-My first guest tonight is a 16-time Grammy winner.
Grammy winner!
And he is in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Well deserved.
His band Foo Fighters are celebrating more than 25 years
of making awesome music together with the release
of their new album, "Medicine at Midnight."
Listen to it now.
Here is Dave Grohl!
Oh, my goodness, Dave Grohl, it is great to see you.
Thanks so much for coming on the show.
Congrats on the new album, "Medicine at Midnight."
This just came out on Friday.
But you were going to release it last year, correct?
-Well, yeah. So, we actually --
We started recording this record like mid-2019.
And we were like,
"2020 is going to be the best year our band has ever had."
We're like, "It's our 25th anniversary.
It's our 10th record. We're going to tour the world.
There's, like, stadiums.
So let's make a party record.
Yeah, we'll make these songs that have, like, groove,
and they're going to make people bounce.
And it's going to be the stadiums --
festivals are gonna --" And then everyone went just pbht!
-[ Laughs ] -No way it's gonna happen.
And so we basically just sat on it.
We were like, "Okay, let's wait.
Let's wait for a while and see if things go back to 'normal.'"
And then after like eight months,
it was like, "Dude, just put it out!
Come on! Let's give it to the people.
Let's go." So that's it.
-How does it feel to finally have it out?
-I mean, I've never given birth before.
-[ Laughs ]
-Women hate when you compare anything to childbirth.
-Uh-huh. -But honestly, it's just like --
[ Groaning ] And they're like --
[ Mimicking crying ]
And then you just give it up for adoption, is what you do.
-I love it 'cause there's so many different sounds on this.
Someone has called it your party record.
What inspired the different sounds in this one?
Just the 25 years?
-Yeah, I mean, honestly, like,
we looked back at all of the things that we'd done.
And, you know, we've done, like, loud, dissonant,
heavy, sort of punk rock, crazy music.
And then, we've also done, like, lots of acoustic stuff,
and stuff that's more orchestrated and gentle,
and then everything in between.
But the one thing that we had never really done was make
kind of, like, you know, like a groove-oriented --
it's hard to call it a dance record.
Listen, if I say -- -No.
-If you put the word "dance" in the same sentence
as Foo Fighters,
people are like, "I think I might throw --
I think I just threw up in my mouth."
Like, "You can't do that."
-I wouldn't say it's a dance record. No.
But there are some grooves on here.
The title track is my jam, "Medicine at Midnight."
It's kind of like a Bowie,
like almost like a "Let's Dance-y" type of --
there might even be like -- [ Mimicking wood tapping ]
there's that woodblock or something happening.
You're like, "Mm! Oh!"
-It's got it in there. Well, this is the thing.
It's like, okay, so, we're roughly the same age,
grew up listening to rock bands that made albums
that you could do the Molly Ringwald dance to,
and, like, you know, albums that you could,
like, kind of get down to, like David Bowie records
or Rolling Stones records, and even long before that,
Sly and the Family Stone kind of stuff.
We were all raised on that type of music.
We never really figured that --
We never thought we would apply that to what we do.
But I was like, "Why not?" -Yeah.
-You're like, "At this point, it's like everything
I say is a dad joke, everything I wear is a dad --
they're, like, sweatpants and Crocs or whatever."
So, I'm like, "Okay, it's time to -- let's do this.
Like, I want to see a stadium doing this."
-Why not? -You know?
-No, it's such a good groove.
You know I was gonna ask you, as far as Bowie,
have you ever -- did you ever work with Bowie or meet him?
-I did.
A long, long time ago,
he had his 50th birthday party at Madison Square Garden.
I think it was like 1997 maybe.
And we were invited to play at his birthday party.
There were a lot of other artists there.
Billy Corgan from The Smashing Pumpkins was there,
Robert Smith from The Cure was there, Charles from the Pixies,
all these different artists, Sonic Youth.
And so we got to meet there.
And then not long after that, he was in Los Angeles,
and I was asked by his guitarist if I wanted to come play drums
on a song that he was recording.
So I got to record with Bowie.
I got to watch him step in front of a microphone,
do one take perfectly,
and the sound out of his mouth was David Bowie.
It absolutely blew my mind.
And then years later,
I was asked to do a song for a movie soundtrack.
They didn't want the Foo Fighters. They just wanted me.
But I didn't feel comfortable just doing a solo thing.
So I thought, "Oh, I'll do an instrumental track
and have someone else sing."
So I contacted Bowie.
And I said, "Here, listen to this thing.
Maybe you'd like to sing on it."
