- I just play drums.
I just go out and have fun, and then I play drums,
and it's great, you know?
And I wouldn't have it any other way.
'Cause I mean, you know —
I don't wanna sit behind a desk all day. - Yeah.
And it's really - you know, it's kinda -
it's a dream come true, as far as that goes, but
I just don't really put too much thought into it.
- And we're going out on a boys' night out!
And secret home videos!
I'm scared.
I have a cousin, Tracy, who's two years older than me,
and we showed up to the house once,
and my aunt answered the door and said, you know,
"Oh, they're here, Tracy! Come down."
And she came down the stairs,
and she was totally punk, like —
bondage pants and chains, and
she had her hair cropped, and an Anti-Pasti T-shirt on,
and she was punk, and we were like, "Wow!"
'Cause we'd only seen that, like, on
Quincy [Street], or whatever,
and it was for-real punk, and —
so then, she took us to a bunch
of shows while we were there,
and I think I was about 12 years old.
- Did it really affect your life
when your parents split up?
- I, sort of, became more independent early on in life.
By the time I was maybe 17 or 18,
I dropped out of high school and started touring
with a hardcore band, Scream.
And —
toured America and toured Europe,
and, you know, there was no money,
and you're sleeping on floors,
and you're stealing food,
and you're just getting by playing music, barely.
- [Interviewer] So, when you took a major label
did you take the same kind of shit
that maybe Sonic Youth took or something, or —
- No, we haven't really caught it.
- I mean, everybody crucifies bands
when they sign to a major off of an independent
because they immediately think, like, "Oh, big sell out!
Big cars — big, fast."
- Yeah. - You know?
- Really took a while, like, a year and a half or more
until everything had happened,
or after everything had happened,
that I really realized, like,
"Wow! I guess we really did kind of make a difference."
So, but you hate to say that kind of stuff
because then you feel like a jerk.
- [Interviewer] You've left — Yeah.
- One era of your life behind,
you've moved up. Is that solid with you?
- Well, I mean, you don't lose it.
I mean, you don't forget about it.
It doesn't just go away,
but it's nice to know that things keep rolling,
and that there are other things to look forward to,
and all is not lost, you know?
- How far back do the songs on the album date?
- Some of them go back to 1989,
some of them, 1990.
So, half of the songs are old,
and half of the songs are from, like, '93, '94.
You know, I sat in studios, and played and recorded stuff,
and heard it in front of me,
but feeling it behind you on a stage is so different.
The first album was just me in the studio
down the street from my house.
This album is gonna be the four of us.
So there, it will sound different.
But what we've always — what I've always thought,
I've always taken some sort of pride
in making sure that every song
sounds different than the other.
So you've got a song like "I'll Stick Around,"
Then, you have a song like "Big Me,"
and you have a song — whatever.
So, the next album, there'll be a song
that sounds like "Purple Rain."
I came up with 'There's Nothing Left To Lose' —
I was talking to a friend, and
we were talking about the feeling that you have
when you've made your way through,
a long-term burden, you know?
Or if you've been committed to something for a really long time
and felt restricted by it.
You get to the point where,
instead of torturing yourself over it,
you start to, kind of, celebrate it.
And you think, "You know what? I have nothing to worry about. There's nothing left to lose."
And you, kind of, surrender to that feeling.
And all of a sudden, you feel great.
- [Interviewer] Joining me,
winners of two Grammys already tonight,
Foo Fighters — congratulations, gentlemen.
- Thank you very much.
- [Interviewer] Winner for Best Rock Album
and Best Short-Form Music Video —
was this in the career plan?
- Well, I think that we always knew
that we were, you know, Grammy-bound, but —
- [Interviewer Laughs] - No, I mean, we had no idea.
It was a great surprise, though.
None of us really thought we would win anything.
We just wanted to come and get dressed up.
- You've recorded, and now, you're
touring with Queens of the Stone Age.
You've taken the Foo Fighters album and put it back,
it was supposed to be out in July, I think?
Put it back 'til fall.
First of all, why Queens of the Stone Age?
When did you become aware of that?
- They had this band called Kyuss.
Well, the funny thing is that the future of grunge music
is now evolving from Palm Springs, California.
A band called Kyuss, K-Y-U-S-S,
which is the album of 1992.
It's called 'Blues For The Red Sun.'
