Simon & Schuster UK have announced they will publish The Storyteller by Grammy-winning musician, documentary filmmaker and fledgling author Dave Grohl.
Grohl has been one of the most beloved and respected figures on the international music scene since his recorded debut with Nirvana on 1991’s generation-defining Nevermind. Grohl took centre stage with Foo Fighters’ 1995 self-titled debut, the first of 10 albums in a massive 12-Grammy-winning streak, most recently including the No 1 album sales charting Medicine at Midnight. Grohl has travelled the planet doing the thing he loves most – playing rock ’n’ roll marathons for tens of thousands of ecstatic Foo Fighter fans. But when the pandemic necessitated going into lockdown, Grohl took stock of how he might use this moment of pause. Channelling his creativity into writing and using his remarkable skill for storytelling, in May 2020 he wrote a moving reflection for The Atlantic on missing the thrill of live music during the Covid era that went viral. Then, ending a longstanding self-imposed exile from social media, Grohl’s new Instagram account @davestruestories was born. This new platform became a way for Dave to share his extraordinary (and funny) stories with fans and fellow music nuts, and now Grohl is set to build upon that momentum with his first book.
Grohl’s new book is as much a celebration of music as it is about the moments that have moulded him into the man he is today. From hilarious childhood mishaps, touching family moments, leaving home to see the world at eighteen, to spectacular stories about Nirvana, Foo Fighters, David Bowie, Joan Jett, Iggy Pop, Paul McCartney, playing drums for Tom Petty on Saturday Night Live, performing at the White House, and even swing dancing with AC/DC, with all love, laughs, loss and embarrassments along the way, The Storyteller is a fascinating look at a life lived loud.
‘There is a common thread that runs throughout everything that I do: storytelling. Whether in song, documentary film or on the page, I have always felt compelled to share moments from my life. This inclination is a huge part of what excites me creatively but also as a human being.’ – Dave Grohl
Grohl has a well-earned reputation as a prolific collaborator: his various endeavours have included Cut Me Some Slack, written and recorded with Paul McCartney and Grohl’s Nirvana bandmates Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear; Them Crooked Vultures, formed with Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones and Queens of the Stone Age’s Joshua Homme, late legends David Bowie and Lemmy Kilmister of Motorhead, as well as Mick Jagger, Neil Young, Elton John, Nine Inch Nails, Roger Taylor and Brian May of Queen, to name a few.
In 2013, Grohl made his debut as a feature director/producer with the acclaimed documentary Sound City; named after the Van Nuys CA studio where Nirvana recorded Nevermind in 1991 – an album which would sell more than 30 million copies and transform the modern musical landscape. Premiering to unanimous raves at Sundance and achieving a 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating, Sound City focused both on the history of the legendary studio and on the ongoing fight to preserve the human element of music.
Grohl also directed the eight-part HBO docuseries Foo Fighters: Sonic Highways, which premiered in October 2014 and went on to win two of the four Emmys for which it was nominated. Described by Grohl as a love letter to the history of American music, Sonic Highways was comprised of eight one-hour episodes, each chronicling the creation of one song on Foo Fighters’ Sonic Highways album, each written and recorded in a different American musical landmark – Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville, New Orleans, New York, Seattle and Washington, D.C.
Pre-order Dave Grohl’s The Storyteller here
