Grohl gets in the grooves
On Record Store Day, he’ll put the needle down on new vinyl
When Record Store Day spins its way to 1,200 shops nationwide Saturday,
Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl will be first in line. He’s this year’s ambassador to the event, which will see roughly 400 new and limited-edition releases go on sale. The group has cooked up a four-song, 10-inch vinyl for the occasion: Songs From the Laundry
Room, which includes demos and a previously unreleased track.
Before the big day, USA TODAY’s Patrick Ryan talked to Grohl about all things vinyl.
Q: What’s the first record you ever bought? A: A K-Tel compilation called
20 Original Hits, and it had KC & the Sunshine Band and Alice Cooper on it. This was probably 1975. But it had the Edgar Winter Group, his song Frankenstein, and that changed my life. At that point, I just listened to AM radio with my mother, and was really into Helen Reddy and Carly Simon. Then I heard Frankenstein and was like, “This is music.” I got really into it! I think that’s what inspired me to become a musician. I still have the record; it brings back a lot of memories.
Q: What do you remember about the record stores you’d go to growing up in Virginia?
A: I started listening to underground punk rock when I was maybe 12 or 13. I had spent time in record stores around my area — there were a couple of places where you could buy the albums coming out on major labels and the more famous, recognizable acts. But once I got into punk rock, I started mail-ordering albums, because a lot of the record stores in my area didn’t carry the punk bands from England or Sweden or Chicago or L.A.
Q: Why have vinyl sales surged, particularly among young people?
A: I think maybe what happened was the convenience of technology overshadowed the experience of holding an album in your hands, and sitting on your bedroom floor, and staring at a picture of John Lennon or Gene Sim- mons or Johnny Rotten. That tangible experience can sometimes become an even more emotional experience, because it’s really happening. Someone curating songs for you through your computer or being able to hold 10,000 songs on your watch — that convenience is pretty incredible, but so is the emotional impact of holding a Beatles record in your hand and listening to Let It
Be, like, “Wow. That’s heavy.”