Dave Grohl: ”Gangnam Style’ is one of my favourite songs of the past decade’

Frontman also reveals that 'Foo Fighters is the stupidest fucking name' in SXSW talk

Dave Grohl delivered the keynote speech at SXSW in Austin, Texas earlier today (March 14). The Foo Fighters frontman took to the stage in the Austin Convention Center at 11am (CT) and, donning a pair of glasses, opened by saying: “I hope I still look like a rock star.”

During the 50-minute talk, Grohl spoke to the packed room about this musical career and inspiration. At one point he said: “Am I the best drummer in the world? Certainly not.” On forming the Foo Fighters, Grohl commented: “Finding a good band name is still the hardest fucking part… Foo Fighters is the stupidest fucking name.”

He also spoke about his love of Psy’s YouTube hit ‘Gangnam Style’, telling the audience: “I can truthfully say out loud that ‘Gangnam Style’ is one of my favoutite songs of the past decade.”

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The frontman also spoke about his past, and the major label bidding war that Nirvana found themselves in back in 1990. Grohl revealed that the band’s frontman Kurt Cobain said to an industry figure, “‘We wanna be the biggest band in the world…’ I laughed, I thought he was fucking kidding… How Kurt even thought we could make a ripple in this mainstream world of polished pop music was beyond me.”

Discussing his documentary film Sound City, the California “shithole” of a studio in which Nirvana recorded ‘Nevermind’, Grohl said that the recording sessions for the now-seminal album were “the sound of three people playing like their life depended on it”. Although their label initially only pressed 35,000 copies of their debut LP, they were soon selling 300,000 a week. “That ripple that had been so unimaginable had become a tidal wave,” he said.

On Cobain’s death, Grohl revealed: “When Kurt died I was lost, I was numb. The music I had devoted my life to had now betrayed me. I turned off the radio, I put away my drums.”

Grohl’s Sound City Players collective will perform tonight at Stubb’s in Austin, Texas.

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