the time, we thought, 'Okay, well let's get in the van and let's do it like we've always done it. Let's start the way we always started,' and that felt comfortable to us.
"And in doing any promotion or press, we didn't make a video right out of the gate, we tried to temper all of that stuff because it was scary in a way. I knew that I was walking the plank on this. I knew that I was going to be scrutinized and I knew that there was going to be comparisons and things like that.
"And yeah, I mean it was tough. But it wasn't that tough. I mean it was like if someone gave you sh*t, you just say, 'F*** you, motherf***er.'"
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