If you watched Dave Grohl perform an acoustic version of “Everlong” at Oates Song Fest 7908 over the weekend, then you’ve already heard the story behind the iconic Foo Fighters song. For the rest of us, that performance and tale is now available on YouTube, Instagram, and everywhere in between.
According to Grohl, the Foo Fighters’ debatably most popular song was birthed in a Seattle recording studio while he was waiting between takes, and it initially began with a chord that sounded “like Sonic Youth.”
Grohl then went on to explain that he was going through a breakup at the time, and his intense emotions combined with the unique chord (which Grohl points out he didn’t understand from a musical perspective as he repeatedly emphasizes that he’s not a trained musician) to lay the groundwork for the song.
Not wanting to forget what he was working on, Grohl said he laid a quick demo down at a friend’s studio and shared that with people (including Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore) before recording the full version shortly after. He also disclosed that he’d never really thought of the song as an acoustic track, but when Howard Stern asked him to perform it on his show, “it gave the song a whole new rebirth.”
Check out the full video below to see Grohl explain the full origins of the song below.
