Dave Grohl has revealed to us mere mortals the pre-show drinking ritual he undertakes before he goes on stage at every Foo Fighters show.
If you’ve ever seen the Foo Fighters perform live, you’d be well aware of the stunning show they put on. Energetic, powerful, and full of the riffs and choruses that we’ve been humming and singing for decades now.
Over the years, we’ve heard a bit about the band’s backstage antics. We’ve seen their infamous colouring-book rider, and now we’ve heard about the totally wild ritual that Dave Grohl undertakes before each and every show.
In a recent interview with California’s KLOS 95.5 radio station (via Alternative Nation), Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins hit the airwaves to discuss what it’s like being in one of the biggest rock bands in the world.
However, one one of the hosts started on the topic of drinking before the show, Dave Grohl remarked how he starts drinking a full hour before the show. “Really? Should I tell people how to do it?” he asked drummer Taylor Hawkins. “Not how to do it. How you do it,” Hawkins replied.
“Kids, stay in school – don’t do drugs,” Dave Grohl began. “An hour and a half before the gig, I take three Advil. An hour before the gig, I have a Coors Light. About fifty minutes before the gig, I hit my first Jäger. I finish the Coors Light, get another Coors Light going, now there’s a bunch of people around. So I’m throwing shots at everybody and I’m taking shots with everyone in the room.”
“The next Coors Light’s down, I got a cold one,” he continues. “Now it’s about maybe twenty minutes before going on, I’ve maybe had three or four shots of Jäger and three Coors Lights. Then they sort of clear the room and we get the fifteen minutes to ourselves…”
“This is bad, I’ve done this every night for the last year and a half. That’s why I’m not scared of the Lord. I’ve seen worse.”
“So then like fifteen minutes before we’re like, ‘We need our privacy’. Which is such bullshit, we totally don’t,” Grohl continued. “So then, it’s all of us and I feel guilty because I’m the only one who’s been doing the shots of the Jäger so I start feeding shots of Jäger to the rest of the band who are all drinking white wine and champagne and whatever.”
“So I’m pounding them with Jäger but I have to take them with them, so now I’m five or six shots in. And it’s like it’s time to walk to the stage so I crack another beer just to have a cold one as I walk up and I pick up the bottle and drink the last inch of the Jäger! And then we play for three hours.”
While we’re amazed that a human can drink so much before three hours of work, we’re even more amazed that Dave Grohl can drink so much and still deliver an absolutely amazing performance.
Although our livers hurt at the sheer idea of this pre-show ritual, it does happen to explain both the band’s decision to open a pub in London, and their exclusive ‘Foo Town’ beers they brought down to Australia recently.
Check out the Foo Fighters’ ‘All My Life’:
