Dave Grohl on the time he found his mum drinking beers with Green Day: “She’s very cool!”
Dave Grohl has opened up on the time he found his mum, Virginia, necking beers with Green Day.
The Foo Fighters frontman was co-hosting The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Monday (May 24) to promote his new TV series From Cradle To Stage.
The series sees Grohl teaming up with Virginia to explore the close bond between famous musicians and their mothers, with appearances from the likes of Imagine Dragons‘ Dan Reynolds and his mother, Christine Reynolds and Pharrell and his mum, Dr. Carolyn Williams.
Opening up on his own experiences with his mum, Grohl recalled how he began to take his mum on tour after she retired from 30 years as a public school teacher.
“My mother was a public school teacher for 30 years, and when she retired, I was like, ‘Mom, don’t do that cruise ship thing,’” Dave told Fallon.
“I was like, ‘I’ve got a cruise ship – it’s a tour bus! Let’s go!’ And she started going on tour with me. I gave her a laminate and she would just go and hang out, and I’d be onstage playing and then get offstage and be like, ‘Where’s my mom?!’ and she’d be drinking beers with Green Day upstairs and hanging out – she’s very cool!”
He added: “But when she was on tour she was like, ‘Where’s all the other moms?’ So she went to go find these mothers to interview them and talk to them about what it’s like to raise a musician. In the book she talked to Dr. Dre and Mike D and she talked to Pharrell’s mom, Zac Brown’s mom, Miranda Lambert’s mom…”
You can watch the highlights of Grohl’s appearance on the show below – including playing ‘Off Songs, Song Off’ with Fallon, and adding his own jokes to the host’s monologue.
Earlier this month, Foo Fighters secured entry into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, alongside the likes of alongside Jay-Z, Todd Rundgren, Tina Turner, The Go-Go’s and Carole King.
“I just recently realised it’s been half my life since I’ve been in this band,” Grohl said of the honour.
“I feel, in a way, that I’ve almost neglected how much we’ve done in the past 25 years. I think because I’m always working in a forward motion, I don’t spend too much time sitting down and looking back at what we’ve done or reflecting on our past achievements. I just kind of look forward to the next thing. So today has been a bit more reflective than before.”