The one musician Dave Grohl called his hero: “He’s a legend”
Dave Grohl has never minced his words about the groups that shaped him growing up. Despite being born and bred in the hardcore scenes of Washington DC, he was never shy about talking about the melodic side of music, either, usually playing his Beatles and Rush records just as much as he blasted albums by Bad Brains and Minor Threat. So, when an artist somehow found a way to combine both of those sounds under one roof, Grohl knew that he was looking at a mentor when he heard Bob Mould.
Regardless of his pedigree in the indie scene, Mould was never looking to be a part of the greatest band in the world. As much as people love to listen to Husker Du these days, there are a lot more caustic listening experiences in their catalogue than many people think. There are still some incredible slices of punk goodness across every record, but if the heaviest thing someone knows is Green Day, it’s probably not the best idea to throw Everything Falls Apart at them first.
But by then, Grohl was already well into his hardcore phase after seeing Naked Raygun at a show in Chicago. Once Mould started working on more melodic music on albums like Flip Your Wig, though, it was suddenly about more than just making a bunch of noise. This was the sound of a hardcore slowly turning into a singer-songwriter outfit, and Mould led them into the next generation.
They weren’t necessarily REM with their melodies or anything, but a song like ‘Don’t Want To Know If You Are Lonely’ could certainly give The Replacements a run for their money in the alternative scene. So when Grohl finally reached the biggest heights imaginable with Foo Fighters, he wanted to return the favour by bringing Mould on for the track ‘Dear Rosemary’.
When speaking to Kerrang about working with him, Grohl talked about holding Mould in the highest esteem one could have for a musician, saying, “I’m a huge Husker Dü fan, and he’s a legend, an American hero, so I met him and said ‘I just have to thank you. I know you realise I’ve been ripping you off for 15 years, but I just have to say that you’ve influenced me so much, and I consider you a hero’. And he was really cool.”
In fact, one of the main reasons why Mould has been such an inspiration is that he never really stopped since the 1980s. Whether it was with Sugar or his own solo outfit, he has kept trying to write the next great indie rock gem, even succeeding with gems in his later years like the album Sunshine Rock.
Even Grohl knew that he didn’t want to use Mould as just a backup singer, either, eventually using the track as an opportunity to write with him since he didn’t completely finish the song’s bridge. It still sounds like Foo Fighters, but hearing Mould’s unique vocal timbre blend with Grohl’s gives the track a lot more bite.
While Grohl admitted that he tried to avoid having heroes that are larger than life when explaining the song ‘My Hero’, Mould is a good indicator of the real inspirations in his life. After inspiring legions of imitators, Mould seems to just be in it to keep fighting the good fight and writing the occasional great tune.