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10 Reasons Why Dave Grohl Is ‘The Nicest Dude in Rock’

This guy! / Photo by Christopher Polk/KCA2011/Getty Images for Nickelodeon

Dave Grohl’s recent good deeds during a sojourn in Philadelphia shouldn’t come as a surprise — he’s the nicest guy in rock! The Philadelphia Inquirer reported yesterday (via Spinner) that Grohl left a whopping $2,000 in gratuities at the Smith and Wollensky bar in Philly’s Rittenhouse Hotel, where he dropped the first grand tip on “a drink” last Friday night (yes, that’s a 10,000 percent tip, if it was a $10 cocktail), and returned the next night with a second g, after having “a few drinks.” While Wavves have already stepped in to explain Grohl’s winning personality to the world, there is still enough confusion out there on the Internet as to what exactly the ex-Nirvana drummer did to earn this title, so we decided to outline few of the key points from his decades-spanning “good dude” crusade. Exhibit A, Your Honor:

  • Remembers Deserving Fans: A few years ago the Guardian documented perhaps the most prominent “nice guy” anecdote to Grohl’s name — he recognized a fan with cerebral palsy who had sent him and the Foos photos of her dancing to their music and spent 20 minutes chatting with her after a show. At a later Queens of the Stone Age gig (he was sitting in on drums), he recognized her again, and invited her to attend their video shoot the next day. Dave Grohl: nice even when nobody’s documenting it on camera.
  • Supports Charities: According to Look to the Stars, a celebrity giving monitor, Grohl has donated to roughly a billion children’s charities, including 21st Century Leaders, Worldwide Orphans Foundation, and Teen Cancer America.
  • Supports EDM Against His Analog Instincts: At this year’s Grammy Awards, Grohl sucked it up and appeared alongside Deadmau5 and other electronic artists to perform a (granted, a weird) mashup. Even though he made some backhanded remarks in the band’s acceptance speech after winning Best Rock Album, he clarified that he “loves all kinds of music… electronic or acoustic, it doesn’t matter to me.”
  • Sits in for Sick Colleagues: When Cage the Elephant drummer Jared Champion’s appendix burst in October right before the band was to play a show in Salt Lake City, Grohl stepped in and saved the day.
  • Doesn’t Creep on Frances Bean Cobain: Courtney Love alleged Grohl had “hit on” Frances Bean Cobain, who quickly released an official statement stating, “I have never been approached by Dave Grohl in more than a platonic way. I’m in a monogamous relationship and very happy. Twitter should ban my mother.”
  • Forbids Fighting at Foo Shows: Sometimes, it’s tough love. Behold:

  • Gives Superfans the Bootlegs They Want: A month after winning basically all the rock Grammys last February, the Foos gently reminded fans just how old-school (and nice!) they’ll always be by throwing up a stream of their 1995 Reading Festival set with — surprise — a très analog cassette tape skin on their website.
  • Performs in Fans’ Garages: To promote their 2011 record Wasting Light, Foo Fighters brought the show to eight lucky fans’ own homes. “I didn’t win the lottery, but I got this,” one superfan said, “If I won the lottery the first thing I would do is pay to have Foos play in my garage.”

  • Muppeteers Even At Risk of Courtney Love’s Disdain: Grohl’s appearance in The Muppets last year as the drummer of “The Moopets” was bolstered by the inclusion of the Muppet cover of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” that pissed Love off so much. Kermit and Miss Piggy (and Fozzie, and Animal…), we’re sure thank him for his support.
      • Hate-Protests the Hate-Protesters: Before a Kansas City, Missouri, show last fall, Grohl and the rest of the Foo Fighters gave a group of hate-mongering anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church protesters a taste of their own medicine by dressing up like “rednecks” and performing a goofy country spoof about, among other things, “hot man muffins” while the group picketed their show.