Dave Grohl

David Eric Grohl (/ˈɡroʊl/; born January 14, 1969) is an American musician and songwriter. He founded the rock band Foo Fighters, of which he is the lead singer, guitarist, principal songwriter, and only consistent member. He first gained fame as the drummer of the grunge band Nirvana, from 1990 until the band's end in 1994.

In 1986, at age 17, Grohl joined the punk rock band Scream, replacing drummer Kent Stax. After Scream broke up in 1990, Grohl became the drummer for Nirvana. He first appeared on the band's second album, Nevermind (1991). After the 1994 suicide of Kurt Cobain, Nirvana disbanded, and Grohl formed Foo Fighters as a one-man project. After he released the album Foo Fighters in 1995, he assembled a full band to tour and record under the Foo Fighters name. They have since released 12 studio albums.

Grohl is also the drummer and co-founder of the rock supergroup Them Crooked Vultures, and has recorded and toured with Queens of the Stone Age and Tenacious D. He has organized side projects Late!, which released the album Pocketwatch, and Probot. Grohl began directing Foo Fighters music videos in 1997. He released his debut documentary, Sound City, in 2013, followed by the 2014 documentary miniseries Sonic Highways and the 2021 documentary film What Drives Us. In 2021, Grohl released an autobiography, The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music. In 2022, he and the Foo Fighters starred as themselves in the comedy horror film Studio 666.

In 2016, Rolling Stone ranked Grohl the 27th-best drummer of all time. Grohl was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of Nirvana in 2014 and as a member of Foo Fighters in 2021.

Grohl was born in Warren, Ohio, on January 14, 1969, the son of teacher Virginia Jean (née Hanlon) and newswriter James Harper Grohl. He is of German, Slovak (on his father's side), Irish, and English (on his mother's side) descent. His father, James, was a journalist and the special assistant to U.S. Senator Robert Taft Jr. James was described as "a talented political observer who possessed the ability to call every major election with uncanny accuracy". When he was a child, Grohl's family moved to Springfield, Virginia. When he was seven, his parents divorced, and he was subsequently raised by his mother. At the age of 12, he began learning to play guitar. He grew tired of lessons and instead taught himself, eventually playing in bands with friends. He said, "I was going in the direction of faster, louder, darker while my sister, Lisa, three years older, was getting seriously into new wave territory. We'd meet in the middle sometimes with Bowie and Siouxsie and the Banshees."

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.