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How Come Drummers Leave Their Drumsticks On The Dashboard Of Their Car? So They Can Park In The Handicapped Spaces.

-Dave Grohl

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How Come Drummers Leave

Dave Grohl

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How Come Drummers Leave Their Drumsticks On The Dashboard Of Their Car? So They Can Park In The Handicapped Spaces.

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It's Tough To Go To Sleep At Night, And I Wake Up After Five Hours Because I Feel Like I'm Wasting Time. I Just Sit Up At Night And Think About What I Can Do Next.

It's Important To Me That People Feel Connected To The Band Through The Music, You Know? I Don't Want It To Be Wallpaper. I Don't Want It To Be Background Music. I Want It To Be Clear: This Is The Song. These Are The Words. If You Feel The Same Way As I Do, Sing It As Loud As You Can.

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Mom, Thanks For Letting Me Drop Out Of High School. Haha!

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Love Of My Life

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Important Things

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A Place Like Sound City, Which Was Just A Big, Beautiful Room Where You Would Hit Record And Capture The Sound Of The Performer - A Place Like That Isn't Necessarily In Demand Anymore.

When Digital Technology Started Becoming The Norm, You've Got 50, 60, 70 Years Of Recordings On Tapes That Are Just Deteriorating. Like, A Two-inch Reel Of Recording Tape Won't Last Forever. It Dissolves. It Will Disappear.

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Always Have The Highest Bar For Yourself.

The Human Element Of Making Music Is What's Most Important.

When I Listen To Music These Days, And I Hear Pro Tools And Drums That Sound Like A Machine - It Kinda Sucks The Life Out Of Music.

Chicago Gave Me More Music Than Any Other City In America.

My Mother Was A Public School Teacher In Virginia, And We Didn't Have Any Money, We Just Survived On Happiness, On Being A Happy Family.

If You Were To Sit Me Down In A Classroom, With Fluorescent Lights Humming And Some Woman Trying To Teach Me Italian, There's No Way. But Scream Goes To Italy, We Stay In A Squat, And The Only Way You Can Ask Someone Where To Take A Piss Is To Do It In Italian. So I Learned Italian.

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If It Weren't For The Beatles, I Would Not Be A Musician.

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Always Have The Highest Bar For Yourself. Wake Up Everyday And No Matter How Crappy You Feel, Want To Change Something For The Better. Do Something That Makes Someone Happy. Create Something That Inspires Someone. Be Someone's Light When They Are Hopeless.

Make Someone Happy

We Only Do What Feels Right. If Something Feels Forced Or Contrived, Then We Pull Back. We Remain The Foo Fighters.

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I Can Understand How Some People Might Resent Me For Having The Audacity To Continue Playing Music, But It'd Take A Lot More Than That To Stop Me From Doing It. I Started Foo Fighters Because I Didn't Want To Retreat.

It’s Every Band’s Right, You Shouldn’t Have To Do F___ing Glee. And Then The Guy Who Created Glee Is So Offended That We’re Not, Like, Begging To Be On His F___ing Show… F___ That Guy For Thinking Anybody And Everybody Should Want To Do Glee.

Someone Curating Songs For You Through Your Computer Or Being Able To Hold 10,000 Songs On Your Watch - That Convenience Is Pretty Incredible, But So Is The Emotional Impact Of Holding A Beatles Record In Your Hand And Listening To Let It Be.

Some People Record Onto Tape, And Then They Pay For The Tape, And Download Those Onto A Hard Drive. Initially In A Pro Tools Program. Other People Go Straight Into Digital, And Use No Tape At All.

Be Someone's Light When They Are Hopeless.

Whenever I Say I Made A Record In The Garage, People Just Assume That I Have, Like, A Lear Jet Parked In There Or Something. But Really There's Old Luggage, A Couple Of Bikes. It's Big Enough To Put One Minivan In. That's It. No Dartboard. I'm So Not Macho.

I Owe Everything To Nirvana. But I Can't Let That Overshadow The Future. For The First Few Years, I Didn't Even Want To Talk About Nirvana. Partly Because It Was Just Painful To Talk About Losing Kurt But Also Because I Wanted The Foo Fighters To Mean Something.

I Never Needed Much, And I Never Thought I'd Get More Than What I Had. A Trip To Burger King Was The Biggest Thing In The World To Me. Heaven.

No One Has Any Faith In The Tape Anymore - Everyone Just Relies On Computers And Considers The Hardrive To Be The Safest Option, And I Don't. I Think An Analog Tape Is Something You Can Hold.

Nickelback Walks Into A Bar...there's No Punchline Because Ruining Music Isn't Funny.

As I Get Older... I Start To Realize That Life Ain't Half Bad. Each Year, I'm Amazed That I'm Still Alive. I Don't Take Any Of This For Granted, I'm A Lucky Dude.

