Dave Grohl always wears his heart on his sleeve when it comes to his music, and that’s very much the case in Foo Fighters. While Grohl sat behind the drum kit in Nirvana, he became the face of the band in Foo Fighters and did everything, from singing to writing to even playing all of the instruments on the band’s debut album.
So, Foo Fighters’ music is deeply personal to Grohl, and that’s obvious when listening to any of their songs. But, one song, in particular, often stands out as the most emotional and heartfelt Foo Fighters song, and that’s “Everlong.” It’s simply a beautiful song, with dark, acoustic instrumental backings and a deep, emotive vocals.
If “Everlong” sounds emotive, that’s because it was written about something very intimate to Grohl: a relationship. While some musicians like to keep the meaning behind their music a secret, Grohl is often an open book, and he shared the story behind the track during a performance at the Oates Song Fest 7908 in 2021.
The Story Behind Foo Fighters’ ‘Everlong’
Grohl opened up about his love life in “Everlong.” According to Song Facts, Grohl penned the song about Veruca Salt vocalist Louise Post, who he was dating after breaking up with his first wife. The song is about “being connected to someone so much that not only do you love them physically and spiritually, but when you sing along with them you harmonize perfectly,” Song Facts states.
Grohl, according to Song Meanings, opens the song by declaring, “Hello. I’ve waited here for you, Everlong.” With those words, his voice instantly grabs the listener.
During his appearance at Oates Song Fest 7908 in 2021, Grohl talked a lot about the meaning behind “Everlong.” During his set, he said that the track was written “probably in the winter of 1996,” when the band was working on their second album, “The Colour and the Shape.”
“If you’ve ever been in the studio with a band for a long period of time, and you’re recording multiple songs, there’s a lot of time just sort of sitting around waiting for something to happen,” he said during the show. “In that time, I remember sitting in an isolation booth, looking out at the other guys in the band, waiting in between takes to play… and I just started playing this chord [he starts strumming his guitar]. Now, I’m not a trained musician, so I don’t know what that chord is, but I immediately thought, oh that kind of sounds like Sonic Youth.”
Then, Grohl talked about the meaning of the track, stating, “At the time I was breaking up with a girl I had been with for a while, so I was sort of in the middle of this intense emotional period. For whatever reason, the emotion or the feeling I got when I would play this succession of chords sort of touched on whatever that emotion was. So, we continued recording.”
From there, he added that “in the meantime, my relationship ended, and I was in a very difficult place. I remember, it was right around Christmas. I went back to Virginia, where I grew up, and at this point the song had sort of evolved into [plays guitar]… Because of the emotional place I was in, I started writing the lyrics to the song and they come from a real place.”
So, Grohl wanted to record the song as soon as possible, so that he didn’t forget it. He called a friend in the Washington D.C. area who was a sound engineer, and they knocked it out.
“Without having it fully formed, I just kind of went in. I put down a drum track,” he said. “I put down guitar and bass. And I sang it into a microphone for the first time. And it did seem to make sense.”
He added, “The lyric and the melody, at the time where I was emotionally, it all made sense. And I think that’s what songs should be. They should be something that not only the tone or the melody or dynamic of the instrumental, but also the lyric, match in a way that represents how you feel at that moment.” Grohl also said that when he played the track acoustically, it “gave the song a whole new life.”
Now, “Everlong” is largely considered one of the Foo Fighters’ greatest songs. The song appears on “The Colour and the Shape,” which we named as the No. 2 best Foo album of all time. Also, check out our tally of underrated Foo songs.
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