(Credits: Far Out / Raph Pour-Hashemi)
Dave Grohl has never been the kind of musician known for disappointing his fans. He knew that the people in the nosebleed seats were as responsible for getting him into those stadiums as the ones who paid major sales figures for a front-row seat, and he was never going to rest until he gave the performance of his life for every single crowd that he played to. But if there’s one thing that Grohl is before anything else, it’s a fan of music, and he knew that some artists might be able to trump his love of being the frontman of Foo Fighters.
As far as Grohl is concerned, the art of collaboration never gets old when working with the greatest artists of all time. Considering his track record with working with everyone from Lemmy to Paul McCartney to Nine Inch Nails, he wants to perform with every single rock star that he’s ever met and will move the Earth if it means getting the opportunity to hop behind the drum kit or share a microphone.
But for someone like Grohl, working with McCartney should logically be the moment where everything peaks. No one manages to get higher than working with a member of The Beatles, but in terms of Grohl’s badass approach to rock and roll, The Rolling Stones were a much better indicator of what he was looking for. The Fab Four taught him to play, but The Stones taught him how to make the guitar snarl a little bit more.
And while most rock stars break out in a cold sweat at the thought of working with someone like Keith Richards, Mick Jagger has always been the workhorse behind the group. Some of his artistic instincts might not always be right when working on some of their poppier albums like Dirty Work, but the minute he walks onstage, there isn’t a soul on the planet who has more energy than him.
So for someone that is the equivalent of Animal from The Muppets whenever he gets behind the drumkit, getting Grohl to back Jagger during any song should have been a no-brainer. The opportunity to jam with one of the greatest frontmen of all time doesn’t come around very often, but even when the band had a show to do, Grohl was willing to leave a crowd stranded if it meant performing some Stones songs.
Grohl had already got the word that he was requested to serve as part of Jagger’s backing band on Saturday Night Live when he told his manager, but he would have gladly moved the Earth if it meant that nothing stood in his way, telling Lars Ulrich, “[Lorne Michaels] said, ‘I’m working on the series finale and the host is going to be Mick Jagger. The Stones aren’t doing anything right now, and he needs a band.’ I look at my calendar, and we have a show to do in Jones Beach. I call up [manager John] Silva, and he says, ‘You got a show that day’. I’m like, ‘I DON’T CARE. IT’S MICK JAGGER, MAN. There’s no fucking way I’m saying no to this.’”
But like any great superhero movie, Grohl found out that he could do both at the same time. After getting done with the gig, he was thrown into a plane and was able to make it to showtime, only this time with a bit more energy. Because while The Stones have their signature nervy energy whenever they play, hearing him play tunes like ‘Bitch’ with Jagger at the afterparty was a far nastier affair than anything they had done before.
Grohl might have the kind of strength of ten full-grown men whenever he gets behind the kit, but if there’s one thing he values before anything else, it’s the position he’s in as a Swiss army knife artist. No one could have pulled off something this involved without either getting jet-lagged or passing out from exhaustion, but Grohl is truly built from something stronger than steel.
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