the storyteller tales of life and music book review

Grohl needed to get away to a place that he connected with 'in a way I had with no other part of the world' and where else would that be except the Ring of Kerry

From there on in, he took life by the ears and steered it in an onwards and upwards direction. Under her experienced teacher maxim of “school isn’t for everybody” (and with his award-winning journalist and staunch Republican Party father’s parting words of “stay off the drugs!” ringing in his ears), Grohl joined punk band, Scream, in 1987. Where he was blessed was that his part-Irish mother, Virginia (“a very tolerant woman”), knew him well enough to allow him, at 17, to drop out of high school. Some might say luck was always in his favour, but everyone knows that if you don’t take those incremental steps to put yourself into a position where you get noticed then nothing will happen. In what seems like a charmed life, Grohl was at the right place at the right time. He is then asked another question: “Wanna play drums with Iggy Pop?” In one particular instance in June 1990, parked outside a small venue in Toronto, waiting for a record company showcase gig by Iggy Pop to finish so that he and his fellow band members in Scream can load in their equipment and play their gig, Grohl decides to answer in the affirmative.

The inquiry, he writes, is followed, “more often than not… by either handcuffs, a subpoena, or a swift punch in the teeth”. If Dave Grohl has learned one thing in his career as a professional touring musician, he tells us in his overly upbeat autobiography, is that nothing good ever comes from being asked the question: “Which one of you is the drummer?”

The storyteller tales of life and music book review