Michael Felci

The Desert Sun

One of the first high-profile supporters of the genre now called desert rock was born in Ohio, raised in Virginia and today remains linked to Seattle.

"The future of grunge music is now evolving from Palm Springs, California — a band named Kyuss," proclaims Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl in a 1992 MTV interview with Kurt Cobain sitting to his right, coddling three-week old daughter Frances Bean.

"K-Y-U-S-S."

Actually, Kyuss emerged from the now-legendary Palm Desert generator scene. Despite Grohl's prediction, the original Kyuss lineup didn't make it through the year, and after putting out four albums the group disbanded in 1995. Today, Kyuss is best known for launching the career of Queens of the Stone Age leader Josh Homme.

But Grohl's infatuation with desert rock only grew after his first visit to Rancho de la Luna, a home recording studio in Joshua Tree owned by the late Fred Drake. The Foo Fighters frontman returns to that high desert landmark in Episode 5 of his eight-part documentary series "Sonic Highways," premiering Friday night on HBO.

In a recent wide-ranging interview with The Desert Sun, Grohl discussed the making of "Sonic Highways," being part of a supergroup, the allure of the desert and more.

So we're halfway through the series. What kind of feedback have you gotten so far?

Grohl: You know it's pretty incredible. I figured music nerds would appreciate it but it's really reaching a lot farther than I thought it would. The response has been people are getting very inspired and informed. I was just talking to someone today about Tony Joe White, who was in the Nashville episode. I knew a little about Tony Joe White but in the interviews I learned so much, and now people come up to me and say, "I just bought his record and he's (expletive) great." So it's working, it's really working. I'm more than pleased, I'm kinda overwhelmed.

It's such a huge (expletive) project; on paper it seemed like good idea — you know, "it seemed like a good idea at the time" — and then the amount of work we put into it the last two years is just monolithic. It's so (expletive) huge and now it's come to light, and it's great.

The episode premiering Friday, when was that filmed?

Grohl: The last Foo Fighters record we made in my garage, so the idea was to take the band out of its comfort zone. Then I made this documentary, "Sound City," which I never imagined I would direct anything.

So when it came time to make this record I thought, "we can't just walk into the studio. We have to do something special," and we kinda put those ideas together. Instead of putting the band in one environment let's try eight different cities. And rather than make one film about it, why not make it a series. It kinda snowballed from there. So it was about two years ago that we started.

How did you select the cities?

Grohl: We picked the cities for different reasons. A few of them we picked for their personal relevance, a connection to the band. Like Chicago was a place I used to go and it was the first place I saw a live band play, at this little bar in Chicago. That really inspired me. And Washington D.C., this where I grew up and not many people know about how it shaped me as a musician. And Los Angeles, (guitarist) Pat Smear was born and raised there. And Seattle, I have a lot of history there.

And there are cities like Austin, Texas. A lot of people don't know that the first psychedelic band is from there, the 13th Floor Elevators. People just think of Willie Nelson and country. But there's also blues and punk. … And New York, which is basically the music capital of the country… At first we wanted to go all over the world, but then we were like, "how the (expletive) are we gonna do that? You're out of your mind, that will take forever and cost a fortune." So we decided to just focus on America.

But Memphis, San Francisco — these are cities that have incredible musical histories as well, some more well known than others. So it was tricky. We just had to tell a story. And the hard part is telling a story in eight, one-hour episodes. It was tricky but we got it. It's an arc — there's a beginning and an end. These aren't singular documentaries – there all pieces in a puzzle of a story we're trying to tell.

In the episode airing Friday about L.A. and Joshua Tree, Chris Goss (Masters of Reality) and Mario Lalli (FatsoJetson) and Josh Homme talk about how the environment shaped the music that came out ofthe desert. Can you expand on that?

Grohl: Well, I discovered the desert — Rancho de la Luna — in the late-'90s, I guess it was 1997. And I had met the guys from Kyuss, and I had become friends with Josh and Nick [Oliveri]. And I had this one day off when we were making our second album in Los Angeles, and rather than take a break, a friend of mine named Pete Stahl from a band I was in called Scream said, "I gotta take you out to the desert."

As soon as I walked in the door at Rancho de la Luna I was, I kind of just felt free, you know? I had just spent all this time in a recording studio in Los Angeles and here I walk into a house tucked up into the hills, where there's an instrument hanging on every wall, there's a tape machine in the corner, and everyone's just hanging around drinking and eating, and you'll pick up an instrument and start strumming something and you turn around and Fred Drake is putting a microphone in front of you and hitting record.