When I Sit Down To Interview People, I Don't Hold Questions And I Don't Know The Answers. They're More Like Conversations That Become Lessons.

The Best Time For Gum Is Just Before Getting Onstage. I Need A Minty-fresh Microphone.

When You're Recording To Tape, You Usually Just Settle For What You Have. There's Not A Lot Of Options To Manipulate The Performance.

I Had Long Hair Since I Was 17 Years Old. It Was Time For Me To Let Go. I Hated Being The Guy At The Wedding In A Suit With A Ponytail.

I Think My Biggest Musical Hero Growing Up Was Probably Ian Mackaye He Set A Great Example For All Of Us Local Musicians. Still To This Day I See Him As The Best Example Of A Right-on Musician.

When You're Young, You're Not Afraid Of What Comes Next. You're Excited By It.

To Women, Drummers Seem Like These Adorable, Sexy Neanderthals, And Lead Singers Seem Mysterious And Dangerous. So While The Lead Singers All Want To Be David Bowie, Floating Into Parties And Being The Center Of Attention, It's The Drummers Who Are In The Corner Doing Keg Stands And Breaking Tables. Usually It's The Drummers Who Get The Fun-loving Ladies And The Singers Who Get The Nutcases.

I Get Confused Between The Rock And Roll Thing And My Movie Star Thing... We're F - -ing Movie Stars.

I'm Not Like A Voracious Hoarder Who Has 50,000 Albums Of Vinyl Stacked In A Storage Space In The San Fernando Valley. But I Do Have Albums From The Last 40 Years Of My Life.

Different Boards Do Different Things To The Sound That's Coming Through Them. An Old Neve Desk Does Embellish It In A Way That Makes It Sound Sort Of Bigger Or Warmer. It Doesn't Change The Performance But It Does Enhance The Way That It Sounds.

We're In This Band, The Foo Fighters, Making Music For The Love Of Music. We All Came From Bands That Had Disbanded, And We Were Drawn To Each Other Because We Missed Playing.

I Think Maybe People See Bands And Musicians As Some Sort Of Superhero Unrealistic Sport That Happens In Another Dimension Where It's Not Real People And Not Real Emotions. So, I Grew Up Listening To Beatles Records On My Floor. That's How I Learned How To Play Guitar. If It Weren't For Them, I Wouldn't Be A Musician.

Being In Nirvana Was Amazing An Experience That Will Never Happen Again For Me. And I Look On Them As Some Of The Best And Worst Times Of My Life.

Time Of My Life

Your Personal History Is A Part Of What Happens With Your Hands And Your Head As You Play Music.

Personal History

When I Was A Teenager, Working Towards Dropping Out Of High School To Starting To Tour With Bands, I'd Drive Around In My Vw Bug Every Morning Before School, Very Stoned Listening Over And Over To Zeppelin. This Song Got To Me Because It Just Seemed Mystical. There Is Something About Those Celtic Tunings That Almost Sounds Eastern. Somehow It Would Sweep Me Up Into My Own Little Trance-like State, Like Sting With Those Shamans In The Amazon. But All I Had Was A Bong And A Led Zeppelin Cassette.

Don't Look At The Poster On Your Wall And Think 'i Could Never Do That.' Look At The Poster On Your Wall And Think 'i'm Gonna Do That!'

To Me The Most Important Thing Is Getting Into A Studio And Making An Album That Is 12 Or 14 Amazing Songs, Getting Up Onstage, And Making People Happy By Livening The Rock.

Never Lose Faith In Real Rock And Roll Music. Never Lose Faith In That. You Might Have To Look A Little Harder, But It's Always Going To Be There.

I Don't Want To Say That Most Rock Bands Live These Formulaic Biography Existences - But They Kinda Do. There's Always A Divorce. There's Always An Od. There's Always A Bad Business Manager.

No One Is You, And That Is Your Power.

Who's To Say What's A Good Voice And Not A Good Voice?

I Had A Super Grover Doll Growing Up. Super Grover Was Very Clumsy, He Wasn't Very Good-looking. But In His Own Way He'd Always Save The Day.

It's A Weird Thing When You Make Records. You Try To Hear It Before You Make It, So You Walk Into The Studio With This Idea Of What You Expect To Happen, And That Usually Changes. That Usually Turns Into Something Else, And That's A Good Thing. If Everything Was As You Imagined It To Be, It Just Wouldn't Be As Much Fun.

Most Of Our Songs Were Written On Acoustic Guitar Before They Made It To The Practice Stage.

