51 pages • 1 hour read
Dave GrohlThe Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Music Within the Musician
Grohl asserts that he was born with music in his DNA. Like his mother before him and his children after, Grohl’s life has been shaped by music and the gifts that it brings. Music provides a person with inspiration, comfort, a sense of belonging and understanding, and emotional richness. Grohl explains what music is to him when he writes, “Music had always represented light and life to me” (173). Grohl’s first chapter discusses his conception of music as part of the person. As his daughter learns to play the drums, he sees himself in her and remembers how his musical awakening was the most natural and inevitable thing he could have experienced as a child. Watching his daughter, Grohl believes “this wasn’t divine intervention. This was flesh and blood” (20).
The person that Grohl is today, the values he holds, and the people he loves are all connected to music. The musicians that Grohl grew up listening to, such as the Beatles and Naked Raygun, sent Grohl on an unpredictable journey as a professional musician. Grohl holds a special place in his heart for each musician who has inspired him over the years with their songs, their passion for life, and their ability to hold true to themselves. Of these heroes, he writes, “[i]n some way, I have been shaped by each and every note I have heard them play. Memories have been painted in my mind with their voices as the frame” (314). Their influence takes on an embodied form when Grohl meets them in the flesh, and he is humbled by each new experience.
Grohl recounts watching his daughters grow up and each develop their love of music. When his eldest daughter Violet was small, she sang in perfect time to songs by the Beatles and Queen. As she got older, “that spark eventually became a wildfire, and music became her life’s divining rod” (19). Soon, she formed a band with some classmates, at a much younger age than Grohl ever had. This “genetic symphony” (19) that exists within Grohl and his family is something he dearly appreciates and enjoys watching unfold in his children. Each time his children delve further into music, eventually sharing their talents with the world, Grohl is inspired all over again. Grohl observes similar responses to his bandmates over the years, as each seems to have the gift of music within them in their own unique way, and that “it is something divine that only the universe can create” (67). Grohl grew up studying the lives and art of musicians he admires and feels that for most musicians, there is a pivotal age around 12 or 13 when they decide whether they are going to walk down the risky and rocky road of music. Above all, he insists that “this is something that comes from the inside out” (19), and that a musician’s connection to the music within them is inevitable.
People Inspiring People
One of Grohl’s mantras and a theme that he instills throughout his memoir is the fact that people inspire people. Grohl has been inspired by people his entire life, from the music they make to the strength of character they show. Grohl has been surrounded by musically-inclined people since he was born, beginning with his mother. She was especially fond of jazz, and she and Grohl regularly visited a local jazz club to bond and share their love of music. Grohl was not only inspired by his mother’s love of music, but also by her love and support for him and his dreams. Grohl has always been able to call his mother in times of need, and she is always there with wise words and comfort for her son. She also inspired Grohl to become a loving and dependable father. Ironically, the absence of Grohl’s father further propelled Grohl’s motivation to be a good dad. It’s not just good actions that inspire good actions; we can be inspired to do good by other people’s bad actions as well. There is something to be taken from every interaction.
Grohl’s musical discovery and career were inspired by a wide array of musicians and genres. His first loves were popular groups like the Beatles and AC/DC, but he soon discovered punk music thanks to his cousin, and his musical world was split wide open. He resonated with the wild rebelliousness in punk music and wanted to exhibit that in his own drumming and songwriting. The bands that Grohl has played in over the years, including Scream, Nirvana, Queens of the Stone Age, Foo Fighters, and Them Crooked Vultures, each contained their own unique mix of members and personas, all of whom had an impact on Grohl. Grohl was especially affected by his relationship with and admiration for Kurt Cobain, whom he views as a rare gem crushed by the weight of stardom. Grohl also gleans inspiration from the audiences he plays for, feeding off their energy at each show and remarking on how important and special his fans are to him. Grohl’s courage as a musician is balanced by his humble nature, and Grohl remains an awestruck fan whenever he is in the presence of someone who inspires him, explaining that each time he “come[s] face-to-face with something or someone that has inspired me along the way, I am thankful, I am grateful” (314).
Aside from music and his mother, Grohl has one other key inspiration: his children. Grohl’s three daughters shape the person that Grohl continues to grow into, and he is inspired by their uniqueness, courage, and strength every day. Grohl’s fear of performing at the Academy Awards was quelled only by his eldest daughter Violet, who reminded him of the importance of courage in music. Grohl notes the risk and vulnerability involved in being a musician, saying, “The courage to bare your innermost feelings, to reveal your true voice, or to stand in front of an audience and lay it out there for the world to see” (355). This is perhaps the defining feature of live musical performances, as bearing witness to someone partaking in such an honest state of being is inspirational in and of itself.
The Moments That Change One’s Life Forever
Grohl’s memoir is structured as a series of moments that change his life forever and come to define who he is and the type of music he creates. Grohl recounts stories of physical and emotional scars, friendships and deaths, discoveries, and sacrifices. The impacts of all of these are what Grohl describes as “a forever thing” (132). Although this theme exists within each memory Grohl recounts, he also devotes an entire chapter to exploring the idea. He prefaces the chapter with a memory of getting his John Bonham wrist tattoo, noting the permanence of the decision and the way it will now follow him for the rest of his life. Grohl recounts similarly physically scarring experiences, such as the time he was whacked in the head with a golf club, or when he broke his foot on stage and continued to play.
Grohl’s time with Nirvana was one of the most special and permanently affective times of his life. Not only was Grohl changed forever by his friendships with Kurt and Krist and by the fame they amassed together, but Nirvana also influenced an entire generation of music and people. Nirvana’s music “spread like wildfire” (153) and continues to inspire artists and listeners today. Just as the rise of Nirvana shaped Grohl as a person, so too did its fall. When Kurt fully succumbed to his heroin addiction and died soon after, the band finished even more quickly than it began. Grohl’s grieving process was long, dark, and lonely as he spent a year unable to revisit those memories. Now, Grohl is able to look back on his time with Nirvana with fondness and is proud of being a part of something that happens only once in a generation, stating that “a relatively small window of time in the chronology of my life, shaped and in some ways still define who I am today. I will always be ‘that guy from Nirvana’, and I am proud of it” (185).
Life for Grohl is likewise changed by the people who inspire him, including his children, the musicians he admires, and the ones he knows. He is also shaped by his enormous performance history. Discovering punk music with his cousin led to Grohl eventually joining Scream and touring the world for the first time, developing independence, finding freedom, and learning who he wanted to be. Grohl describes the moment he received a phone call about auditioning for Nirvana as another which changed his life forever. While many of these moments were major, such as the birth of his children or performing for President Bush, Grohl also feels shaped by the littler things, like living in a van or seeing an AC/DC movie for the first time:
It takes a certain type of person with a certain type of disposition to survive months in what seems like a miniature submarine with wheels, but if you can take it, it becomes a formative experience that you will forever rely on for life perspective (87).
Many of Grohl’s experiences still feel surreal to him, and he awaits the next great moment with anticipation and excitement.
