51 pages • 1 hour read
Dave GrohlThe Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music
Dave GrohlNonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Full Circle
Everything in Grohl’s life eventually comes full circle—sometimes by his own actions and sometimes by what seems like fate or divine intervention. This motif is strung throughout his memoir, making its way into each major anecdote, and serving as one of the book’s principal ideas. Grohl begins exploring the idea of the full circle in his very first chapter, where he recalls the day Harper asked him to teach her how to play drums. Grohl sees a mirror image of himself in Harper as he watches her pound the drums to one of his favorite AC/DC tracks. He believes that the passion for and tendency toward music is “something that comes from the inside out” (18), and marvels at the fact that he is introducing his own daughter to music just like his own mother did for him years before. Grohl grew up with a loving and supportive mother, but his parents divorced when he was young, and his father was largely absent or judgmental and harsh when he was present. Grohl reflects on this dichotomy that his parents instilled in him and knows that “[s]ome cycles are meant to be broken. Some are meant to be reinforced” (348).
Grohl has a surreal experience with this wraparound effect when he runs into the girl who acted in the “Heart-Shaped Box” video decades earlier. She ends up being his stylist for a presidential performance, and Grohl reflects on the irony of this moment:
Standing in the middle of it all was a little girl in a white hood and robe, her giant eyes full of sadness, perhaps a representation of the innocence Nirvana had lost with our traumatizing rise to fame. And now, here we were, reunited in a fitting room, pinning the cuffs of the pants that I’d be wearing while playing a Beatles song to a room full of movie stars. Irony much? (357).
Significant musical moments seem to repeat throughout Grohl’s life, including his experiences with his daughters and his meeting people like Paul McCartney and Neil Young. Grohl takes comfort in knowing that his life is this way and finds it to be a pattern that he respects and relies on.
Perseverance
Grohl’s memoir is filled with accounts of pivotal experiences—moments that change him forever. These occasions in Grohl’s life are tests of his strength, will, and perseverance. Working his way up to where he is today was no easy task, requiring great sacrifices along the way. In one of these anecdotes, Grohl relates the story of breaking his foot on stage during a performance with the Foo Fighters. He continued playing as his foot was first held up by a staff member and then put in a cast mid-show. Grohl’s perseverance on this day showcases the type of person he is, as well as the type of person he aspires to be because “the show must go on” (40).
In another, more extended experience, Grohl’s perseverance was tested when he went to live with Kurt in his ramshackle apartment in Seattle. Grohl believes that those months “had been a test of [his] own strength and perseverance, the music being [his] only consolation and reward” (145). When Grohl reflects on this period in his life, he sees it as a major shifting point in his career and his perspective, because making it to the top was much harder than it seems from the outside. Although Nirvana rose to fame quickly, fame had its own downsides, and the rapid rise seemed to escalate the speed with which fame took its toll. Grohl was devastated when Kurt died and didn’t play music for some time. Ultimately, he decided to continue pursuing his passion in spite of his grief, and his perseverance through this period of mourning was the foundation of his success with the Foo Fighters.
Grohl believes that “courage is a defining factor in the life of any artist” (355). He writes these reflective words as he retells the most important lesson his oldest daughter, Violet, has ever taught him. Grohl accompanied Violet for her first live singing performance at school and watches in amazement as his daughter belts her voice out for the world to hear, showing her bravery. When Grohl was offered a chance to perform at the Academy Awards In Memoriam segment, he wanted to decline, fearful despite his years of success. At his daughter’s encouragement and inspired by her own courage, Grohl decided to accept the offer to perform and pushed through his anxiety. In this moment of perseverance, Grohl once again gave back what he was given, modeling the courage that he saw in his own child because people inspire people.
Photos of Life’s Memories
Photos from Grohl’s life are strewn throughout his memoir. The memoir’s very first photo is a shot of Grohl as a young boy, wearing a striped sweater and with his hands stuffed in his pockets. Grohl looks at the camera with a shy smile, and this photo symbolizes his innocence before years of experience and playing music changed him forever. Part 1 is introduced with a photo of Grohl’s parents cutting their wedding cake, the representing beginning of his existence, long before he actually arrived. What follows is a series of photos of Grohl as a child, which are presented alongside his retellings of childhood stories. Similar to Grohl’s writing style, the photos are not chronologically organized or arranged in a particular fashion; instead, they are placed here and there, accenting pages as they appear. In most of the photos that feature Grohl, he is smiling widely, showing the inner pride he feels in these moments. Grohl seems to especially swell with pride in the photo of himself with his daughters at the daddy-daughter dance, as he flew to and from Australia on the same day to be there for them.
Grohl’s inclusion of photos adds to the authenticity and accessibility of his memoir. He includes photocopies of tour dates with Scream, old postcards he sent back home on his first ever world tour, and raw shots of himself wailing on the drums. Photos of adoring crowds at Nirvana concerts showcase the level of fame that the band had reached in such a short time. When Grohl discusses losing two of his dearest friends, Jimmy Swanson and Kurt Cobain, he frames the chapters with photos of each of them in their prime. People inspire people, and Grohl includes photos to more fully illustrate the people who inspire him, putting faces to the names and cementing Grohl’s thoughts on the importance of human contact and meeting your heroes: “When the one-dimensional image becomes a living, breathing, three-dimensional human being, it fills your soul with reassurance that even our most cherished heroes are flesh and bone” (307).
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