Dave Grohl wrote a memoir, ‘The Storyteller’ — he says his life in rock ‘n’ roll started at a Chicago bar
CHICAGO — There’s a moment early in “The Storyteller,” Dave Grohl’s new memoir of a life in music, when a very young-looking teenage Grohl — mullet, overbite, punch-me smile, obvious suburban pedigree — decides to sell his soul to the devil or overlords of rock n’ roll or someone. Basically, anyone who would get him out of Virginia and behind drums for the rest of his life. He stages, in his family’s garage, a seance. With an altar, candles and everything. The root of his convictions: Many summers in Chicago, where he would vacation with his mother and her best friend. One night, that friend’s daughter took him to the Cubby Bear in Wrigleyville to see Naked Raygun. Suddenly, his future was clear.
“The first day of the rest of my life,” he writes.
His first concert, his introduction to punk rock. “The long drive back to Virginia,” he continues with awe, “was like a metaphorical journey from my past to my future.”
Dave Grohl, funny guy, leader of the Foo Fighters, drummer for Nirvana, rock’s Tom Hanks — he seems decent — has written a new kind of rock n’ roll memoir. The believably sincere kind. As a connoisseur of the music memoir — I read my weight in them, annually — trust me, we have seen the remarkable (Dylan), the beautiful (Patti Smith),
