Foo Fighters frontman and former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl turns 40 years old on Wednesday (January 14th). Born in Warren, Ohio, Grohl grew up mainly in the Virginia area and started playing at a young age in several Washington, D.C., hardcore and punk bands, most notably Scream. While playing in Scream, Grohl became friends with Melvins frontman Buzz Osborne, who came to see the band play at a West Coast show in 1990 and brought his friends Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic from Nirvana. Both were impressed with Grohl's drumming, and when Grohl called Osborne for advice a few months later after Scream disbanded, Osborne gave Grohl Novoselic's number.
Novoselic invited Grohl to come to Seattle and audition for the group. He joined in late 1990 and entered the studio with the band in the spring of 1991 to record its second album, Nevermind. The album, boosted by the anthemic single "Smells Like Teen Spirit," became a worldwide phenomenon, opening the way for the grunge and modern alternative rock movements and making Nirvana into superstars.
Following the death of Cobain and the end of Nirvana in April 1994, Grohl took a few months off to consider his next move. He ended up recording a 15-song demo, almost entirely by himself, that was released in July 1995 as the self-titled debut from Foo Fighters. Recruiting three other band members -- the lineup would change a few times -- Grohl took Foo Fighters on the road and launched the band's own path to success.
Grohl told us several years ago that he was nervous about becoming the lead singer in his own band: "When the Foo Fighters started playing, it was scary, because singing upfront with a guitar in your hand and having everyone stare at you as the lead vocalist is a lot different than just chiming in backup vocals when you're behind the drums. So I was nervous, and actually when recording the first Foo Fighters record, I had never belted it out in the studio before, so I didn't know what my voice sounded like."
Foo Fighters has released a total of six studio albums, including 1997's The Colour And The Shape, the 2005 double set In Your Honor, and 2007's Grammy-winning Echoes, Silence, Patience And Grace. All of the band's albums have gone platinum, with the latter two and 2002's One by One going double platinum. The group has had 16 Top Ten singles at Modern Rock radio, including Number One hits "Learn To Fly," "All My Life," "Best Of You," "DOA," "The Pretender," and "Long Road To Ruin."
Grohl recently announced that, following a year's worth of touring behind Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace, the band is taking an extended hiatus before returning to the studio.
FAST FACTS
In addition to leading Foo Fighters, Grohl has played drums on the road and/or in the studio for Queens of the Stone Age, Nine Inch Nails, Tenacious D, and The Prodigy.
Grohl also released his long-in-the-making metal project Probot a few years ago, featuring collaborations with some of his favorite underground and speed metal vocalists and musicians.
Grohl was married from 1993 to 1997 to photographer Jennifer Youngblood, and also dated Louise Post from Veruca Salt and Melissa Auf der Maur from Hole.
He married Jordyn Blum in August of 2003. The couple have a two-year-old daughter named Violet and are expecting their second child this year.
Slipknot and Stone Sour frontman Corey Taylor has confirmed recent reports that he plans to work on his first solo album sometime after Slipknot finishes its touring obligations in support of its latest effort, All Hope Is Gone. As for when he will actually begin recording the disc, Taylor told us he's not exactly sure: "I'm trying to work that out right now. I was wanting to do it after the Slipknot cycle. I've got a lot of songs that I've written, man, that just a) don't fit in with either band, really, at the end of the day, and b) I know I have this album that I need to make. I'm the kind of guy that if I can't get that done, then it's gonna hold me back from all this other stuff that I wanted to do."
Taylor told Billboard.com on Tuesday (January 13th) that his first solo record will probably sound like "kind of a cross between the Foo Fighters and Social Distortion, with some Johnny Cash mixed in."
Taylor will be on the road with Slipknot through September as the band continues supporting last summer's All Hope Is Gone and celebrates the 10th anniversary of the release of its self-titled debut album.
It is not clear how a solo outing will affect the recording of the third album from Stone Sour, whose last effort, Come What(ever) May, surfaced in 2006.
Stone Sour guitarist Josh Rand recently announced the formation of a new group called Moonshot. New music from the group can be heard at MySpace.com/moonshotband.
Slipknot will begin a new U.S. tour on January 23rd in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Hollywood Undead's plans are on hold until February while one of its three frontmen, Johnny 3 Tears, does a 41-day stint in a Los Angeles jail for parole violation. With Hollywood Undead's single "Undead" and album Swan Songs doing well at the moment, 3 Tears told us -- speaking directly from jail -- that some of his fellow inmates are aware of who he is: "Yeah, there's some younger guys who know who we are, but I tend to keep, you know, my head down and I don't talk much about myself. But to the people I do talk to, some of them know who we are and some of the guards do too, so that makes certain things easier and certain things harder, depending, you know. You get people kind of hanging onto you or, you know, there's the opposite side of it too where people might want to provoke or, you know, certain things just 'cause of the situation, you know."
3 Tears entered jail on Christmas Eve (December 24th) and is expected to be released around February 3rd.
Although he is not able to discuss what he violated his parole over, we hear that it was something to do with weapons possession.
3 Tears can receive mail and the band encourages fans to write to him at: Johnny 3 Tears, 12115 Magnolia Boulevard, Mailbox #105, North Hollywood, CA 91607.
Once 3 Tears is released, Hollywood Undead will hit the road on the Saints and Sinners tour, beginning on February 27th in Fort Lauderdale, Florida AND will be performing in Cincinnati at Bogart's on March 13th!