Anyone who has seen Foo Fighters on stage knows that the band’s shows are high voltage from start to finish. There’s a very good reason for this, as Dave Grohl revealed during a chat with Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus for his “After School Radio” podcast on Apple Music Hits.
During the conversation, Hoppus asked Grohl whether or not the band had a pre-show ritual. Grohl responded that their pre-show ritual is pretty obvious:
“It’s like one hour before the show, I open a Coors Light, and I’m like, ‘Oh, hello darkness, my old friend.’ But our dressing rooms are always filled with friends.”
Grohl considers meeting friends and fellow musicians part of the pre-show routine.
“That’s the thing that I love the most,” he says. “I’m going to miss it. We’re not allowed to really have people backstage right now. But one of the things I love before going on, is just being happy. You’re surrounded by all your friends. You haven’t seen everyone in a long time, and you’re doing shots of Crown Royal, and you’re like, ‘Yay.’ And everyone’s like… Taking pictures with each other. And it’s like a reunion every night.”
The singer also reveals that he usually opens another beer before going on stage, but the other part of his pre-show ritual involves the mentality before playing.
“To me, the best way to walk onstage every night is… Gus, he’ll say, ‘Okay, dude. Do you want house lights yet?’ I’m like, ‘Nah, not yet.’ And I just wait until the entire band is laughing about something. And I’m like, ‘All right, let’s go.’ So you walk onstage laughing. You feel happy when you walk onstage. To me, that’s the best way to do it.”
While fans sometimes need a few songs to go with the good vibes the band is delivering, musicians are already in that mindset before a single note is played. The Foo Fighters are currently on the road to promote the album “Medicine at Midnight“, as well as the project “Hail Satin“, with covers of the Bee Gees. The band will play their next three shows, August 17-21, in Alaska.