Paul McCartney’s opinion on Foo Fighters

Unlike many musicians of his generation, Paul McCartney never got stuck in the past when it came to the music he listened to or the artists who influenced him. Over the decades, he has constantly experimented with his songwriting, collaborating with artists from a wide range of musical genres. He has always made an effort to listen to new albums, perform with other musicians and attend their concerts whenever he could. Even in his 80s, he continues to do so and has shared his opinion on many contemporary artists, including the Foo Fighters.

What is Paul McCartney’s opinion on Foo Fighters

Paul McCartney is a big fan of the Foo Fighters and a great admirer of Dave Grohl, especially because they have had very similar paths, as both went through tragedies and reinvented themselves in music. He praised the band when he had the chance to induct them into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

“So me, a teenage kid in Liverpool, just an ordinary kid going to school like everybody else. And then one day, I heard some music, and I fell into rock ‘n’ roll. It just happened one day. Suddenly, the world changed, and I just fell through a hole in time, and suddenly, I was in rock ‘n’ roll. OK, so by the same time in his life, Dave did the same kind of thing. You know, he’s just an ordinary, kind of goofy kid… and the same thing happened. He falls through the same hole, and he’s in rock ‘n’ roll. And it’s gonna be his life. It’s gonna take over everything.”

“And nothing was ever the same again. And it’s so magical. Everyone who knows, everyone who’s connected with it, everyone who loves rock ‘n’ roll, it really is a magical thing that contains so many elements. Like all of the people we’ve heard tonight, I mean, it’s just unbelievable, yeah? So I feel super-privileged to be here tonight, inducting these guys. So when that happened, and I fell into rock ‘n’ roll, I joined a group. And my group was the Beatles. Like I say, the world changed. Dave did a similar kind of thing.”

He continued:

“He joined a group — Nirvana. We had a great time with our groups, but then eventually tragedy happened, and my group broke up. The same happened with Dave: His group broke up under tragic circumstances. And so then the question is, what do you do now? And we both were presented with that question. In my case, I thought, ‘Well, I’ll make an album where I play all the instruments myself.’ So I did that. Dave’s group broke up — what’s he do? He makes an album where he plays all the instruments himself. Do you think this guy’s stalking me?”

“Anyway, so me, I’m going to name my new group, and I call them Wings. So Dave’s got the same problem, and he’s got to think of a name for the group, so he comes up with Foo Fighters. So now the group is formed, and it’s ready to take flight. It’s Dave, Taylor, Nate, Pat, Chris and Rami – all the members of the Foo Fighters. So here they are tonight. I was just saying to them in the dressing room, ‘This is it. You’re here in Cleveland, and tonight, you’re going to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.” I mean, it’s not just any Hall of Fame, it’s the fucking Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,’” Paul McCartney said in 2021.

That night, the Foo Fighters performed “Best of You”, “My Hero”, “Everlong”, and a cover of The Beatles’ “Get Back”, featuring Paul McCartney.

A couple of years earlier, in 2017, the Beatle played drums on their song “Sunday Rain”, released on the album “Concrete and Gold”, which featured drummer Taylor Hawkins on vocals. One year later Paul would record again with Grohl, but this time the track “Cut Me Some Slack”, which also featured the Nirvana members Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear.

Dave and Paul McCartney are really close friends

Over the years, they became really close friends and had the chance to share many amazing moments together, as Dave has recalled on several occasions. Paul even gave a small piano lesson to one of Grohl’s daughters. “Years ago I’ve made friends with Paul McCartney, his wife and my wife swapped numbers. So every time he come to Los Angeles, his wife would text my wife and say ‘Hey, we’re going to dinner, would you like to come to dinner?’ And of course my wife knows who Paul McCartney is but I don’t know if he means the same to her as he does to me. He’s a Beatle! That’s how I learned how to play music.”

“So we just had Ophelia, our youngest (daughter) and Paul and Nancy were in town and we said: ‘Come see the new baby’. She was a week old! So they come over the house and my kids know who The Beatles are, because I brainwashed them. So we have wine, pizza, we were hanging out and it was time for Paul to go. Paul and Nancy were living and there was a piano in the corner of the room and he just can’t help himself, you know. So he sits down at the piano and starts playing ‘Lady Madonna’ in my f*cking house! (laughs). My mind is blowing, I can’t believe this is happening, this is like the most full circle crazy moment of my entire life.”