And time went by. I didn't hear anything.
Finally, I got an e-mail back, and he said,
"David, I like the instrumental, but this time --"
It was, like, a Marvel movie kind of thing.
He's like, "This is not really my trip,
not my genre of film and stuff.
I'd love to work with you at some point.
But I don't think this is the time."
And so I'm sitting in my living room reading this like,
"Oh, my God, David Bowie writes e-mails.
This is blowing my mind right now."
So I immediately e-mailed back something very --
I didn't want to take up more of his time.
-Yep. -So I said,
"Thanks for responding. I hope you're well. Take care."
And then one minute later he e-mails back and he says,
"Well, that's settled then.
Now [bleep] off."
-[ Laughs ] Come on. Come on!
-And I'm like, "Oh, my God. Holy crap.
David Bowie just told me to [bleep] off."
And so I e-mailed back, and I hadn't seen him
since his birthday party at Madison Square Garden.
I said, "Well, I guess I'll see you in another 15 years."
And he goes, "Not if I see you first."
-He's being funny.
-And I'm like -- Well, I didn't know that!
I was like, "David Bowie thinks I'm an [bleep]!"
And so we went back and forth until I realized like,
"Oh, he's just being funny." Whatever.
But, yes, he was an incredible guy.
And we wound up having these really funny
e-mail exchanges just out of the blue.
Like, he would e-mail me in like June and say,
"Well, happy new year."
And I'd be like, "What?"
And so then we'd go back and forth, and I'd say,
"Drink some day, yes?"
And he'd immediately e-mail back and say, "I will, thanks."
And I'm like -- I couldn't tell, you know.
I'd say, oh, like, he's on a health kick.
I'm like, "Nuts and muffins?"
And he'd e-mail back and say, "Those are my attorneys."
-[ Laughs ] -[Bleep] like that.
-Nuts and muffins.
He's brilliantly funny.
I remember I went to some event once.
And I went, and I honestly put on a --
I was such a fashion victim, but I put on a long raincoat,
like, a tan raincoat or something.
And I walked in, and I see Bowie.
It's full-on "Dancing in the Street."
Basically I'm wearing that, but I can't pull it off
because I don't have his face or anything.
So I walk in, and he's there with Iman,
and I go, "How are you?
He goes, "Raincoat? Really?"
I was like, "It's the whole thing."
It's so embarrassing. -Jimmy, oh, my God!
You know what? Listen. I just remembered.
Remember the Fourth of July at the White House?
-[ Laughing ] Oh, my God. -Remember the Fourth of July
at the White House? I just remembered this.
-I was sweating my brains out.
-I know because you were wearing a three-piece suit.
You looked like Mark Twain. I don't know.
You showed up to the White House,
and I remember we walked upstairs to meet the President,
and he's wearing, like, khakis and Izod or whatever.
And remember? He was like,
"Damn, man, you're a little overdressed for a picnic."
It was a picnic! -Totally making fun of me.
Michelle -- They were laughing at me, because you guys come in.
I see you. I go --
I'm opening up for the Foo Fighters there.
It's for veterans.
It was an outdoor thing.
I'll do a little stand-up, something.
I'm wearing a three-piece suit.
I've never been invited to the White House.
I'm freaking out. I see you. I go, "What's up?"
And you're just cool
and you're wearing, like, board shorts or whatever.
And you were like, "Yeah, dude, are you hot?"
And I go, "Yeah, I am. It's like 100 degrees."
And Taylor was like -- Dude. I think Pat was like --
You all were kind of laughing like, "Put a T-shirt on, man.
You don't have to. It's an outdoor event."
I go, "I'm fine."
And we all walked up.
You guys talked to the President
and Michelle for a while, the First Lady.
And then I got walked in, totally covered in sweat.
Sweating through my collar. It was a different color shirt.
And they both were laughing.
And Michelle was like, "Can I loosen your tie?"
And, yeah, President Barack Obama said,
"Jimmy, didn't you get the memo? It's a barbecue."
-[ Laughs ]
That's right! I remember.
But you know what? The other thing I remember is,
like, when we first got there, of course, you know,
there's Secret Service
and all this security and stuff like that.
And we're like -- It's us and a road crew.
So, like, we're like pirates, okay?
We're setting up.
And there was someone that briefed us,
and they basically said, "Here's the deal.
If anyone has to use the bathroom,
there's bathrooms over there, there's bathrooms over there.
Whatever you do, don't go pee in the bushes,
because there's people in the bushes."
We're like, "Wow!"
-It's the White House.
It's the White House. -Yeah.