Marking the announcement of their forthcoming new album, Your Favourite Toy, Foo Fighters caught up with The Chris Moyles Show on Radio X this morning, where frontman Dave Grohl revealed that he had ‘no idea’ that his daughter, Violet Grohl, had signed her first record deal until she casually announced it at dinner! The band also discussed Pat Smear’s absence due to injury, nervy guitarist auditions, and new drummer Ilan Rubin admitted that he did not expect to record an album with the band!
Highlights:
- Dave Grohl says he ‘had no idea’ his daughter Violet Grohl had signed a record deal until she announced it at dinner! – VIDEO HERE
- Dave Grohl gives a health update on Pat Smear as he implores the ‘restless’ guitarist to ‘fix your leg and get back on the road!’
- Foo Fighter’s drummer Ilan Rubin says he ‘didn’t expect’ to record an album with the band and their new record ‘came out of nowhere’
- Dave Grohl says that some musicians who have auditioned for the band have been so nervous they’ve locked their guitars in their case by mistake!
CM: “We have to mention Violet Grohl and her music, which was Record of the Week a couple of weeks ago for the whole of Radio X, for the whole station.”
DG: “Was it really? You know, this is amazing. So Violent, my daughter – she’s 19, she’s about to turn 20 – she made this album with a producer named Justin Raisen, and she did it on her own. Like, she met the producer, and they would go to the studio every day and she would send me songs when she was finished. But I had absolutely nothing to do with this record at all.
And I had no idea. I knew she was looking to sign a record deal, and she is like, ‘Hey dad, can I come over for dinner tonight?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, sure. What do you want me to make?’ And she came over and told me, like, ‘I signed my record deal today.’ I’m just like, ‘Oh my God!’ So, I’m totally like uninvolved and I’m like the dad who wants to be there and know everything. And she’s just totally doing her own thing. It’s amazing.
The record is amazing. She is so incredibly talented and has such great taste in music. Like, you’ll be pleased when you hear what’s on the record, because it’s a wide range of everything. There’s songs that remind me of The Sundays or Cocteau Twins and things like that. Then there’s like super hard, really heavy rock stuff. Ethereal. It’s beautiful. It’s an amazing record. And to be honest, when she was making that record – they did it really quickly too – it really inspired me to make this record. It really did. The way that they made that record and the energy of it, I was like, ‘Oh, man. I’ve just been inspired by my daughter’s debut album.’ It’s cool.”
Dave Grohl gives a health update on Pat Smear as he implores the ‘restless’ guitarist to ‘fix your leg and get back on the road!’
CM: “So, you’re all here. Pat’s not here. Where is Pat? Is he alright?”
NM: “He’s getting restless. He was sending texts out today about what we should be doing for the shows during the summer. Just like this long text about, ‘I’ve got these ideas.’ He’s ready to get off the couch.”
DG: “He’s got a lot of time on his hands. Actually, we were doing photoshoots the other day, and if you’ve ever seen a picture of Foo Fighters, we’re always laughing. Because that’s usually what happens when you put us all together in front of a camera. And he and I started talking about The Brady Bunch. And we were trying to figure out, like, ‘Wait a second, what happened to the other spouses?’ Like, Mike Brady… What happened? Are they both divorce?”
IR: “Both divorced, I think. That’s how I remember it anyway.”
DG: “Well, Pat sent me, like, the ChatGPT answer to this question. That’s what he’s doing at home.”
[…]
DG: “I’m like, ‘Dude, fix your leg and get back out on the road!'”
Foo Fighter’s drummer Ilan Rubin says he ‘didn’t expect’ to record an album with the band and their new record ‘came out of nowhere’
CM: “Ilan, congratulations on your first Foo Fighters album.”
IR: “Oh, thank you very much.”
CM: “How’s the new job working out for you?”
IR: “Quite well, I would say. But honestly, I didn’t expect to be recording with the band and certainly not as quickly as everything unfolded. So, it was great to come in and the next day start recording ‘Asking For A Friend.’ And then this album came kind of out of nowhere, and we got it all done really quickly. So, everything has been moving at a great pace. Especially as a new guy when you don’t know what to expect, I don’t know what to have any assumptions, so I’m kind of just going with the flow. Everything has been a great ride so far.”
Dave Grohl says that some musicians who have auditioned for the band have been so nervous they’ve locked their guitars in their case by mistake!
CM: “You auditioned for Foo Fighters, right?”
CS: “Correct. Yeah.”
CM: “I think you said when you got there, there was somebody else that was auditioning in front of you, and then you carried on with the story. Do you know who that was?”
CS: “No, but he actually… That guy came to a show when we were out with the [Red Hot] Chili Peppers. I don’t know who he was. He wasn’t, like, a guy in another band or anything that you would know. But I got there a little bit early and I sat outside, and I could hear them playing and then the music stopped. And then there was like 15 minutes of [silence]. And I was like, ‘Ah, they found the guy! The guy is in there just vibing with them.’ And then the guy came out, and I was like, ‘He ain’t getting the gig.’ And I walked in, and Dave goes, ‘You saved us – that guy wouldn’t leave!’ I was like, ‘Yeah!'”
DG: “We have people who come into audition that were so nervous that they would, like, lock their guitars in the case.”
CM: “Because they were just too…?”
DG: “And, like, have you ever locked a guitar case?”
IR: “No.”
DG: “No, because you shouldn’t. Because if you show up to the audition and you don’t have the key, you’re not getting the gig!”
Key
Dave Grohl – DG
Nate Mendel – NM
Chris Shiflett – CS
Rami Jaffee – RJ
Ilan Rubin – IR
Chris Moyles – CM
