Musicians - Dave Grohl

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	Musicians - Dave Grohl

David Eric Grohl (born January 14, 1969, in Warren, Ohio) is an American rock musician. He was the drummer of the grunge band Nirvana from 1990 until the band dissolved in 1994 after frontman Kurt Cobain's death. He formed the Foo Fighters in 1995. Grohl began his music career in the 1980s as the drummer for several Washington, DC area bands, most notably the punk rock band Scream.

Early life

When Grohl was a young child, his family (father James, mother Virginia, and an older sister) relocated from Ohio to Alexandria, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, DC. Three years later, his parents divorced, and Grohl grew up living with his mother.

At the age of twelve, Grohl began tinkering with the guitar. He started with lessons, but eventually grew tired of them, and began to play in bands with friends. A year later, a summer stay at his cousin's house spawned Grohl's interest in punk rock. Grohl's cousin Tracy took him to numerous punk shows during that summer, and Grohl returned to Alexandria as a convert.

Over the next several years, Grohl played in several local bands, including a stint on guitar in a band called Freak Baby. At the same time, he had been teaching himself to play drums by banging on various items in his bedroom. When Freak Baby kicked out its bass player, Grohl decided to switch to drums, and the new band coined itself Mission Impossible. He later joined a hardcore/post-punk band called Dain Bramage. During his developing years as a drummer, Grohl cited John Bonham as his greatest influence, and eventually had Bonham's three-circle logo tattooed on his wrist.

Scream

At the age of sixteen, Grohl scored an audition with local DC favorites Scream to fill the vacancy left by the departure of drummer Kent Stax. To Grohl's surprise, the band asked him to join. After waffling for a brief period, Grohl accepted the offer. Not long after, he dropped out of high school to play drums full-time. Over the next four years, Grohl toured extensively with the band, recording a couple of live albums and one studio album, Fumble, on which Grohl penned and sang vocals on the song "Gods Look Down".

While playing in Scream, Grohl became a fan of The Melvins and eventually befriended the band. During a 1990 tour stop on the west coast, The Melvins' Buzz Osborne took a couple of his friends, Kurt Cobain and Chris Novoselic, to see the band.

Nirvana

A few months later, Scream unexpectedly disbanded following the departure of its bass player, and Grohl placed a phone call to Osborne for advice. Knowing how much Cobain and Novoselic liked Grohl's drumming, Osborne gave Novoselic's phone number to Grohl. Novoselic invited Grohl up to Seattle, where Grohl attended Nirvana's infamous show at the Motor Sports Garage, the one Nirvana show that featured Dan Peters on drums. (Grohl admitted to Rolling Stone in 2005 that he spent most of Nirvana's set outside talking to a friend.) Grohl subsequently auditioned for the band, and soon joined the band full-time.

At the time that Grohl joined Nirvana, the band had already recorded several demos for what would be the follow-up to their debut album Bleach, having spent time recording with producer Butch Vig in Wisconsin. Initially, the plans were to release the album on Sub Pop, but the band found itself receiving a great deal of major label interest based on the demos. Grohl spent the initial months with Nirvana travelling to various major labels as the band shopped for a deal, eventually signing with DGC Records. In the spring of 1991, the band entered the studio to record the album.

Upon its release, Nevermind exceeded all expectations and became a massive success, catapulting the band to worldwide stardom. At the same time, Grohl found himself fighting with his status in the band. While his drumming style was a significant element in the band's success, Grohl saw himself as just another in a long line of drummers. In his mind, Nirvana was the band that recorded Bleach; his arrival had altered that sound dramatically, and, as he saw it, not necessarily in a positive way. Though Grohl had been writing songs for several years, he declined to introduce his songs to the band for fear of damaging the band's chemistry. Instead, Grohl compiled his songs and recorded them himself, releasing a cassette demo called Pocketwatch in 1992 on indie label Simple Machines. Rather than using his own name, Grohl released the cassette under the pseudonym "Late!".

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Musicians - Dave Grohl

Early life

Scream

Nirvana

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