(Credits: Far Out / Raphael Pour-Hashemi)
Thu 4 December 2025 21:38, UK
One of the most well-connected men in rock, Dave Grohl seems to have amassed a litany of famous friendships over the years, seeing the former Nirvana drummer rub shoulders with the entire spectrum of rock royalty from Paul McCartney to Lemmy Kilmister. Nevertheless, one collaboration still stands out as an ultimate highlight.
A self-professed music obsessive, Grohl has dedicated his entire life to an immersion in rock and roll excellence, going right back to his early adolescence worshipping the emerging sounds of punk and new wave, while also attempting to find the heaviest sounds on the market. It is no surprise, then, that the frontman has never refused an opportunity to espouse his extensive pool of influences.
While the drummer might have emerged onto the radar of the music industry during the age of grunge, providing percussion for Nirvana, that particular trio didn’t provide him with much opportunity to exercise his own artistic muscles. So, when the Foo Fighters emerged in the wake of Kurt Cobain’s tragic passing, the newly established outfit loosened the pressure valve and gave way to a deluge of Grohl’s classic, hard, and stadium rock influences.
Inevitably, when discussing the topic of hard rock, there is only one band that it all comes back to: Led Zeppelin. It should come as no surprise, then, that Grohl has always been an absolute disciple of the hard rock progenitors, routinely citing them among his all-time favourite groups.
It was only a matter of time, then, before Grohl eyed up the remaining members of Led Zeppelin for some kind of a collaboration. To his enduring surprise, though, bassist John Paul Jones – a figure of worship for Grohl since his younger years – agreed to be a part of 2005’s In Your Honour.
“I asked him to play on the record and he called me,” he once shared to Q on the topic of that collaboration. “I know I sound ridiculous but some bands are like a religion to me. Led Zeppelin are just… I ran around the room screaming, ‘Guess who I just fucking got a call from?’”
That joint venture was only the start of Grohl’s relationship with the remaining members of Led Zeppelin, as he shared, “Then he asked if I’d like to sit on his table when they were being inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. This wasn’t Puff Daddy and fucking Gwen Stefani, this was Jerry Lee Lewis and Don Cornelius and Jimmy Page.”
Adding, “That was the most special event of my life.”
In the years that followed In Your Honour, Grohl performed alongside Jones and his former bandmates live at Wembley Stadium, and even formed a supergroup with the iconic bassist in the form of Them Crooked Vultures, so perhaps that “most special event” has since been overshadowed.
Either way, Grohl’s utter adoration for Led Zeppelin is unwavering and, when all is said and done, his collaborations with the remaining members of the band will undoubtedly still stand out among the ultimate highlights of his extensive career in the throes of rock and roll.
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