Dave Grohl on how Donald Trump inspired Foo Fighters’ new album

"We're not as free as we were before"

Dave Grohl has opened up about how the rise of Donald Trump and subsequent ‘wave of conservatism’ shaped his lyrics on Foo Fighters‘ new album ‘Concrete And Gold’.

Speaking to Kerrang, the frontman said that fatherhood and how President Trump was negatively shaping their future had a huge impact on his worldview.

“I look at all of the different periods of time where I’ve written lyrics, and they all have their own references and different phases,” said Grohl. “This one came out pretty clear: I’m a father now, I have to consider a lot more than I used to, and I think I’ve realised we’re not all as free as we were before.”

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“In every way. I mean, as the political arena started heating up in America before the elections, it became clear that there was so much more threatening all of our lives than I’d considered before.”

Grohl continued: “I’m looking at a candidate that has blatant disregard for the future environmentally, when it comes to women’s rights, diplomatically…I have three daughters that are going to survive me for decades – how are they going to get on unless there’s some positive and progressive change?”

Grohl also added that being in the US during the “conservative wave” that came with the rise of Trump reminded of the ‘alienation’ he felt as a teenager.

“It’s weird,” said Grohl. “It really sparked a lot of my early, alienated, freakish punk rock feelings from when I was a teenager. I was one of those little freaks in his blue bedroom in the middle of a really conservative part Virginia feeling like I was just an alien. I started feeling that way again.”

Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl
Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl

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This week also saw Foo Fighters speak out to raise awareness of mental health issues, in the wake of the deaths of Chester Bennington and Chris Cornell.

The band release their new album ‘Concrete & Gold’ on September 15 – before they play a one-off show at The O2 in London with support from IDLES.

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