Dave Grohl discussed how Foo Fighters protect their mental health, especially in the wake of Chris Cornell and Chester Bennington’s deaths, in a new Irish Times interview.
The cheery Grohl becomes more sombre when he speaks about his emotional wellbeing post-injury. Given the recent suicides of his peers Chris Cornell and Chester Bennington – and his own experience with the loss of his Nirvana bandmate Kurt Cobain – I ask him if Foo Fighters have any practices in place to safeguard their mental health.
“Well, y’know, we’ve been together now for 22 years, so we know each other like we’re brothers,” he says.
“We’ve always been really good at knowing when to stop, and keeping each other in check and making sure that everyone’s okay. It’s hard. Every one of those tragic situations has their own set of complexities, and the most we can do as a band is just show each other love. I mean, I love Pat Smear just as I would love one of my own family members.
“We’ve been through funerals and weddings and divorces and lawsuits and Glastonburys and band tours – we have a lot of history together. Taylor Hawkins: I mean, he and I are joined at the f**king hip. All I have to do is look in his eyes to know if anything is going on. I wish every band had that same feeling – I hope many do – but this band, we all feel very fortunate for what we have.
“We still, to this day, can’t believe the level of success that we’ve achieved. The last tour, where the audiences were bigger and louder than ever, we actually sat after a gig one night looking at each other and said ‘I don’t know if we deserve this’,” he chuckles.
“We just feel unworthy a lot of the time. But we definitely cherish what we have, there’s no question.”
