Dave Grohl Was Ready—Will You Be?
Before he was the drummer in Nirvana, before he was the frontman of Foo Fighters, Dave Grohl was just a punk kid drummer from Virginia who loved music and wanted to make it his life.
Obsessed with music, he spent all his time learning the music of his heroes, practicing in his room, playing drums on pillows, listening to their recordings again and again. He learned directly from the recordings until he could play them all—every thundering drum roll, every crash, every hit.
He dreamed of one day getting to play with his heroes—literally dreamed about it.
As he recounts in his must-read memoir The Storyteller, he would have dreams in which one of the drummers in his favorite bands was sick and they needed a drummer right that moment.
“Wanna play drums with us?” he was asked in his dream, whereupon he proceeded to hop on stage, take the throne, and bash the living skins out of the drums in a triumphant blaze of glory and noise.
But unlikely as it might be, if a moment like this ever came in real life, would he be ready?
As it turned out, the young Grohl had not one, but two moments where he got the chance to prove his preparation. And when his shots came, he overdelivered.
The first was at an audition for the punk band Scream. At 17 years old, Dave was auditioning to replace the former drummer of the already-established band (he lied and told them he was 21). Franz, the band’s guitarist, was the only one at the audition, and from the look of him he obviously didn’t expect much from Grohl. Franz asked if Grohl wanted to play some Zeppelin.
Grohl scoffed and said, “No man, let’s play some Scream songs!” And he proceeded to play all their songs with Franz, straight from the record—every thundering drum roll, every crash, every hit—giving it his all as if his epic dream were coming true. This surprising performance led to his getting a second audition and eventually joining the band, giving him his first experiences on the road.
It was on the road that the second opportunity came. And this one was even more eerily similar to those dreams of a star needing a drummer and Dave getting the call.
“Which one of you is the drummer?” The question came to Grohl while he was killing time for a couple hours in the band’s van outside the small venue where Scream would play later that night. They had learned that before their show, a punk rock great was having an album release party.
The Godfather of Punk himself, Iggy Pop.
Grohl was then asked a question straight from his dreams: “Wanna jam with Iggy Pop?”
Yanked from the van and ushered into the venue, he was suddenly face to face with Iggy himself. “Do you know my music?” Iggy asked. This was the moment Grohl had been preparing for for much of his short life, and that day he got the chance to prove it.
Grohl recounts a surreal jam session, where he played—every thundering drum roll, every crash, every hit—with Iggy Pop. He then played that album release show with Iggy that night, and they went their separate ways.
It was Grohl’s moment, and he went to sleep that night knowing that he had been ready. He could sleep peacefully—his dreams had already come true.
Use Grohl’s story as inspiration for you as you do your work this week. You might be playing drums on pillows, dreaming of your shot, you might be on the road in the early stages of your career, or you might be the one asking up-and-comers to take their shot with you.
Today is either your moment, or another day to prepare yourself for your moment to come. The question is:
Will you do what it takes today be ready?
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