It's like, wow — talk about a creative space place. And it's that environment that inspires you, or if you're blocked in any way it just releases all of that and you feel completely free creatively. So I just fell in love with it, and I never knew much about the desert. I'd never spent time under the stars surrounded by nothing but vast expanses around me.

It's an incredible place, and it really does affect you when you're out there. It's (expletive) awesome.

The clip from 1992 with Nirvana where you talk about Kyuss being the future of grunge, I noticed (Nirvana bassist)Krist [Novoselic] kinda rolls his eyes when you say that.

Grohl: Well, because at that point I had been obsessively campaigning for this band. I had bought "Blues for the Red Sun" and it was one of those records that I listened to over a thousand times. And not many people knew about them at the time so I was just trying to spread the good word. Like, "wow, you like that? Wait until you hear this." And every single person I played it for understood what I meant. And I said, "this is the best album of the year." And everybody from Kirk Hammett from Metallica to Kurt [Cobain] to people I surfed with to — everybody got into it, right out of the gate.

It was a good time for music because people like Nirvana or Soundgarden or Pearl Jam were given this opportunity to expose new bands to the world. And that's what Sonic Youth did with Nirvana. They were hugely popular in the underground — which meant they played to a thousand people a night. But they loved Nirvana so they took Nirvana on tour because they wanted to open up doors for bands that were doing something important. So that's what we tried to do. We tried to expose people to good music, whether it was the Butthole Surfers or Kyuss or whatever, we felt like, "wow, we're given this opportunity — here's what we think is legitimate and cool."

After Nirvana you could have done a lot of things musically — the first Foo Fighters album isessentially a solo album. But you chose to start your own band. What it is about being in aband that appealed to you then and still appeals to you?

Grohl: Well, it becomes a family. You know, when you've been in a band for 20 years, it's more than the songs, it's more than the t-shirts or the album cover. You know it might seem like a strange life but it is our life, and I've just gotten used to it. (Expletive) — I mean, I've been touring since I was 18 years old, so it's almost 30 (expletive) years ago. And so I've spent my life doing this. There's not anything I'd rather do, there's not anything else I know how to do.

I look at my band members like brothers and I look at my road crew like family, and when we're apart we miss each other, and when it's time to work we don't consider it work, you know. It's a good life if you can live it. Some people can't handle it.

You've done a few things with Josh [Homme] — I saw you with Them Crooked Vultures atCoachella. Do you think you'll ever bring that project back?

Grohl: We talk about it sometimes. People ask me all the time. It was the most exciting band for me, musically, that I've ever played with in my life because, Josh of course, is a brilliant musician and producer. John Paul Jones is an absolute legend. He's such an iconic player. So for me to sit behind a drum set and be the drummer was an honor. To me, personally, in my life, that's a supergroup. And we hated that word when people would say it. "Oh are you a supergroup?" Like, no — we're just people that know each other who are playing music. But me, I was like, "yeah, this is a supergroup."

But you have three people with three separate lives. You know, John Paul is like arranging operas; Josh is taking over the world with Queens of the Stone Age. And I have my little Foo Fighters band.

OK, you're putting together your dream band — who's in it?

Grohl: In my dream band? I'll be honest, I'm in my dream band. The thing about the Foo Fighters is like we're gears in a machine, we've known each other and played with each other for so long that we use our own ESP. But there's so many musicians that I've worked with and so many friends that I've gotten to jam with. Like, I would like to be in a band with Slash and Zac Brown and Paul McCartney and Brian May and Prince. These are all people that I've had the opportunity to have played with, so ... you know I just like jam sessions. Bring your instrument and plug in. It's so fun.

Finally, will there be a second season of "Sonic Highways"?

Grohl: I have no idea. Let me do this one first.

'Foo Fighters: Sonic Highways'

What: Episode 5 of the eight-part documentary series partially filmed in the Coachella Valley and high desert. Musicians with desert ties featured include Josh Homme (Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age), Chris Goss (Masters of Reality), Scott Reeder (Kyuss), Mario Lalli (Yawning Man, Fatso Jetson) and Dave Catching ( Eagles of Death Metal).

When: 7 p.m. Friday on HBO channel 518 (Time Warner Cable); 8 p.m. HBO 511 (TWC)

Foo Fighters at Coachella?

This week the Foo Fighters announced dates for their 2015 world tour, which actually kicks off in early December in Cape Town, South Africa. The group then hits South America, Australia, New Zealand and the UK before winding down in August back on home soil in Chicago.

Fans and various media outlets have noticed a substantial gap in the tour between early March and late May, which would make the band available for a headlining slot at Coachella.