Dave Grohl Says Writing Each Story in 'The Storyteller' Was Like Writing a New Song

Dave Grohl Says Writing Each Story in ‘The Storyteller’ Was Like Writing a New Song

2021-10-29

Dave Grohl and Foo Fighters performing at DTE Energy Music Theatre near Detroit, Michigan.

Story by Cat Badra, photo by Ken Settle

Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl says writing his first book, “The Storyteller,” was a familiar experience, since it felt like his stories were individual songs

Dave Grohl recently released his first book, a memoir called “The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music,” and as it turns out, he says the process was much like creating an album. In a new interview with the New York Times, he explains how each story in the book felt like a new song.

“When you make a record, you have a collection of songs,” he explained. “You start recording. You start to hear the tone of the album, and then it’s a matter of finding the perfect sequence from beginning to end. That’s what happened as I was writing these stories: I started to realize what was the first song, what was the last song, what was Side A, what was Side B, what I needed, what I didn’t have, what I had too much of.”

Grohl went on to discuss how he had a excessive amount of material for the memoir and even had to cut some sections. Does that mean another book is on the way? Time will tell.

“I got 350 pages in, and I hadn’t even mentioned the Foo Fighters yet, a band I’ve been in for 26 years,” he said. “When you’re making a huge pot of chili, you could sit there pouring spices into it all day long. But at some point, you just have to stop and let it stew.”

If Grohl does release another book, chances are the interest will be there, judging by the performance of “The Storyteller.” The memoir debuted at No. 1 on the The New York Times Best Sellers list. Grohl was up against tough competition, though, as former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham released her book the same day, “I’ll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw At The Trump White House.”

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Cat Badra

Meet the expert - Cat Badra is a music writer for Audio Ink Radio and a range of other music, sports and lifestyle publications. She's a graduate of Michigan State University with a master's degree in theater and speech. Contact her at cat@audioinkradio.com.