Last Friday, January 10th, the Foo Fighters released his book " Dave Grohl: The Storyteller: Memories of Life and Music Nirvana drummer recounts, one stands out: The day he saw Pantera up close for the first time!
Grohl recounts that in 1996, the Foo Fighters were invited to play at Ozzfest in the UK as a last-minute Korn
“Don’t get me wrong, I was a die-hard metalhead, a card-carrying member, always. Body and soul, the kind who wore band patches on his back, collected cassette tapes, subscribed to fanzines, and jumped off the stage to crowd surf. But Ozzfest? The Foo Fighters? It made no sense to me. Perhaps the most bizarre combination of all time. An imminent disaster…”
Dave Grohl continues: “To make matters worse, we were scheduled to go on after Pantera. The heaviest, most accurate, fucking awesome metal band of all time. The kings of Cro-Magnon carnage. The fucking HELL COWBOYS.”
The Ozzfest lineup also included Black Sabbath , Slayer , and Soulfly , and in the book Grohl recalls arriving at the show:
"The day promised a majestic metallic showdown of gigantic proportions. Arriving backstage, I stuck my head out the bus window hoping to perhaps catch a glimpse of one of my idols. Tom Araya ! Scott Ian ! Tony Iommi ! Max Cavalera ! There they all were, just chilling like us, mere mortals."
“I hid in our dressing room for fear of being devoured alive. Not to mention that I didn't have the courage to walk onto the stage and face the certain fate that awaited us before that pulsating mass of humanity covered in leather and studs. Restless, I tried to devise a setlist a little more in the style of Motörhead , rummaging through our repertoire. More than making a good impression on the audience, I wanted to make a good impression on my heavy rock idols, hoping they would recognize that I was also a metalhead.”
"Finally gathering the courage to venture outside the prefabricated booth, I went to the side of the stage and witnessed what I can only describe as the most incredible, brutal, and vulgar display of force in the known universe: Pantera."
“As I had imagined, they were destroying the stage. Vinnie Paul , the master, the legend, was violently hammering away on his thundering mountain of drums. Phil Anselmo roared like a madman, as if possessed by all the evil spirits from exorcism movies combined. Rex Brown kept watch, holding his bass like a giant flamethrower aimed at the audience. And Dimebag Darrell … a gift from the gods to the guitar, stole the show with such ease, such flair, such poise, that he made jaws drop to the floor above the summer dust.”
“At one point, I looked behind the drums, and there was a shirtless, crazed fan smashing bottles and moshing alone, screaming every verse of the lyrics like his life depended on it. THAT was a true Pantera fan. Not that the other 64,999 people there weren't, far from it, but this guy was literally going crazy a few feet from the drums. He then crouched down to adjust a cymbal stand that had come loose from Vinnie Paul's merciless beating. How strange, I thought. In the end, that shirtless, crazed fan was Kat , Vinnie's roadie. Look, I'll tell you, I've never, ever seen anything so badass in all my years on the road. That wasn't a stage crew. It was a gang of outlaws. It wasn't a band. It was an overwhelming force of nature.”
“For a moment, I even forgot that we were going to play as well. I was so engrossed in the music that I didn’t remember that, after that historic performance, I would be coming on with my version of post-grunge alternative rock (you can stick your finger down your throat).”
Dave Grohl still remembers meeting the members of Pantera after the Foo Fighters show: “Afterwards we had the honor of meeting and spending time with Pantera, and those who have had that opportunity know it’s not for the faint of heart. To begin with, there has never been a band as warm, hospitable and down-to-earth as Pantera. It didn’t make the slightest difference who you were, what you did, where you came from. They welcomed you, put a beer in your hand and a shot in your mouth and made you laugh more than you’d ever laughed before.”
This and many other stories appear in the newly released book " Dave Grohl: The Storyteller - Memories of Life and Music " by Editora Intrínseca .
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