'This Is a Call: The Life and Times of Dave Grohl' by Paul Brannigan

He has sold over 40 million albums. He's been in bands that have changed popular music forever. He saw his best friend commit suicide. He starts supergroups. He's the nicest guy in rock.

From Nirvana to Foo Fighters, from brotherhood to bitter rivalry, from breathless highs to lifeless lows, Paul Brannigan gives an unparalleled, intimate and extraordinary account of the life and times of Dave Grohl.

When Nirvana ended I wasn't finished. I'm still not f*****g finished.

Dave Grohl is the man who changed music forever.

This is an account of his life that's more personal, more thrilling, more heart-rending and more inspiring than any other. This is Dave Grohl revealed fully, for the first time.


I picked up this book way back in July (who remembers those halcyon days in these dark times?) from my local HMV. HMV has always been one of my favourite shops, because it provides me with many of my favourite things: music, films, TV boxsets, posters, T-shirts, earphones, headphones, Harry Potter mugs, and books. It is not a place to be sniffed at, but a place to be frequently frequented.

Paul Brannigan makes it clear from the start that this book is "not an authorised biography". It is created from ten years worth of original exclusive interviews with Dave Grohl himself and a whole host of other musical heroes. Former editor of Kerrang! magazine from 2005 to 2009, with work appearing in Q, Mojo, and Classic Rock, Brannigan is not only the perfect person to write such a biography, but also an engaging and talented helmsman to chart the reader's way through the choppy seascape of Grohl's career.

This 13-chapter saga reads like an interview in a music magazine, which means newbies to Dave Grohl (me) and Foo aficionados (everyone else I know) can enjoy its frenetic pace alike. It starts not at the beginning, but in 2009, with Brannigan describing Grohl's life in Los Angeles, particularly his house and the makings of Wasting Light (the Foos seventh album). Then, with a hop-skip-and-a-jump-break, we've gone back in time to the arrival of John Grohol from Slovakia to the USA, and the state of Pennsylvania. This part seemed unnecessary to me, mainly because Brannigan goes off on a tangent, until you get to the part where you learn that Dave's grandfather had to change his name from 'Grohol' to 'Grohl' in order to assimilate to the United States in a highly anti-immigrant time. The Grohl family soon moved to Warren, Ohio, the birthplace of Dave, so the tangent is soon proved to be relevant. After learning the story of Dave's parents, the move to Springfield, Vrginia, and the breakdown of his parents' marriage, we finally come to (for me) one of the happier parts of the book: when Dave starts playing music and joining bands.

My criticism of this work is that it focuses very strongly on a lot of what was happening in the background of Dave Grohl's life. I imagine Brannigan is trying to educate his millenial audience about the history of rock music (or at least what a millenial audience would think counts as 'history'). For that purpose, it is very informative, but I was impatient to read more about Dave's time in Nirvana and when he started the Foo Fighters. My first favourite part of the book are when Brannigan dissects the music. He does an incredible analysis of Nirvana's Nevermind on page 176 if anyone's interested. My second favourite part is the actual dialogue with everyone Brannigan interviews. 

The idea I have of Dave Grohl might be similar to yours: the "nicest guy in rock" is a head-banging, heavy-drinking, family-oriented, born-in-Virginia-but-lives-in-California, multi-instrumentalist, with enviable hair. He seems to be a combination of contradictions and complications, with an overwhelming sense of kind-heartedness and carry-on attitude. He has suffered and struggled in the hands of rock, but he has grown from his suffering, and his talent and vision are unending. This book made me laugh, learn, smile, and cry.

All in all, I enjoyed this book, mainly because I know so little about American underground rock, and so was fascinated to read about what Grohl was listening to when he was a teenager. His music tastes are very different to mine; I'm ashamed to say that I'd never heard of Black Flag before reading this. There are a few things which I've mentioned that I would changed, but overall, this is a fast-paced, big-hearted life story, and thanks to it, I am now a massive Dave Grohl fan. Thank you whoever it was who said I should read this book. I owe you massively.