Cbgb Was A Wild Place, ... The First Time I Ever Played There Was In 1987, I Think, With My Hardcore Band, Scream. And I Remember The Craziest [thing] About That Club Was You Could Be In Front Of The Stage And It Could Be Louder Than Any Show You've Ever Been To In Your Life. But If You Were Towards The Back Of The Club At The Bar, You Could Sit And Have A Conversation With Someone. It Was The Weirdest Thing To Me.

I've Always Been A Fan Of Melody And Emotional Melancholy, Whether It Was Rites Of Spring Or Tears For Fears Or Neil Young. If I Hear A Song That Has A Sweet Melody, I'm A Sucker For It, Whether It's Linkin Park Or Little Richard.

Wow, I Get To Wake Up Again? Ok. You Have To Make Good With What You've Got.

I Don't Think Of Kurt As 'kurt Cobain From Nirvana'. I Think Of Him As 'kurt'. It's Something That Comes Back All The Time. Almost Every Day.

Being In Nirvana Was Amazing An Experience That Will Never Happen Again For Me. And I Look On Them As Some Of The Best And Worst Times Of My Life. But We're In This Band, The Foo Fighters, Making Music For The Love Of Music. We All Came From Bands That Had Disbanded, And We Were Drawn To Each Other Because We Missed Playing - We Missed Getting In The Van, Loading Our Equipment, And Watching It Break Down In The Middle Of A Show. And That Feeling Hasn't Gone Away. There's Nothing I'd Rather Do Than Make Music. It's The Love Of My Life.

Love Of My Life

Guilt Is Cancer. Guilt Will Confine You, Torture You, Destroy You As An Artist. It's A Black Wall. It's A Thief.

In This Day And Age, When You Can Use A Machine Or Computer To Simulate Or Emulate What People Can Do Together, It Still Can't Replace The Magic Of Four People In A Room Playing.

If There's One Thing I'm Good At, It's Gathering People Together To Do Something Fun.

Neil Young Is My Hero, And Such A Great Example. You Know What That Guy Has Been Doing For The Past 40 Years? Making Music. That's What That Guy Does. Sometimes You Pay Attention, Sometimes You Don't. Sometimes He Hands It To You, Sometimes He Keeps It To Himself. He's A Good Man With A Beautiful Family And Wonderful Life.

The Whole Slacker Generation Totally Didn't Apply To Us Musically.

I Taught Myself How To Play The Guitar, I Taught Myself How To Play The Drums, And I Kind Of Fake Doing Both Of Them. But Drumming Comes More Natural To Me, And It Just Feels Better.

There's A Band In A Garage Right Now Writing Songs For An Album That Will Do The Same Thing 'nevermind' Did Some 20 Years Ago. We Don't Know Who And Where, But It Will F***ing Happen Again. All It Takes Is For That Storm To Break.

One Of The Great Things About Taylor Hawkins Is His…shirtless Body, Really.

I Once Received A Cape That Was Made From The Little Purple Bags That Crown Royal Whisky Comes In.

Going Out And Playing Music - That's What I Do. I Don't Do Much Else.

At School Where You A Dunce Or A Teacher's Pet? All Of The Above. I Was Stupid So They Thought I Was Cute.

The Thing That Will Never Go Away Is That Connection You Make With A Band Or A Song Where You're Moved By The Fact That It's Real People Making Music. You Make That Human Connection With A Song Like 'let It Be' Or 'long And Winding Road' Or A Song Like 'bohemian Rhapsody' Or 'roxanne,' Any Of Those Songs. They Sound Like People Making Music.

A Lot Of People From My Generation Of Music Are So Focused On Playing Things Correctly Or To Perfection That They're Stuck In That Safe Place.

I Love Black Sabbath. They Made An Amazing Contribution To Music Today. Almost Every Band That Made It Big In The Nineties Owed A Debt To Them.

For Every Foo Fighters Record, We've Had Two Or Three Beautiful, Acoustic-based Songs, But They Never Usually Make Their Way To The Record, Because We Want To Make Rock Records.

I'm Not Into Albums That Are Meant To Sound Perfect.

At 13 Years Old, I Realized I Could Start My Own Band. I Could Write My Own Song, I Could Record My Own Record. I Could Start My Own Label. I Could Release My Own Record. I Could Book My Own Shows. I Could Write And Publish My Own Fanzine. I Could Silk-screen My Own T-shirt. I Could Do This All Myself.

I Was At A New Year's Eve Party, And Someone Asked Me How Was My Year, And I Said, 'i Honestly Think 2011 Was The Best Year Of My Entire Life,' And I Actually Meant It.

You Will Only Be Great At Things You Love To Do Don't Pursue A Career In Something You Hate To Do.

Things You Love

And Later, If I Ever Felt That I Was Getting Swept Away By The Craziness Of Being In A Band, Well, I'd Go Back To Virginia.

From One Generation To The Next, The Beatles Will Remain The Most Important Rock Band Of All Time.

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Allison Pearson

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