The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music

Grohl has three daughters: Violet, Harper, and Ophelia. His two eldest children are featured the most in his memoir. Becoming a father teaches Grohl a great deal about himself and about managing life. He experiences an entirely new type of joy through his children and relishes every moment he spends with them. Grohl begins his memoir with an anecdote about Harper, his middle child, and the one he considers the most like him both in image and personality. Grohl ends his memoir with an anecdote about Violet, his eldest daughter. Several smaller anecdotes are also sprinkled throughout the work.

Violet is Grohl’s eldest daughter and began singing at a young age. Her first public performance was with her father, performing “Blackbird” by the Beatles for her school. Violet’s courage that day inspired Grohl to face his own fears and perform the same song at the Academy Awards. Grohl sees his eldest daughter as a brave and wise person who instills in him the drive to be a better person.

Harper sparks Grohl’s belief about the way that skills and passions seem to be passed down through generations. When she was eight, Harper asked her father to teach her how to play the drums. Grohl used an unconventional approach, teaching Harper to play by having her play in time with a CD. Grohl watched his daughter play, noticing that she was ”a mirror image of [him] playing the drums at her age” (17). He mentions a moment when Harper played a melody she learned only the day before, saying that he knew then that the life he strived for was being realized before him: “The circle was complete. This was a home. This was a family. This is what I wanted” (239).

Grohl hopes to inspire his daughters to forge their own paths and remain uniquely themselves. He is grateful to artists like Joan Jett, whom his daughters first discovered in the form of a Barbie doll and later had the opportunity to meet, for teaching girls that they can not only be themselves but be loud about it. Having children challenges Grohl to adapt his life to meet their needs as well as his own need to be a dependable father. He successfully manages to merge his career and his family life, bringing his children on tour as they enthusiastically follow their father around the world.

Grohl’s mother, Virginia, was a central influence in his life and the person he always depended on. Grohl’s parents divorced when he was young, and he was raised primarily by his single mother in North Springfield, Virginia. She “worked multiple jobs to make ends meet: schoolteacher by day; department store clerk by night; estimate writer for a carpet cleaning service, Servpro, on the weekends” (136-137). Grohl’s mother was always supportive of his career, ready and willing to provide advice and comfort whenever Grohl needed it. Grohl regularly refers to his phone calls and conversations with his mother over the years and how they helped steer him in the ever-increasingly successful direction he was taking.

Grohl’s mother was also one of the original catalysts for his love of music. He and his mother would regularly visit a local jazz club when Grohl was growing up, listening to the intricate music and watching the passionate musicians play. Grohl also always called his mother when he was facing a crisis or difficult decision. He references the day he took Violet for her first shots and his mother’s response: “God forbid she ever shows up at your doorstep covered in her own blood, then you’ll really understand” (41). Grohl conveys the love and devotion that his mother demonstrated throughout his life and feels that he owes most of his success to her guidance and support. Despite all of the challenges of being a single mother, she instilled Grohl with a strong work ethic and a sense of altruism and concern for others.

Kurt Cobain was the lead singer and songwriter for Nirvana, one of the most famous grunge bands. Grohl describes him as shy and kind, and states that Kurt filled many roles in his life:

Kurt was more than just a name to me; he was a friend, he was a father, he was a son, he was an artist, he was a human being, and over time he became the center of our universe, the point that our entire world orbited, but he was still just a young man with so much to look forward to” (183).

Kurt died on April 8, 1994, after battling a heroin addiction and the pressures of rising stardom. Grohl does not specify his opinion on the nature of Kurt’s death, focusing instead on his grief and the impact that Kurt had on Grohl as a person and as a musician.

Grohl started out with Nirvana in the fall of 1990 as they were getting ready to record their pivotal Nevermind album. He auditioned to be their drummer, and he and Kurt got along right away. Kurt welcomed Grohl into his life openly, hiding his addiction and trying to put forth the image of a solid musician. Grohl and Kurt became close friends, and Nirvana rose to fame in a matter of months. This quick rise had a significant and traumatic impact on Kurt, who thought he wanted fame but soon realized it was far too much for him to bear.

When Kurt died, Grohl found it difficult to grieve properly, and this experience changed the way he grieved for future losses. Grohl looks back on his time with Kurt and Nirvana with pride and fondness, happy to know he will forever be “that guy from Nirvana” (185). He awaits the day when he can spiritually reunite with Kurt, a fast and close friend, once again. Grohl feels it was a great privilege and honor to have been part of a group that changed not only the world of music, but the world itself, and in such a powerful and lasting way.