The Tao of Foo

Photo by Matthias Vriens

WHAT COMES AROUND, GOES AROUND

The Prince cover is something of an inside joke. Back in 2003, the Foos recorded "Darling Nikki" for an Australian B-side. The Artist returned the favor in grand style. "I was on vacation in Hawaii," Grohl recalls. "It was Jordyn and Violet and me sitting around the pool, and someone came up and said, 'Hey, man, Prince just played your song ["Best of You"] at the Super Bowl.' " Grohl raced back to his room to check out the clip online. "I got chills. I couldn't believe that someone I consider a genius would know my band's name, much less sing words I wrote."

Never one to shortchange an idol, Grohl and his colleagues (including Cee-Lo Green) turn in a funked-up cover of "Darling Nikki" for the VMAs.

BE FOOTFUL AND MULTIPLY, REDUX

Shiflett: "Hey, Taylor, did I tell you? We're gonna have another kid."
Hawkins: "Boy or girl?"
Shiflett: "Another boy."
Hawkins: "Cocks all around!"

DON'T BE AFRAID TO USE THE F-WORD

"After doing this for 12 years, we're starting to talk about the long term," Mendel says. "Which is strange. This should be when we're winding down as a band -- some of us are approaching 40. We've done our sixth record. But now is when we're laying the groundwork for doing another six records."

Shiflett, as close as anyone in the band comes to a realist, offers a more cautious assessment: "There's no job security in this. We could break up tomorrow or keep playing till we're all little old men. I hope I'm not doing it at, like, Magic Mountain. I hope I'm not in the Cirque du Soleil house band. But I wouldn't mind being on a Foo Fighters tour playing the House of Blues."

As for the Benign Dictator himself, he's not afraid to use the F-word. Especially after paying a visit to one of his own heroes, the aging but still artistically valid and challenging Neil Young. "That was the first time I realized, 'Oh, you can do this,' " Grohl says. "You can make it last forever, if you do it right."

GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT YOU WANT

The song Grohl is proudest of on the new album is "Home," which he performs mostly solo, at the piano. It's a plaintive waltz, and the track from which the title of the album derives. He wrote the lyrics in five minutes, sang it once, and immediately knew he'd made a breakthrough.

"And I could give a shit whether our fans like 'The Pretender' more than 'Home,' because to me, 'Home' is the best song I've ever written. It might not be a typical Foo Fighters song or something you expect from the band, but man, I finally did it. And it gives me hope that maybe I can do it again."

Grohl tells me this at the end of another long day of rehearsal. He's standing in his driveway with Violet, gazing at her adoringly while she locks and unlocks a car with a set of keys she's found. I can't help but think of his performance of "Home" for the Wal-Mart shoot. It was the last song the band performed, a kind of gentle coda. Grohl's voice sounded more vulnerable than I'd ever heard, mournful even, as he sang: "People I've loved, I have no regrets / Some I remember, some I forget / Some of them living, and some of them dead."

There was a slight hitch in his voice on that last word, and the rest of band, instinctively, bowed their heads. The track may not be a hit, but it turned that room, however briefly, into a church.

There was a long silence when the song ended, broken finally by Hawkins, who said simply, "Don't get much better than that."

Grohl, clearly shaken up, gathered himself for a moment.

"Let's do one more."

Steve Almond is the author of the new essay collection (Not that You Asked), which features a long, raunchy tribute to the joys of Tesla and heavy metal in general.