Scour the world of music and you will struggle to find someone as dedicated to the history of rock as the Foo Fighters’ leading man. To put it simply, Dave Grohl is an expert on classic rock.
A lifelong fan of everyone from The Beatles to Rush, there’s a reason why he is regarded as one of the last true rock stars, and that’s because he learnt his tricks from some of the best in the business. Grohl is about as dedicated a disciple of the deity of rock music as one could hope to meet.
Whether it be the fact that John Lennon influenced his songwriting or that his early forays into drumming were inspired by the likes of Ringo Starr and Neil Peart, without the most distinguished classic rock bands, it is certain that Dave Grohl would not have become the world-beater that we all know and love today.
While he has waxed lyrical at many points over the years about outfits such as The Beatles, Rush, Led Zeppelin and more, there is another act from this era that had a transformative effect on his creative vision: the New York legends Kiss. The make-up-loving, theatrical ghols of hard rock have become a pastiche in modern times, often owing to their magnanimous commercialisation, but this also meant that their message was spread quickly.
The band operated differently to other groups. They were on lunchboxes and cereal boxes, they were on TV and the radio, Kiss were everywhere, and they pushed their hard rock-loving agenda whenever they could. It transpires that Kiss’ 1976 record, Destroyer, had a life-changing impact on Grohl, altering the course of his life for the better.