Dave Grohl's My Hero; Watch Him as he Grohls

As much as I'd like to take credit for the headline, Alex is the genius behind it.

Dave Grohl, who turns 39 in three days, is one of those musicians who has literally done it all. He's the sort of musician you envy because he can play everything, sing, scream, has been in two huge bands and no fewer than 851 side projects or guest appearances.

Phase I: Nirvana

The most impressive thing about Nirvana, I think, is they were together for 7 years, released 3 studio albums, and are still one of the most notable bands of all time. In any matter, Dave Grohl joined in 1990 and recorded the second two cds with the band. Interestingly enough, he felt that he dramatically altered the band in a bad way which is highly debatable. Granted the sounds of Bleach and Nevermind were completely different, but one cost a tad more to produce. In general, Dave was mostly overlooked, though not for his drumming skills. Even now, doing a google search for "Nirvana" brings up many photos of Kurt Cobain or the band and few to none of just Dave Grohl or just Krist Novoselic.

Phase II: Kurt Dies; Dave Foos

The Foo Fighters began as a side project by Dave who didn't contribute much in the way of song/lyric-writing in Nirvana. He did release a side project called "Pocketwatch," but neither you nor I knew that. The first Foo Fighters cd featured Dave playing all the instruments. This CD didn't spurn any huge singles (although, as seen above, a video tribute to Mentos for the song "Big Me").

In the period between his debut CD and the second, he worked on the soundtrack to a movie called Touch which I have also never heard of as well as writing a song for the X-Files and making a cameo with his then wife. The second CD, The Colour and the Shape, was the Foo Fighters' second release and this time it featured other band members and large hands:

The singles (and later, hits) on the CD were Everlong, Monkey Wrench, and My Hero. In all, the Foo Fighters (whether it be Dave or a whole band) released a total of 27 singles and plenty of music video accompaniment.

Phase III: The Most Hire-able Man on the Planet?

In 2001, instead of turning to drugs, he unfortunately turned to Tenacious D (*my opinion, obviously) where he played a devil in their video for the song "Tribute." It worked: he already had the proper satanic facial hair.

In 2002, he managed to work on both the album "One by One" by the Foo Fighters for which he sang, played guitar and wrote songs, as well as "Songs for the Deaf" by Queens of the Stone Age where he played the drums. (He actually put FF on hiatus while touring with QOTSA - way to play favorites, Dave).

In 2004, Dave went another route and reverted back to the ways of his debut FF cd by playing all the instruments for a band called Probot where he enlisted the help of heavy metal singers he idolized. While the Probot CD didn't gain too much publicity, it did showcase Dave's talents fairly well as a metal musician.

To sum things up, Dave has also worked with: Killing Joke, Cat Power, Nine Inch Nails, Garbage, Juliet and the Licks, Pete Yorn, Neil Young, Afghan Whigs, Tom Petty and 835 other bands. I think he once came and played with our band. He's sort of like Santa - manages to visit everyone's house, or in this case band practice, in a short period of time. But instead of presents, he gives you presence.