The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music

Scream is the punk band that had the biggest influence on Grohl, as he learned to play drums by listening to them and found their ability to branch out of punk music while maintaining its essence inspiring. In a twist of fate, Scream needed a new drummer when Grohl was 17. He auditioned and impressed Franz Stahl, the lead guitarist, by playing through every Scream record. Franz was impressed and asked Grohl to come back for a second audition with the whole band. Grohl blew everyone away, and they asked him to join the band.

Grohl was suddenly overcome by the fear of uprooting everything in his life to risk it with Scream and initially declined the offer. However, several weeks later, he went to a Scream concert and was inspired to change his mind. Grohl was most worried about disappointing his mother, who was a teacher, by telling her he wanted to drop out of school to join a band. When he informed her of his decision, her response was simply, “You’d better be good” (84). Grohl’s father essentially disowned him, disappointed that his son was not following in his path. Grohl’s existing bandmates of Dain Bramage also felt betrayed.