My November selection is The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by Dave Grohl.
Grohl is a musician, singer, director, and songwriter. He was the drummer for Nirvana and is the singer, guitarist, primary songwriter, and founder of the band, Foo Fighters. Both bands have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He’s also associated with the bands Scream, Them Crooked Vultures, Mondo Generator, and Queens of the Stone Age.
I started reading this book the morning of my surgery. After six hours in surgery and being moved to ICU (from recovery) as a precaution, I picked it up that afternoon and started reading again. It’s that good. I finished reading it in three days despite constant interruptions. As a side benefit, reading Grohl’s memoir upped my coolness points with my young nurses.
One of my favorite things about this book is Grohl didn’t use a ghost writer. He wrote it on his own terms, stopping to reminisce at different points instead of sticking to a strict timeline. Many artists describe seeing the world in colors. Grohl sees his world in musical tones with the precision of a drummer and the intricacy of a guitarist. “Like colorful building blocks stacked upon each other, music became something that I could ‘see,’ a neurological condition known as synesthesia, where when one sense is activated (hearing) and another unrelated sense (vision) is activated at the same time.” (Page 65).
Grohl writes about growing up in Springfield, Virginia with his mother and sister after his parent’s divorce. His mom, Virginia, was a public-school teacher and the Grohl’s lived modestly. Virginia was generous with her time and supported her children emotionally as well as financially. She always made sure their needs were met, and she taught them how to be independent and creative. When Grohl wanted to learn to play the drums, he knew she couldn’t afford to buy him a set, so he created him own drum kit using pillows and he played along to his favorite musicians until he perfected his craft.
Unlike many performers, Grohl had a happy childhood. He praises his mom for allowing him to pursue his dreams and their relationship is inspiring. It’s touching to read about the love between mother and son and equally heartwarming to read about his relationships with his daughters.
At 17, Grohl was offered the opportunity to play drums for Scream on a national tour, but it meant quitting high school. It was a tough decision for Virginia. As a teacher and parent, she believed in the importance of education and wanted her son to graduate and go to college. She saw students succeed. Some of her students who dropped out struggled to find decent paying jobs. Other students tried to stick it out, but never graduated. She knew her son struggled with traditional school, not because he wasn’t intelligent, but because he had already found his passion for music and had no interest for anything else. She could say “no” and watch his grades continue to deteriorate until he turned 18 and could legally leave school without her consent. She could say “yes,” believe in her son, and support his seemingly impossible goal of becoming a successful professional musician.
Ultimately, she put her faith in her son’s talent and determination. Grohl’s father disowned him for several years after he left school.
Scream had a decent fan base on the East Coast and were well liked, but they weren’t financially set. They toured jammed into a van with their instruments and amplifiers often sleeping in the van or in seedy motels or crashing at other musicians’ homes. It was a shock for Grohl, but his love of music kept him going.
For every story you’ve read about the glamorous lives of rock stars there are hundreds of other stories and Grohl is brutally honest about life on the road. There is a rhythm and rhyme to his remembrances that is contagious. He makes the reader feel the highs and lows of his profession.
He speaks candidly about his time with Nirvana, his friend Kurt Cobain, the drugs that were so easy to get, and dealing with sudden success after so many years of struggle. I cheered for him, and I cried with him. I felt like he had invited me along on his journey where black and white, right, and wrong, often blurred in the fight to survive.
I particularly enjoyed reading about Grohl’s relationships with his three daughters, Violet, Harper, and Ophelia. Despite world tours and the tremendous time commitment of writing, producing, and practicing with Foo Fighters, he still manages to make family his top priority. He writes about flying from Australia to Virginia to attend Harper’s first father/daughter dance, flying back to Australia hours after the dance, getting food poisoning, but still performing, so he wouldn’t disappoint his fans.
The Storyteller is honest, powerful, and inspiring. It contains stories about childhood friends who became lifelong friends, meeting his idols who would also become his friends, and the musicians and bandmates who have become his brothers.
There are many memoirs out there to read and enjoy, but few that actually have the power to take your breath away. This book did just that, and I have proof because I was hooked up to an O2 monitor. Sometimes I became so engrossed in the story, I held my breath setting off the monitor multiple times alarming my nurses. My apologies to my wonderful nurses in the West Penn Hospital ICU, but I don’t know if you can give a book higher praise than that.
(1) Dave Grohl | The Storyteller - YouTube
Photo of Dave Grohl:
By Raphael Pour-Hashemi - FoosDublin210819-2, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=94161124
Book Jacket:
https://www.davegrohlstoryteller.com/ used for the benefit of our readers with no intention of copyright infringement.