Dave Grohl Was Recording Himself as a Band at Age 12

Dave Grohl is rarely at a loss for words, so the Foo Fighters frontman was glad to open up to us about his early musical upbringing, recording himself as a band at age 12 and his "sh-tty job" at a furniture warehouse.

On His First Instrument
There was an old guitar in the corner that no one ever played and I finally picked it up and learned how to play “Mary Had a Little Lamb” and I thought, “I’m gonna try to this.” I just started listening and playing along to records. And then my mother bought me a Beatles songbook and I would listen to these records and play along with it and that’s where I learned everything about song structure, composition, verses, choruses and melodies.

On Early Recordings
I’ve always loved recording. Even when I was 12, I would write songs about my dog and make these demos in my house. I’d do multi-tracking at home where I’d record a guitar on a cassette and put that cassette in another player and hit play and then sing along to it. It’d be me as a whole band. I never took lessons.

On Lack of Career Opportunities
I worked a sh-tty job at a furniture warehouse and every weekend, I’d play with my band to make me want to live another week at the f-ckin furniture warehouse to then be in a band. With Nirvana, we got a record deal but we didn’t think we were going to be a huge band. We were just doing what we always did. If your foundation is just that you love to play, then all of this is f-ckin’ awesome.