Dave Grohl has found himself involved with a lot of musical endeavors outside of Foo Fighters over the decades. One of the most beloved was Them Crooked Vultures, a supergroup he formed with Queens Of The Stone Age’s Josh Homme and Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones that released a self-titled album in 2009. Now, Grohl has taken some time to reflect on the band and he revealed that he hopes the group is able to get together again.
On a recent episode of Apple Music’s Medicine At Midnight Radio, Grohl spoke about what it was like being a part of that trio, saying:
“Them Crooked Vultures is a dream band for any drummer because I got to be a part of this three-piece rhythm section because Josh isn’t just a soloist. Josh plays the drums. He plays the guitar like a drummer and John Paul Jones is the greatest rock’n’roll bass player in the history of music. When we sat down to start playing, it was about 30 seconds to a minute and we realized this is a real band. This is the real deal. We would walk into the studio every day with no ideas. We would sit down, we’d have tea, we’d have coffee, we’d start jamming. By the end of that night, we’d have an eight-minute-long opus. Just a rock masterpiece. It was incredibly inspiring. It was a really incredible time. I hope that someday we do it again.”
Describing the band as “a dream come true for me,” he also discussed how it came to be:
“For years Josh and I had talked about doing some side-project. Something that wasn’t Queens Of The Stone Age, something that wasn’t Foo Fighters. Maybe it was just Josh and I. Maybe he plays drums, I play guitar. Maybe he plays guitar, I play drums. Just something that was just an experimental project. I was invited to go to London to give an award to the members of Led Zeppelin. I had met John Paul Jones before because he had performed on a Foo Fighters record and he had performed with us on the Grammys once. John Paul Jones is one of the most wonderful, generous, kind people you’ve ever met. He’s just a great guy. He’s obviously brilliant, but he’s just cool. He’s fun to hang out with. I said to Josh, I’m like, ’Hey, I’m about to go give the Zeppelin guys this award. Do you want me to ask John Paul Jones if he’ll play bass?’ Josh was like, ’You know John Paul Jones?’ I’m like, ’Well, not really, kind of. I’ve jammed with them before.’ Josh said, ’Yeah, let me know how it goes.'”
The good news for Vultures fans is that Homme is on board with a reunion, as he indicated in 2019 that he’s basically just waiting for Grohl to get the ball rolling, telling Rolling Stone, “The ironic thing is that we all want to do another Vultures record and I think everyone has certain roles they play in the Vultures, and in all honesty, I feel like part of Dave’s role — since he got it together the first time by saying, ‘Hey, do you wanna try this?’ — I feel like that’s part of in his job description in Vultures. I have my various things that I’m supposed to do I think, but that isn’t one of them. But I’m always ready to be in Them Crooked Vultures again.”
