Dave Grohl’s mum on what it was like bringing up the rock legend
Virginia Hanlon Grohl, who spawned the Nirvana and Foo Fighters star, tells Mark Beaumont about life as a rock mum
Behind every rock god there’s a devoted mother trying to get strange stains out of leather trousers. Yet, on her regular tours with Foo Fighters, Virginia Hanlon Grohl never seemed to run into any of the other rock stars’ mums. So she set out to interview them, telling the stories of the mothers of R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe, Dr Dre, Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello, Amy Winehouse, Beastie Boys’ Mike D, Haim, Pharrell Williams and more in her new book From Cradle To Stage. “It turned out to be an amazing group of women who all said in the beginning, ‘There’s nothing special about me, nothing interesting about my story’,” she says, “and that turned out to be entirely untrue.”
Have you found yourself in some strange rock ’n’ roll situations?
“Early on, the fans were difficult with Nirvana – it was hard to get out of a car. I’ve met
Stevie Nicks, I’ve met Prince Harry, I’ve met Obama when Dave played at the White House. Paul McCartney was there, so I got to watch the President as he sang ‘Michelle’ to his wife. That was a very shivery evening.”
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