Howard Stern discussed how classic songs written by legends like Foo Fighters frontman drive him to tears in a new New York Times interview.
That reminds me: Did you say on the air the other day that you only listen to music that bums you out?
Yeah, I’m only moved by sad music. What was that song where they mixed in B.B. King’s singing? “I’ve been downhearted babe/Ever since the day we met.”
Primitive Radio Gods.
Oh, you’re good. That song gets me. I hear that, and I start crying. “My Hero” by the Foo Fighters wrecks me. If a song sounds happy, I don’t want to hear it.
So these day-to-day things that cause you anxiety: public approval, your schmekel. Schmekel, huh?
No one uses that anymore.
I’ll annotate it. But things like that and the fact that you’re now 65 years old and aware of death — on this day, how are you handling all that?
I’m going to give you a fair assessment: I don’t know. In some ways I’ve made inroads into living a mentally healthier life. I still have a long way to go. I’m running out of time, though. All that neurosis and all that fixation on getting an audience sucks your energy out. I went through a divorce, and I don’t want that again. Beth means everything to me. My kids mean everything to me. I will tell you I feel less pressure now — not because of my age but because of therapy. I’ve realized I don’t have to hit you with a sledgehammer. It can just be a hammer.
On a March episode of The Howard Stern Show, Howard revealed that Dave Grohl’s performance of “Everlong” made him completely ‘rethink’ Foo Fighters, and that it changed the band forever from prior to the iconic 1998 performance. A MarksFriggin.com recap states:
Howard said they have been putting out new performances from musicians every Saturday on the app. Howard said they’re launching a new radio show on Saturdays on Howard 101 called Saturday Soundtrack. He said they went through the archives and they have a ton of performances. He said they created a new show out of that. Howard said they are doing it exclusively for SiriusXM unlike JD who puts stuff on Twitter.
Howard said this is Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins performing ”Everlong” in 1998. Howard said this is amazing story. He said that Dave said that they were never going to do this song acoustically and they ended up playing it on every radio station and Dave re-thought the whole band. Robin said he also says it helped make that song a hit.
Howard played the clip of Dave playing ”Everlong” acoustically. Howard said it happened just like that. Howard said he can’t stop playing it. He said you’ll hear it on Saturday though.
Howard said Dave said this acoustic version changed the direction of the band to pure rock to doing other things. He said he also says that it made the song popular again.
Howard said Dave also said he wrote the song acoustically but he had never performed it live like that.
