Dorks Dave Grohl and Jimmy Fallon recall being dissed by cool kids Bowie and Obama, respectively
Aux Features Dave Grohl
If you’re uncool but still rich and famous, at least you’ll get made fun of by a better class of put-down artist. That’s the lesson learned by both Foo Fighters leader Dave Grohl and late-night host Jimmy Fallon, as they related on Monday’s Tonight Show. And, just to be clear, big stars Grohl and Fallon are the dorks in this scenario, telling stories as they did about being seriously one-upped by David Bowie (Grohl) and President Barack Obama (Fallon).
Laughing it up during Grohl’s appearance promoting Foo Fighters’ A.V. Club-divisive, COVID-delayed new album Medicine At Midnight (which the amenable Fallon was all-in for, naturally), Grohl started out by recalling the time that late legend David Bowie told him to take his new superhero movie song and stuff it. Of course, Bowie did it more charismatically and elegantly than that upon being approached to do the vocals for a Grohl-penned track intended to score some CGI Marvel mishegoss, responding to a Grohl email with an at-first polite explanation that such things weren’t “really my trip.” Fair enough, although Grohl—dorky Bowie fan that he was—couldn’t leave well enough alone, his succinct reply email seemingly coming off as big-timing the rock icon.
Look, according to self-described dad-joke spouting, Crocs-wearing uncool dude Grohl (he even demonstrates the Molly Ringwald dance at one point), Grohl was just being considerate of his hero’s time (and stunned that David Bowie actually used email). That didn’t stop Bowie from immediately firing back a crisp missive reading, verbatim, “Well, that’s settled then. Now fuck off.” It took a number of sweaty emails for Grohl to discover that the effortlessly droll Bowie was just screwing with him, leading to a years-long correspondence of Bowie making Grohl feel very uncool—and yet still cool enough that David Bowie took the time to goof on him. (Fallon also shared his own story of Bowie expertly dressing him down in public. Over his wardrobe, no less.)
As for inveterate goof Fallon, he had a similar tale of being made to see just where he stands on the coolness scale, involving no one less than President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle. Invited to a Fourth of July White House picnic (and, yes, that’s something of a humblebrag) Fallon, naturally, made the choice to dress up. In a three-piece suit. In D.C. in July. So he was pretty swampy when he finally got to hang with the Obamas (fellow attendee Grohl, true to his dad vibe, was in board shorts), his sartorial efforts deflated with some deadpan mockery from the leader of the free world. At least Mrs. Obama playfully loosened Fallon’s strangling, sweat-soaked necktie, showing dorks everywhere that it does get better—if you manage to get famous enough.
29 Comments
Grohl’s lack of cool will always be uber cool to me. Who else would admit a preteen from the UK owned him on drums?
Meanwhile Fallon’s lack of cool … remains uncool.
LOL. Yes.
Grohl’s one of the few who managed to follow a trajectory from “young rock star” to “popular dad rocker” fairly gracefully by just embracing both halves of the equation at the appropriate time. The guys desperately trying to hold onto the first one are almost always come off weird and usually pretty depressing. David Crosby is demonstrating how not to do this just today.
Oh God, do I even want to google? 😉 I’m closer to Crosby’s era than Grohl’s. Alas.
He’s feuding with Phoebe Bridgers, an indie rock/folk musician 53 years younger than him over if/how you should smash a guitar on stage, but it’s not like he’s into QAnon shit. It’s not exactly aging gracefully, but you don’t have to burn your LPs or anything.
Already unloaded 3k LPs and ten times as many CDs when broadcasting downsized me for the last time. Might as well have burned them for what I got.ETA: Everyone criticizing her for doing what’s been done (by their gen) smacks of sexism and hypocritical bullshit. SO. 🙂
Grohl was a dad rocker when he was still in Nirvana. He wanted the kid from the Encyclopedia Britannica commercials (“Remember me??”) to star in one of their videos. Such a dorky dad thought.
Is it really a shock to anyone that Jimmy Fallon would be dissed by “cool kids”?
Or uncool kids. Or adults. Or anyone. The guy makes Jay Leno look good.
Leno at least knew he was smarmy and milquetoast and didn’t give a fuck what other people thought about it. Fallon is so clearly desperate for the approval of others.
Maybe good as a host, but never as person. I’m still waiting for him to swoop in and steal the Tonight Show back.
He’s been hiding in Jimmy Fallon’s closet this entire time.Which was an actual thing Jay Leno did to spy on developments in “The Tonight Show’s” transition to Conan.
No, that was when he stole the Tonight Show out from under Letterman.
Ah, right. Still, what a ridiculous thing for a supposed adult to do.
I have a feeling if Letterman had done that his fans would be praising his craftiness.
What a dink.
Booo, Fallon.Yaaaaay, Grohl!…Booo, Fallon!
Now there’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time. Let me think… Nope! Still pissed off at him for normalizing Donald Trump! He can continue to fuck right off.
NBC’s performing monkey did exactly what he was hired to do, stop pretending Fallon was doing capable of “60 Minutes” -style interviews and move on.
It’s not that the interview should have been better. It’s that it shouldn’t have happened at all. And since CBS’s guy, ABC’s guy, and everyone else all knew better than to normalize him by putting him on their show, Fallon doesn’t get a pass.
Colbert and Kimmel both had Trump on.
How do you “normalize” someone who’s already got the presidential nomination of a major party?
Grohl absolutely destroyed the drums on Hallo Spaceboy at Bowie’s 50th birthday pay-per-view special. It was spectacular.
+1 for anything on 1.Outside
A criminally underrated album. Such a shame we never got the sequel.
A perfect example of the mantra “if you think anything Bowie did wasn’t brilliant, wait 10 years.”
I thought that Alaskan bush dad dude died?
Obama’s memoir forever shattered any pretense of him being a “cool kid.”