Josh and Nick, the guitar player and bass player,
started a band called Queens of the Stone Age.
And they asked me to play drums on their new record,
and I said, "Sure!"
And I just thought, "God. Here, I'm fortunate enough to have the ability
to do these two things. I can play the drums,
and I can also play guitar and sing, kinda,
in this other band."
And, you know, just to be able to
exercise that option -
- It's great, man!
- Life really is good.
- It's great. Who wouldn't wanna do that?
We kinda go day by day, you know?
There are times where everyone's so burned out,
you're like, "Nah, I don't wanna do this again." Like,
"We've been touring so hard, I don't really wanna do" —
and then, like, two days later, you can't wait
to get back out on stage, or get back out on tour, and
you just kinda roll with how things feel, you know?
And you kinda make albums
as if each one is your last, you know?
You don't really see it as this big career.
We've never really seen it as a career.
I mean, it started as a demo tape.
It wasn't like a — this ambitious career move.
The whole Probot thing started out
about a year ago.
We — Foo Fighters were doing all this promotional stuff
as our album was coming out, and we were
going on TV shows, and playing "Learn To Fly,"
and then doing "Learn To Fly" acoustic,
and radio stations — then little morning rush shows,
and we were just —
everything was just focused on "Learn To Fly."
So I was just kinda itching to record something
that I was really excited about.
And I love the Foo Fighters record,
but there's a part of me that —
I've always been kinda this metalhead kid,
when I first started listening to hardcore.
I think it was right before we went
to go record 'One By One,'
which was the last record —
that's when it sorta seemed questionable. Like, you know —
"Have we expired yet? Or should we keep going?"
And we actually had a little bit of trouble
making that record. We did it once,
threw it away, and then, came back
and recorded it again, really quickly.
But that record, and all of the shows that we played
for that record, all the tours we did,
really kinda solidified the band, in a way.
Just that we went out on all of these tours, and
they were the biggest shows we'd ever done,
and the biggest audiences, and sing-alongs, and —
and that really made us realize that it was something
we didn't wanna do without.
Like, the first song on the rock record is insane!
It's like Motorhead, or something like that.
It's super heavy.
And then, on the acoustic record,
there's some songs that are really quiet, and gentle,
and delicate, and beautiful, and —
so, it really shows this wide range of sound.
- I usually don't start with, like, personal stuff,
but you're a dad, so congratulations on that.
- I'm a dad, thank you.
Yeah, so every day,
6:30 in the morning — Yeah?
- New diaper, breakfast, read, Elmo.
- [Laughs] - Nap, get her up,
put her in her day clothes,
hang out, lunch, go to the studio.
- And does that make being away that much tougher?
- Oh yeah. - The prospect of being away
for this new record, you know?
- For sure.
It really is about trying to balance
the two things in your life.
I mean, that's the most important thing to me.
I love making rock and roll music,
but the most important thing to me is my family.
So, you have to learn how to balance the two
and make them work together, in order for it to work.
You know, we're a real simple band, like,
we really don't need much. - Mhm.
- We started this band because we love playing music,
and we just wanted to have a good time.
And so, you know —
then, all of a sudden, you sell a million records.
It's like, "Oh my god! I can't believe
that just happened, that's incredible.
How can it get any better than that?"
And then,
the next record comes out. It's even bigger,
and the shows start getting bigger.
Then, you start selling out arenas.
Then, you start selling out stadiums.
- Yeah.
- And it's 10 years later, and you're like,
"Man, there is no way it can get any better
than it's already been."
And it just keeps getting —
and so, then, you get nominated for Album of the Year,
and you're just like — you can't even believe it.
What we do can be very temporary.
Things like this aren't meant to last
forever, and —
I don't know. We just do it one album at a time,
and you make a record, and you think,
"You know what? If that's the last record, I'm cool,
'cause, like, what an awesome run. That was great."
But, you know, it doesn't keep you from making another one.
You keep going.
If you really, deep down, never expected any of this
to happen, then when it actually happens,
you just kinda look at it as a joke, kind of.
Like, it's pretty funny when you think about it.
You know, like —
"Why should I be sitting here doing an interview for — like,
why would kids wanna sit here and listen to me talk
about playing music?" You know? I mean,
it's really flattering, and it's really great, but —
and it's quite an experience, but,
I mean, it just seems like,
you know, it's just show business, sometimes, to me.