If you think Dave is the coolest Grohl, that’s because you haven’t heard about his mother. Virginia Hanlon Grohl was a teacher for more than thirty years, but after retirement, she joined her son on tour. To hear Dave tell it, he would usually discover her partying with the bands backstage.
“When she retired, I was like, ‘Mom, don’t do the cruise ship thing like retirees [do]. I got a cruise ship, it’s a tour bus, let’s go,’” Grohl told Jimmy Fallon on a 2021 episode of The Tonight Show. “And she started going on tour with me. I gave her a [backstage pass], and she would just go hang out.
“I’d be on stage playing, [then] I’d go off stage like, ‘Where’s my mom? Where’s my mom?’” He continued. “And she’d be, like, drinking beers with Green Day upstairs. She’s very cool.”
Dave Grohl added that his mother had a great time touring with him. Clearly, she knew how to party. But during this experience, she raised an important question with her rockstar son.
“‘Where’s all the other moms?’” She allegedly asked. This burning question led Virginia to publish a book, From Cradle to Stage, in 2018. “She went to go find these mothers and interview them and talk to them about what it’s like to raise a musician,” Dave Grohl added.
Dave Grohl’s Mother Asked Other Moms of Famous Artists What It Was Like to Raise Rock Stars
“In the book, she talked to Dr. Dre, Mike D, she talked to Pharrell’s mom,” Dave Grohl continued, listing on his fingers. “And she talked to Zac Brown’s mom, Miranda Lambert’s mom, and then she made this great book.”
In 2021, the book was made into a documentary series on Paramount. Dave Grohl and his mother spoke to these artists and their moms in person, exploring childhood homes and sharing memories.
The six-episode series featured interviews with Dan Reynolds of Imagine Dragons and his mom, Christene; Pharrell Williams and his mom, Carolyn; and Miranda Lambert and her mom, Bev. There were also episodes featuring Brandi Carlile and her mom, Teresa; Tom Morello and his mom, Mary; and Geddy Lee and his mother, Mary Weinrib.
Unfortunately, Virginia Grohl passed away in August 2022, just a few months after Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins’ death. Dave Grohl was dealt a one-two punch of grief that year. But one thing that came out of it all was the heartfelt song “The Teacher”, which he penned for his mother during her last days.
“The Teacher” came together from two separate demos, Grohl told the Song Exploder podcast in 2023. “I imagined that if I were put them together, it’s more than a three- or four-minute song,” he explained. “It’s something much bigger … I could have a piece of music bigger than anything that we’ve ever done that I could dedicate to my mother.”
Photo by Scott Kowalchyk/CBS via Getty Images
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