You don’t have to be a Foo Fighters fan to know that Dave Grohl likes to keep himself busy.
In the last four weeks alone, the Nirvana alumni has cropped everywhere from plugging Neil Young’s iPod-rivalling music service and a new Sound City-style doco to being earmarked for not one, but two all-star side-projects.
Namely, loaning his studio to record the debut album of the Teenage Time Killer project and The Birds Of Satan, the spin-off band from fellow Foos drummer Taylor Hawkins. All while supposedly working away on completing the eighth Foo Fighters effort.
Not a bad work rate for the 45-year-old, but as any true Grohl-aholic knows, it’s par for the course for the prolific drummer-for-hire/producer/singer-guitarist.
But if you haven’t the time (or inclination) to trawl through the extensive CV and namecheck every single cameo and guest spot Grohl has committed to since his days manning the drum stool with Nirvana, then the LA Times have got just the time-saving overview you’re looking for.
Providing a snapshot of Grohl’s collaborative career, the Times asks (and pretty much answers) ‘Is Dave Grohl the busiest guy in rock?’, with an infographic compiled by the publication’s own Raoul Ranoa, who writes: “he has collaborated with musicians from many genres as a performer, producer and sometimes both. Here are some highlights of works he collaborated on between 1991 and 2013 (each orange block represents a collaboration).”
With each of those itty bitty orange blocks representing a team-up (Tenacious D, Garbage, David Bowie, Probot, Queen, and so on) the real questions that arise is ‘does Dave Grohl ever sleep?’ or ‘has he managed to clone himself?’
Before you cry foul that the image is lacking the workaholic’s thunderous work with Queens Of The Stone Age, Killing Joke, Ghost, Sir Paul McCartney and the entire damn roster of the A-list Sound City documentary, the infographic merely spotlights some lesser known highlights across his two-decade-plus career. As any true Grohl-aholic knows, it’s par for the course for the prolific drummer-for-hire/producer/singer-guitarist
For instance, who knew about his time hammering the skins with The Stinky Puffs – a band featuring the kids of Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo and Jad Fair?
Or how about his work on mid-00s documentary Rising Son? A feature profiling the rise and fall of 80s skateboarding pro Christian Hosoi with narration by the late, great Dennis Hopper (which you can watch in full here, thanks YouTube).
Interestingly, the dense workload in recording and releasing new albums as part of his day job with the Foo Fighters doesn’t seem to affect Grohl’s output. In fact, two of his busiest years – eight collabs during the years 1995 and 2005 – directly coincide with the release of the debut Foo Fighters album (essentially a solo record) and double album In Your Honour respectively. That and last year saw Grohl keeping as busy as he’s ever been, chiefly thanks to the aforementioned Sound City rockumentary.
Speaking of which, Grohl is set to star among a similarly A-grade list of rock stars for a new doco focussing on another famous recording facility, Smart Studios, the influential Wisconsin-based digs of Nevermind producer Butch Vig. The Garbage drummer is also backing up his role as Foo Fighters producer on 2011’s Wasting Light by again returning behind the studio desk for Foo Fighters as-yet-untitled new album; a set of “KILLER new songs,” according to Vig.
See? Those games of ‘Six Degrees Of Dave Grohl‘ could go on forever…
