Returning to Roots with Your Favourite Toy
"I'm 57 years old," says Dave Grohl. "But there are still times where I feel like the little punk I was at 13.
"I can still connect with that side of myself where I can scream and we can thrash, and it feels good."
In a deliberate move back to his post-grunge and punk origins, Dave Grohl has led Foo Fighters in creating their 12th album, Your Favourite Toy. He has characterized the album with vivid metaphors such as a "powder keg," "burning diesel," and a spicy "jambalaya." The record is notably harder and faster than anything the band has produced in the last ten years.
The album was recorded during a time of personal upheaval for Grohl and features aggressive guitar riffs and intense vocals. At times, his voice conveys desperation, and the lyrics reveal inner turmoil and paranoia.
The opening track, "Caught In The Echo," expresses a paralysis at the thought of moving forward.
"Decide, decide, decide, decide / Do I? Do I? Do I? Do I?" he screams, his voice spinning around your headphones like intrusive thoughts.
"Of All People" is a more direct and furious song, inspired by Grohl's encounter with a drug dealer from his Seattle days in the 1990s.
"I knew a lot of people whose lives suffered from buying those drugs," says Grohl, who has been largely drug-free since age 20, aside from a 2010 hospital admission for caffeine overdose.
"I was so conflicted. I was like, 'I feel so happy for this person survived'. But part of me was like, 'All that [stuff] that was going around, it didn't do anybody any good'."
Grohl channeled his confusion and anger into the song the night of the encounter, recording it the next morning in a small studio above his garage.
"That was kind of the intended process of this record," he explains. "You write something really quickly, and the next day you record it and it's done. That's the photograph, that's the one moment that you catch."
Although the album was recorded over a few weeks, it was preceded by extensive experimentation. Grohl demoed over 50 songs, many instrumental and created late at night, drawing from influences including Massive Attack, Pink Floyd, and Bad Brains.
"One night, I was lying in bed, listening to them all and, randomly, there were 10 in a row on the playlist that were really reminiscent of the music we grew up listening to," he recalls.
"I thought, 'Oh my God, this is the energy'."
"This is how our band sounds," agrees bass guitarist Nate Mendel. "This is what we do. We can do other stuff too, but this feels comfortable."
Grohl adds that attempting a different, more mature sound would feel unnatural.
"It's like when you get invited to a formal event and you try to put on something really nice and clean. I look in the mirror and I'm like, 'That's not me. I look like a stoner in court getting charged for some sort of misdemeanour marijuana offence!'
"I'm just like, 'Who is that person?'"
'This Band Was Born Out of Pain'
The question "Who is that person?" also resonated with fans in 2022 when Grohl, often called "the nicest man in rock," publicly revealed he had fathered a child outside his marriage.
"I plan to be a loving and supportive parent to her," he wrote. "I love my wife and my children, and I am doing everything I can to regain their trust and earn their forgiveness."
One of the new songs, "Unconditional," appears to reflect Grohl's efforts to mend relationships.
"I'll find a better way / To explain this to you... Under one condition, though / It's unconditional," he sings.
Grohl describes the song as mournful and carefully chosen in words.
"You're expressing how... how deeply sorry you are for... something.
When you write a song like that, and you listen to it back, you kind of understand how you feel in yourself. And that makes it easier to use those words outside of the song, right?"
He declines to discuss the specific circumstances behind the song, responding with humor when pressed.
"I can tell you're baiting the hook," he says amiably, before offering a broader perspective.
"You know, this band was born out of the pain of losing Kurt [Cobain] and Nirvana, so we've always relied on music to help us through difficult times - and it has certainly done that in my life in the last year and a half.
At the same time," he continues, "it's one thing to send the world all these lyrics, and it's another to really delve into deeply personal things.
So there are some things that I reserve for my personal conversations."
The Foo Fighters' history is marked by tragedy, and Your Favourite Toy is the band's second album following the death of their drummer Taylor Hawkins in 2022.
The previous album, But Here We Are (2023), was a mournful and contemplative response to that loss. The band has since welcomed new drummer Ilan Rubin but continues to grieve.
"We are a different band," says Mendel. "Taylor was such an energetic presence, he just brought himself so much."
After Hawkins was found dead in his hotel room hours before a concert, Mendel initially doubted the band's future.
'We Talk About Taylor Every Day'
"I was like, 'Can we still do this without Taylor?', and I'm sure everyone else felt that, too.
But one thing that I've come to realise - this sounds a little hokey, but it's true - is that Taylor is with us. His wife is on the road with us right now. We're still very close to the Hawkins family. We talk about him every day."
Grohl reflects on the difficulty of continuing as a band after such a loss.
"Continuing as a band was not easy. We were like best friends and brothers - so it was really complicated and felt really strange for a little while.
When you go through any sort of trauma or loss, you have to do everything all over again. So the next day, that's the first cup of coffee since it happened. Then it's the first song we've written since it happened.
But whenever we go through something really difficult, we go through it together, with our families and our kids and our wives. We really rally.
And if you're surrounded by people that you know you can really rely on, that's the key."
One significant source of support was Sir Paul McCartney, who invited Grohl to join him on stage at Glastonbury in June 2022. This was Grohl's first public appearance since Hawkins' death, and the invitation was deeply meaningful, despite Grohl nearly missing the show due to flight cancellations.
"I walked backstage 20 minutes before we were supposed to go on, so the whole thing was kind of a blur, but it meant a lot, for sure.
He and his family were always so sweet and supportive and welcoming."
When asked if he had invited McCartney to join Foo Fighters at their Liverpool Anfield Stadium show, Grohl clarified.
"Someone asked that this week," he says. "And then, of course, all the headlines said, 'Dave Grohl has asked Paul to play in Liverpool'.
I have not asked. I only texted and said, 'Hey, we're playing in your home town'. And he goes, 'You'll love it.'"
Changing Rituals and New Traditions
If McCartney does join the band backstage, he might notice how age has changed their pre-show routines. Previously known for tequila shots before performances, the band now sometimes takes naps before going on stage.
Mendel reveals that the band often spends time assembling Lego sets in the dressing room.
"Not very rock 'n' roll, is it?" laughs Grohl, who has built models of the Eiffel Tower, the White House, and several Harry Potter castles out of plastic bricks.
Grohl finds the activity meditative.
"There is something sort of meditative about the process," he explains. "You can just turn your brain off and follow the instructions.
It's like Ikea furniture. I've built a lot of Ikea furniture in my time and you feel so proud."
Despite the calm before the show, cocktails begin flowing an hour before performance time.
"Then the laughter gets a little louder, and the music gets a little louder and, just before we walk on stage, we're having the best time of our lives, so we hit the stage with a smile.
It sounds so ridiculous, but to me, that's the most important part. There's no faking it in this band. You get on stage and you have those few hours to do it - and you've got to do it for real."
