8 reasons why Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters rocks

If Dave Grohl played professional sports, he would be a hockey player. What other athlete would break a leg and find a way to play with his team shortly after suffering such a gruesome injury?

Back in June, the Foo Fighters’ Grohl fell off the stage into a security pit and busted his leg during a show in Gothenburg, Sweden. He went to the hospital, returned to the venue and finished the show.

Most fans thought the Foo Fighters, who have been one of the most consistent bands in rock in the past 20 years, would scrap the American leg of their “Sonic Highways” tour (they canceled a few European dates), but it didn’t go down that way. Grohl has played many shows since, including the band’s August show in Kansas City, Mo., seated in a chair. The frontman’s tenacity and dedication to his fans are two of the reasons why he rocks. Here are a few others.

1. There’s no doubt Grohl is the finest frontman who was once a drummer (apologies to Ringo Starr and Phil Collins). Grohl is a charismatic vocalist and a more than capable guitarist who has only improved with age.

2. Grohl turned down the opportunity to play drums for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Good call.

3. Grohl is a solid songwriter. While in Nirvana, Grohl wrote 40 songs but kept them to himself since he admitted that he was in awe of and intimidated by the songwriting ability of his bandmate Kurt Cobain. After Cobain’s death, Grohl fleshed out his songs, such as the anthemic “This Is a Call” and the hook-laden “I’ll Stick Around.”

4. Grohl takes chances, and he loves guests. During a recent performance in Los Angeles, Grohl made like Tom Petty as he and Stevie Nicks sang “Stop Dragging My Heart Around,” with the members of Haim providing backing vocals.

5. “Sound City” – a compelling, poignant and at times funny love letter of a documentary to the San Fernando Valley studio in which Nirvana recorded “Nevermind.” Fleetwood Mac, Rick Springfield and Cheap Trick also recorded seminal albums at the venerable studio.

When Grohl screened “Sound City” at South by Southwest three years ago, he answered fans’ questions for a solid half-hour. It didn’t matter how silly or redundant the questions were, Grohl handled them with aplomb and even went overtime despite the fact that he was performing right after the screening with his side project, the Sound City Players. Nicks, Springfield, Rick Nielsen and John Fogerty were just some of the musicians who make up the supergroup. “I’m just blown away by Dave Grohl,” Fogerty said then at SXSW. “He obviously loves rock and roll.”

6. The Foo Fighters – Grohl, Pat Smear, Nate Mendel, Taylor Hawkins and Chris Shiflett – are a throwback kind of band. The Foos play with the grit and tenacity of groups from yesteryear. The Foo Fighters would have fit in perfectly during the anything goes ’70s with such acts as the Rolling Stones, the Allman Brothers Band and Aerosmith.

They also recently brought back the “rickroll.” Before their August show in Kansas City, Grohl and his bandmates surprised members of the Westboro Baptist Church when the band showed up in a pickup truck and “rickrolled” the protesters by playing the musty Rick Astley hit “Never Gonna Give You Up.”

7. His connection with Taylor Hawkins. It’s not surprising that the guy most in synch with Grohl is a drummer. Grohl and Hawkins are entertaining onstage. You never know what either will say to each other.

8. The songs. “Everlong” (particularly the acoustic version), “My Hero” (is it about Cobain?), “Monkey Wrench,” “The Pretender,” “Long Road to Ruin” and many other tunes have defined the Foo Fighters.

This story was originally published September 25, 2015 at 8:27 AM with the headline "8 reasons why Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters rocks."