(Credits: Far Out / Raph Pour-Hashemi)
Fri 9 January 2026 17:00, UK
For someone who started out as a drummer, Dave Grohl has done pretty well for himself in terms of convincing the world that he’s got far more to offer as a songwriter as well.
From his early days providing the rhythm for Nirvana, few could have predicted the trajectory that Grohl’s career would take in the years following the group’s disbandment. The formation of Foo Fighters in 1995 and their subsequent self-titled debut album pegged him as a multi-talented force who was capable of far more than most would assume from a drummer, and when the band began to release further material, it was clear that he hadn’t simply fluked his way into the spotlight.
Some of the band’s early material is perhaps among their best as well, with tracks like ‘Big Me’ showcasing a mellower side to a man previously known for lashing the hell out of his drumkit, and ‘This Is A Call’ having a touch more of the aggression that may have been expected from Grohl while adding in something of a power pop flair as an addition.
It was clear from this record that his songwriting chops were present, and that Grohl contained multitudes in this sense as well. As far as public perception of his new project went, they were an instant commercial success, and it led the band to embark on substantial tours that saw them playing large venues for a band that were only just starting out.
Grohl’s prior connections to the world of alternative music were obviously also a handy contributing factor to his success, and it also meant that they could convince bands of a high calibre to join them on tour. With the window open for the band to select personal favourites of theirs, they opted to bring along a fast-rising duo who, against all odds, were on the verge of their own commercial breakthrough.
Given the strangeness and hard to pin down approach to genre experimentation of the group, it’s something of a miracle that Ween were ever able to garner mainstream acclaim, but they were also the sort of band who racked up a large amount of fans within the music scene itself, with Grohl being a vocal supporter of their work.
When the two acts embarked on tour together, during their show at the Hollywood Palladium, Grohl invited the pseudo-brotherly duo of Gene and Dean Ween (aka Aaron Freeman and Mickey Melchiondo) on stage to perform a rendition of their own song, ‘Freedom of ‘76’; a track taken from their 1994 record Chocolate and Cheese that showcases the extreme versatility of Freeman’s vocal range, and the ingenious chord progressions of Melchiondo.
After flooring the audience with their collaborative performance, Grohl addressed the crowd to apologise for his own inferiority, claiming that his own band don’t have the ability to match what Ween created with this masterful song. “We don’t have any songs that are as good as that,” he joked, “so we had to ask them to help us out with our set. I’d give my left leg to write a song as pretty as ‘Freedom of ’76.’”
‘Freedom of ‘76’ is indeed Ween at their most gorgeous, and considering they were also able to write songs as peculiar as ‘Push th’ Little Daisies’ and as vulgar as ‘LMLYP’, it’s clear that as daft as they seemed, they were perhaps even more multi-faceted as songwriters than Grohl has ever proved himself to be. For someone as celebrated as him to recognise their talents hiding beneath the layers of juvenile humour and stoner antics only goes to highlight just how special they were.
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