Dave Grohl explains why he doesn’t drum and sing at the same time

It’s no secret that Dave Grohl is a musical jack of all trades. The legendary rocker cut his teeth drumming in Nirvana before transcending to a fully-fledged frontman with Foo Fighters.

During a recent appearance on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, Grohl explained his decision to ditch the drums and pick up the axe after Nirvana.

When asked by Fallon whether Grohl ever considered playing drums and singing à la Don Henley of the Eagles, Grohl highlighted the practical impossibilities of the feat.

“First of all, only Don Henley could do Don Henley. The hardest part is the mic stand, I gotta be honest. You either got the one that comes up and around like this [gestures over his head], you got the McDonald’s mic… it’s practically impossible. There aren’t too many people that can really pull that off.”

Grohl went on to explain why he opted to chose the guitar as his weapon of choice for the Fooeys,  “So I thought, one of the reasons why I wanted to do this is because I had never done it before, stand with a guitar. At first, I felt like I was in a Chuck E Cheese band, I was just like, ‘Oh God, how do I move, what do I do? How’s my hair?’ Over time, you just get used to it.”

Dave Grohl appeared on The Tonight Show in promotion of the latest Foo Fighters record, Medicine At Midnight, which was released last week. The appearance saw the band deliver a blistering rendition of the album’s single ‘Waiting on a War.’

Check out Foo Fighters perform ‘Waiting on a War’ on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wVGlvWFpjg&feature=emb_title&ab_channel=TheTonightShowStarringJimmyFallon

We say down with The Foo Fighters to discuss their tenth record track-by-track, you can read what they had to say about it here.

Get unlimited access to the coverage that shapes our culture.

Subscribe to Rolling Stone magazine

Subscribe to Rolling Stone magazine