Dave Grohl has a confession to make: the whiskey and beer vocal regime he swore kept his voice healthy was “all a lie”.
- READ MORE: Foo Fighters deliver the dopamine on the futureproof rock beast ‘Your Favorite Toy’
The Foo Fighters frontman has some big dates confirmed for later in the year in support of ‘Your Favorite Toy’, and recently spoke about the importance of looking after his voice, touching on his supposedly doctor-approved method during a stop on the Dish podcast.
He told hosts Nick Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett about a time that he had to get his vocal cords checked out, and revealed that his secret to keeping them healthy was drinking beer and whiskey before a gig.
“An hour before the show, I’ll open a beer and I’ll start drinking the beer. I might take an Advil because my knees hurt, my ankles hurt, whatever, I’m old,” he said. “Then I have a shot of whiskey […] then someone will say 15 minutes and I open one more beer and have one more shot. And then hit the stage’.”
“And my doctor said, ‘Just don’t change what you’re doing. It’s working!’ And I was like, ‘Ok, great!’ And that’s it!”
However, at Foo Fighters‘ intimate pop-up show in New York City’s Irving Plaza on Thursday (April 30), Grohl came clean ahead of playing ‘Monkey Wrench’. “Now listen, I know I make it seem like I don’t do vocal warm-ups,” he told the crowd.
“I’ve said this before in the press. I’m like, ‘No, I just drink a couple beers and a shot of whiskey.’ It’s all a lie. I do extensive vocal warm-ups every night before coming onstage to ensure that I don’t lose my voice when we perform. I’ve kept it a secret for a long time.”
“I’m here to say I’ve been working on this scream for 30 years now,” he continued. “Can you fuckin’ scream? Like scream as loud as you can? I’m gonna listen to your scream, then I’ll evaluate what you’ve done.”
“This is what I do, every night, one hour before the show,” he quipped. “Just trying to warm up the vocals here…”
Earlier this week, Grohl spoke about the great vocalists of the grunge era – including his late Nirvana bandmate Kurt Cobain and late Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell – and said he had a “newfound love” of Alice in Chains.
“They’re like my favourite band now,” he said. “They should have been 35 years ago, but now I’m like, ‘Wait, where was I on that one?’”
It comes after the Foos dropped an apocalypse-style video for ‘Spit Shine’, which was written and directed by Grohl, and features a nod to the gruff vocals of Motörhead legend Lemmy, whose mural the band play in front of before it’s overrun by a zombie horde.
Before sharing visuals for that single, the band dropped by Saturday Night Live UK last weekend to perform ‘Caught in the Echo‘ and ‘Child Actor’ live for the first time.
While in London to celebrate their album launch recently, Grohl and Pat Smear surprised fans attending an album listening party, walking into the event while one fan was midway through a karaoke rendition of their 1997 track ‘Monkey Wrench’.
NME gave the record three-and-a-half stars in a review which read: “Vocally, Grohl has rediscovered his roar, but lyricism has never been his strongest suit, and much of it here is throwaway; those looking for signs of where his head is at after his infidelity scandal two years ago will be largely disappointed.
“But a fascinating exception is ‘Child Actor’, on which Grohl – who’s come to relish the spotlight after 30 years as the Foos’ frontman – unflinchingly examines his need for validation; it is the sound of somebody who has knocked themselves off their own perch searching for answers in the mirror.
“‘Your Favorite Toy’ is a few more tracks of that depth away from being the most vital Foo Fighters record since 1997’s ‘The Colour and the Shape’. For now, at least, they have remembered that no-frills punk, played fast and loud, suits them much better than middle-of-the-road dad-rock.”
Foo Fighters will be heading out on a European stadium tour that is set to include two nights at Liverpool’s Anfield Stadium at the end of June. They will also be playing a range of major European shows this summer, as well as a North American stadium tour for the summer, and they have also just announced an Australian and New Zealand tour for late 2026 and early 2027.
Any remaining tickets for all shows on the Foo Fighters’ US tour are available here and for UK and Europe shows, you can find tickets here.
In other news, Grohl recently recalled the time he accidentally insulted David Bowie, saying that he “backpedalled so fast”, and has revealed the boozy secret to keeping his vocal cords in a healthy condition.
Meanwhile, he has made a rare political statement about the “deeply divided” America, saying: “There needs to be change.”
