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Dave Grohl Explains His Superhuman Productivity on ‘Colbert’

dave grohl, sound city, stephen colbert, the colbert report

Dave Grohl does not stop. The 44-year-old Foo Fighter is already working on the Wasting Light rockers’ next album, after wrapping guest hosting duties on Chelsea Lately, premiering his feature-length Sound City documentary, and showing up on a couple of comedy podcasts. Now in the midst of a tour with his all-star Sound City Players supergroup, Grohl dropped by The Colbert Report last night (February 13) to answer a key question from the faux-conservative talk show host: “Why not phone it in and get fat?”

“Well,” Grohl explains, “I think that if you’re passionate about something and you’re driven and you’re focused, then you can pretty much do anything that you want to do in life.” The filmmaker/music video director then explains the impetus behind his Sundance-approved flick: Sound City, the legendary Los Angeles recording studio where Nirvana worked on Nevermind, closed, and as a tribute to the space, Grohl started interviewing musicians who recorded there over the years. He rattles off part of the list for Colbert — Stevie Nicks, Neil Young, Rick Springfield, and members of Cheap Trick among them — before reminiscing about Nirvana’s time at Sound City.

“The funny thing about Nirvana was that nobody really thought we were going to be a big band,” Grohl says. “At the time, Michael Bolton was huge.” The ex-Nirvana drummer says that interviewing Nevermind producer Butch Vig and former bandmate Krist Novoselic brought back some forgotten memories of the trio’s 16-day Sound City session, before stating the obvious: “That record turned out pretty good.” True, but unfortunately the same can’t be said for some of the albums it later inspired.

There are still a few theater screenings of Sound City coming up in select cities, but the doc is currently available as a $12.99 download. The much-anticipated Sound City Players’ debut LP, Sound City — Real to Reel, comes out on March 12 via Roswell/RCA.