Dave Grohl opens up about the loss of his mother, Virginia Grohl.
In one episode Song Exploder podcast, the Foo Fighters frontman, 54, discussed the time he spent with his mother before she died in August 2002 – just months after the band’s drummer and Dave’s longtime friend Taylor Hawkins died.
“I was with her all the time before her death,” Dave told host Hrishikesh Hirway. “Every day during that period I would write something on the guitar, because I felt that I would explode if I didn’t have that release. I would spend a day in the hospital and then try to translate it musically – without a clear intention of what I was trying to achieve. I was finding these chords and progressions that reflected the way I was feeling.”
As Song Exploder The host played a voiceover of his 2023 epic “The Teacher,” which he wrote during that time of struggle, with Dave saying he was “just wandering around the fretboard trying to find some kind of progression that made sense.”
As for the chorus line, the Nirvana alum said it’s “a good example of where I was mentally.”
“I was confused, I was conflicted and I was lost,” said the “Times Like These” singer.
Dave decided to combine two of his demos to create the song: “These two ideas were separate for me until I imagined that if I put them together, it would be more than a three or four minute song. It’s something much bigger. .. I could have a piece of music bigger than anything we’ve ever done that I could dedicate to my mother.”
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The Grammy-winning artist continued: “She was the most important person in my life. So I thought this must be the most important music I’ve ever made.”
Dave discussed that the lyrics of “The Teacher”, touching on the line “Where will I wake up?” what his mother asked him during his last days.
He went on to explain the line “Wake up” in the song’s chorus: “I think one’s immediate reaction to seeing someone die is to want to wake up, but that’s not how it works. One of my biggest fears in life is that I’m going to be gone when this happens – I’m going to hit the road, I’m not going to be there for this. I’ve been there and we’ve been there together.”
He added: “But what I realize now is that it’s not. I don’t believe that everything just stops. I really believe this is just kind of a transition.”
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Dave Grohl and Virginia Grohl.
Tara Ziemba/Getty Images
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Dave described his relationship with his mother as “best friends”.
“I was probably the only friend of mine who liked hanging out with my parent…” he said.
Dave continued: “I felt like I had to honor her, honor her with this piece of music. And then it turned into something other than a song. It’s the most important thing I’ve ever written because I wrote it for such a huge cause. ”
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Source: HIS Education