Billboard recently posted an article detailing why Foo Fighters have been the most successful artist in the history of their Alternative Songs radio chart, and how they beat out Pearl Jam.
“But to highlight Foo Fighters’ steadfast competence is not to detract from them. This is, first of all, because just showing up is tougher than it seems. One of Grohl’s Seattle contemporaries, Pearl Jam, has sold 32 million albums in the United States, and their debut Ten has been certified Diamond by the RIAA. At Pearl Jam’s 1990s peak, they were a much more powerful, more thrilling band than Foo Fighters, pushing their arena-ready sound into stranger and more varied territory on albums like Vitalogy and No Code. For the past two decades, Pearl Jam has followed a similar path to Foo Fighters, reliably releasing proficient yet unflashy variations on a solid formula of guitar, bass, and drums — yet with far more modest results, particularly on alternative radio, where they’ve only scored one top five hit this decade. Pearl Jam’s stoic approach to its career seems tumultuous alongside the Foo consistency.”
Dave Grohl reacted to this news during a recent Billboard Chart Beat podcast interview. Alternative Nation transcribed his comments.
“It is an honor, and it’s hard to believe. I mean, I can think of so many other iconic, giant bands that would be considered alternative and (laughs) I don’t know why we would be number one. It’s kinda funny. Maybe it’s because we’ve been around for a quarter of a century, maybe that has something to do with it? I’m not sure…”
The host said, “It certainly helps.”
Grohl added, “I got tipped off last night and it blew my mind. I just thought, it’s a trip, it’s kind of a time warp, and then I start thinking of all of the years that’s gone by – you know, the first album, the second album, the third album, the fourth album…etc, wow people were really listening? Holy shit, Cool.”
