While Dave Grohl and Foo Fighters are rich and successful now, they had their days where they had to scrape by with regular jobs to pay the bills. Chris Shiflett revealed what he would do when he ran out of money in a new interview when asked if it’s tougher now for new artists to make it. Dave Grohl took a brutal shot at American Idol recently.
Shiflett told Rock Cellar Magazine, “I think it’s harder. For me, when I first was touring and making records with this other band called No Use For A Name in the mid ‘90s, we were on an indie punk rock label and they wouldn’t give you tour support, they would give you all the CDs you wanted and you would take those CDs and sell them at your shows and that was pretty much like de facto tour support; that an t-shirts was how we survived. (laughs)
The fact that you don’t have physical album sales to fall back on for young bands, I imagine it’s a lot harder. The world is a more expensive place and wages haven’t gone up for forever for people and everything’s more expensive. It’s not like it wasn’t hard work back then, but I was always able to get more jobs pretty easily when I ran out of money in my twenties. I’d come home from tour and maybe a few months later I’d run out of money and I’d get a job in a pizza store or a coffee shop.
It’s not like I was getting rich but I was getting by and enjoying myself and surviving doing music felt more attainable. I was working most of the time as a musician. I’m not 23 anymore, so I don’t know what that feels like for a young musician just starting out but it seems like it’s harder now.”
Dave Grohl revealed how the John Lennon song “Imagine” could bring the world together at a recent Bird and the Bee concert, before starting to sing the Van Halen classic “Jump” over it. A crazy Dave Grohl, Madonna, and Pearl Jam story was revealed a few days ago.
Alternative Nation transcribed Grohl’s remarks from the show in Los Angeles last week
“You might not imagine that a drummer like me would play with a band like the Bird and the Bee, but I think herein lies the message. It’s a message of togetherness and love and hope and appreciation and kindness to one another, musically and otherwise.
And so I thought it would be appropriate to throw this song in the middle of the set just so that we can all celebrate that same love and appreciation, and togetherness, with a song of hope and love, and peace.” You can see video of Grohl’s performance and speech here.
