Dave Grohl is a monster among men. When other singers are canceling tours, running for throat surgery, and licking donuts in protest, Dave Grohl is on stage having a doctor set his dislocated ankle and splint his broken leg as he plays.
When Foo Fighters frontman Grohl fell off the stage in Sweden last month, he grabbed a doctor in the house, brought the man onstage, and kept on playing while the doctor worked.
Foo Fighters had a huge show planned for Independence Day weekend at RFK Stadium in Washington, DC, which is Dave’s backyard. There was no way he was going to miss that show, the lineup of which included Joan Jett, Heart, Buddy Guy, Trombone Shorty, and Guy Clark.
So Dave Grohl grabbed a pen and paper. While high on Oxycontin painkillers — legally prescribed — he sketched out what has now become a famous tour fixture. His throne is reminiscent of the Iron Throne from the Game of Thrones television show, but with guitar necks instead of swords.
Dave Grohl designed his Foo Fighters throne while he was high http://t.co/ijEGhH8KFU pic.twitter.com/9zLHB8UB2x
— Mashable (@mashable) July 6, 2015
“The idea of the throne is just fucking ridiculous,” Grohl told Entertainment Weekly, “especially for a band that has never relied on any kind of production at all. We usually just put the amps on the stage, turn on the lights, and play. Now we’ve got this throne that shoots lights and smoke out of it and looks like a fucking UFO with guitar necks stuck in it.”
But the sight of that throne, with Dave Grohl’s hair flying, has become a rallying cry of sorts for audiences who love that he is not sitting this one out, even though no one would blame him.
Dave Grohl performs first gig since breaking his leg — while sitting on a throne. http://t.co/HHfcYnls18 pic.twitter.com/jJfXv8w9ae
— Mashable (@mashable) July 5, 2015
“When the audience sees me in that chair, they realize we’re all in this together,” Grohl told the Associated Press. “I’m just a dude with a broken leg and I’m going to give you three hours of everything I got.”
“The shows we’ve been doing lately are our favorite shows that we’ve ever done,” Grohl says. “What seemed like a setback at the time has turned into this beautiful blessing in disguise, where this throne and these crutches and these audiences make us play longer and harder than we ever have. It’s this whole new energy in the show.”
Dave Grohl designed a throne while high, and somebody actually made it http://t.co/uQl0PY0hXG pic.twitter.com/3CsGNcdpgL
— The AV Club (@TheAVClub) July 6, 2015