Dave Grohl had to take a crash course in learning how to become a frontman when he began life with Foo Fighters. It was never his intention to lead a band, the decision to form the group was born out of tragic circumstances, and he never expected them to grow into what they are today.
Working with Kurt Cobain in Nirvana was an apprenticeship for Grohl, even if he didn’t know it at the time. Night after night, the drummer had the best seat in the house to watch Cobain’s craftsmanship, but as a frontman, he’s always been his own man. Trying to emulate his former bandmate was too close to the bone and never of interest to Grohl.
Grohl is always trying to learn and improve, even though Foo Fighters have been going strong for almost 30 years. For Grohl, no matter what other people think, he’ll never be the greatest frontman of all time, a title he believes belongs to Queen’s Freddie Mercury.
Foo Fighters regularly covered ‘Somebody To Love’ in their live sets, with the late Taylor Hawkins doing his best Mercury impression while Grohl deputised on drums. Brian May was flattered by the cover and said to Planet Rock: “That was always a shock to me because he (Hawkins) seemed to be a lot cooler than we were. I think Taylor Hawkins single-handedly made Queen cool to a new generation. He knew everything about us… everything!”
Grohl and Hawkins thought linearly when it came to most things, and they were both in agreement about Mercury’s brilliance. The Foo’s singer believes everybody with ambitions should watch Queen’s performance at Live Aid to become a frontman and take notes of the ingredients that made Mercury a remarkable talent.
“Every band should study Queen at Live Aid,” he once said. “If you really feel like that barrier is gone, you become Freddie Mercury. I consider him the greatest frontman of all time. Like, it’s funny? You’d imagine that Freddie was more than human, but… you know how he controlled Wembley Stadium at Live Aid in 1985?”
Grohl added: “He stood up there and did his vocal warm-ups with the audience. Something that intimate, where they realise, ‘Oh yeah, he’s just a f***ing dude’.”
Some artists can feel intimidated by playing to 2,000 people, and the stage can be overwhelming for them. Still, somehow, Mercury managed to make an audience of 80,000 and the millions watching at home feel like they were in an intimate venue. It was a day which cemented his legacy and captured Mercury at the peak of his powers, shortly before he’d heartbreakingly contract HIV, which would cause his health to decline.
