Saying 'no' is 'one of the best lessons I ever learned,' Dave Grohl says
host Leigh Sales, “all of that feeling coming down to Earth, realizing, ‘Oh, my God, what a gentleman! What a brilliant, sweet, kind, outrageously funny person.’ And then I recorded a song with him. This [was] years ago, and watching him step in front of a microphone and begin to sing and you realize, ‘Wow, that voice – that’s real, that just comes out of his mouth, that iconic voice.’
“The great thing about it is that it really humanizes everything. We’re like, ‘Wow, that’s a real person.’ It’s reassuring, but at the same time, you’re like, ‘That’s a hero.’ That’s not just another person. That’s David Bowie.” Sales also quizzed Grohl about his experiences with Elton John and Paul McCartney; growing up with regular “teenage insecurities”; learning drums by beating pillows; his mom, the teacher and author Virginia Grohl; and the trick to staying grounded when life is up in the clouds.
“All of that other stuff is kind of an illusion, the television stuff, the platinum records,” he continues. “They’re flattering rewards, but ultimately the real stuff is over, then whenever that becomes too much, you just go that way. One of the biggest lessons in all of this, for any young artist, if they come to the point where their life is complicated by that other stuff …you just say ‘no.’ It’s all you have to do. It’s one of the best lessons I ever learned.