He continued:

“My daughter Harper, who I think was five at the time is watching Paul McCartney on the piano and she goes to the kitchen, she gets a coffee cup, she puts some spare change in it and puts it on top of the piano like it’s a tip jar and I thought: ‘She’s a Grohl!’ (laughs). She had never taken a lesson to play any instrument at that point and she sat down, watched his hands and he was showing her what to play and they wrote a song together. As they were doing it was the only time that I’ve ever taken a picture of Paul, because to me, I don’t really want to do that, I want to be his friend.”

“But I saw my daughter getting her first piano lesson from Paul McCartney and I took a video. The next morning I went to the kitchen, I was getting breakfast and I heard her playing the song that they had written the night before and I came around the corner, she looked at me as she was playing the piano, she realized I was watching and she never played the piano again,” Dave Grohl said in an interview with Graham Norton in 2022 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).

The first time Dave Grohl met AC/DC members was with Paul McCartney

Dave Grohl has always been a huge fan of AC/DC, but since the band’s members were more reserved and didn’t spend much time at festivals or parties, he never had the chance to meet them properly until Paul McCartney invited them to a dinner he had arranged. The American musician prepared a big musical surprise for them, which they all loved.

“There is one year where I was asked to present an award at the Grammy’s. Not to perform, just to present. I kind of hate those after parties where it’s like music industry and people wanting selfies and stuff. I was just like ‘Man, let’s go just have a dinner. So I called Pat (Smear) our guitarist and our drummer Taylor (Hawkins). (I) said ‘Why don’t we get the wives and we’ll go to some nice restaurant. So we book a table, Paul McCartney was coming into town. When he comes to Los Angeles, we usually say hello and have dinner. His wife texted my wife and said ‘What are you doing after the Grammy’s?

He continued:

She said ‘Well, we’re just gonna go to this restaurant and Nancy said: ‘Would you mind if we tag along? So my wife texted me and she says ‘Hey, do you mind if Paul and Nancy come to dinner? I’m like ‘No, that will be great! This will be fun.’ So now we’ve got four couples then Paul bumps into AC/DC in the lobby of the hotel or in the gym, or something like that. They say ‘What are you doing after the show?’ Because AC/DC was performing. Paul said ‘We’re gonna go have dinner with the Foo Fighters. Do you guys want to come?’”

“So then I got a text from my wife saying: ‘Hey, do you mind if AC/DC comes to dinner?’ Now this was huge to me, because I really was a huge AC/C fan when I was a young. The thing about AC/DC, you never see them unless they’re on stage, you know. It’s not like you see them walking the carpet at a movie premiere. It’s like the only time you see them, there’s like walls of amplifiers, cannons, explosions.”

Dave Grohl continued:

“So to see them in the flesh, offstage, in the wild. I was like ‘This could be amazing!’ It blew my mind, it was such a huge deal. I was a huge fan and really influenced by them when I was young. (…) Then my friend Ben Jaffe from the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, which a New Orleans swing band, legendary (one).”]

“(He says) ‘What are you doing after the show?’ I’m like ‘Oh my God, Ben. Come have dinner with McCartney and AC/DC! You gotta come!’ He says ‘Well, can I bring the whole band with me?’ There’s like 10 of these guys, you know. They march like a marching band in the streets, like in a parade. It’s my favorite type of music,  I love New Orleans Jazz so much. So I booked the back room and they said ‘If you want, we will march down the street and into the back room playing.’”

He continued:

“I was going ‘this is gonna be the greatest night of my life.’ So we kept it a secret, we didn’t tell anyone. We’re all hanging out in this backroom with AC/DC and Paul. We’re just sort of sitting there and then you could hear music coming down the street and it’s loud, dude. I mean, it’s tubas, trombones, trumpets, bass drums coming through the restaurant into the room. Everybody’s face is just like ‘what the f*ck is going on right now?’ I got to swing dance with AC/DC. It was insane. I mean, by the end of the night, honestly, (I thought) this must be happening to someone else. It’s like having an out-of-body experience. I’m just like ‘I can’t believe this is my life.’”

“Because I surely don’t consider myself like in the lofty, god-like ranks or status of Paul or AC/DC. I still feel like a kid on my bedroom floor. But here I am getting high with the New Orleans Jazz band and drinking whiskeys with AC/DC while Paul’s dancing behind me. This f*cking awesome, it never grows old,” Dave Grohl said  in an interview with Waterstones in 2021 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage).