Dave Grohl, who’s become rock’s unofficial spokesperson/UPROXX’s personal guru in recent years, gave the keynote address at South by Southwest last night, and he touched on topics as varied as Nirvana, naming your band, and “Gangnam Style” being one of his “favorite f*cking songs of the last 10 years.” Should you worry the man’s gone soft, though (those glasses…), here’s an excerpt of his speech that should calm your punk-loving fears.
[Dave’s cousin Tracy] brought him a stack of records from bands like the Misfits, Bad Brains, Minor Threat, and the Germs. “I sat down and I played every last one,” he said. “This was the first day of the rest of my life.” She took him to his first punk show in a dingy little hole-in-the-wall club called the Cubby Bear, right across from Wrigley Field, to see the local Chicago punk band Naked Ray Gun. ”Bodies were flying everywhere,” he remembered. “Spit and sweat and leather.. broken glass and piss and f*ckin’ puke. I was in heaven! And it was our secret.” The next day, he bought a Killing Joke t-shirt and the soundtrack to the Decline of Western Civilization. At 13 years old, he realized that he could start his own band, book his own shows, silkscreen his own t-shirts, do it all by himself. Later, he’d find himself checking out the Rock Against Reagan show at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on Independence Day. He heard the band Dirty Rotten Imbeciles play their song “I Don’t Need Society” and bought the record from the lead singer out of his van. “It was a 33 song seven-inch stuffed in a homemade sleeve, and it is still, to this day, one of my prized possessions.” (Via)
OK, you’re forgiven for the “Gangnam Style” comment. Watch the whole speech below.
(Via EW)
