Dave Grohl Duets With Norah Jones and Uncovers Foo Fighter Deep Cuts on ‘Playing Along’ Podcast
The frontman performed “Razor” and “Virginia Moon” as well as “Statues,” “The Ballad Of The Beaconsfield Miners,” and “Everlong”
Dave Grohl and Norah Jones DANIEL BOCZARSKI/GETTY IMAGES/HARLEY-DAVIDSON; MATT WINKELMEYER/GETTY IMAGES/THE RECORDING ACADEMY
Dave Grohl delivered a special and unexpected gift to Foo Fighters fans during his recent appearance on the Norah Jones Is Playing Along podcast. The frontman’s appearance ran for just over an hour and a half, during which the two musicians went deep on songwriting, live performance, and long-time influences. Throughout the episode, which was recorded in April, Grohl combined those various topics into a package of performances that contained true Foo Fighter deep cuts.
For the first time since 2006, he performed “Razor” and “Virginia Moon,” which features Jones on vocals and piano and appeared on the Foo Fighters double album In Your Honor, released in 2005. “I honestly think that the acoustic side of that album was better than the rock side,” Grohl admitted. Jones theorized that it might have been a case of the band wanting to make an acoustic record but feeling as though they couldn’t not rock. “Maybe that’s what it was,” he considered. “We don’t know what we’re doing ever.”
Elsewhere in the episode, Grohl sang “The Ballad Of The Beaconsfield Miners” and “Statues,” the latter of which was performed for the first time. Both songs originally appeared on Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, which arrived in 2007. His mini podcast setlist also included the 1997 Foo Fighters single “Everlong” from The Colour and the Shape and a version of Jones’ own “Flame Twin” with Grohl on drums.
“I didn’t have a normal drum set, and my room was so tiny,” Grohl shared, recalling the makeshift kit he built out of pillows in his childhood home. “I didn’t learn to play on a drum set, but then I was listening to rock songs and trying to figure out like guitar leads, but I wasn’t really good. And listening to Zeppelin, but I wasn’t any good. And then I saw a punk rock band. The first time I ever saw a band on stage was a punk rock band in Chicago, and they were called Naked Raygun. It was at this tiny little bar, there were maybe 40 or 50 people there. They had four dudes in the band. There was a bass player, guitar player, singer and drummer. And they were an amazing band, but it was so simple. And that’s what inspired me the most. I was just like, oh shit, that song is three chords.”
From Rolling Stone US.
