Austin Way Magazine - GreenGale Publishing - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
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photography by roswell Films (grohl); ringo starr (portrait) "After 20 years, we're like family," Grohl (center) says of his bandmates (from left) Pat Smear, Nate Mendel, Taylor Hawkins, and Chris Shiflett. Dave Grohl reflects on his rock roots while filming an episode of Sonic Highways. Emmy nominations; they focused their Austin epi- sode mainly on Austin City Limits. When the band rides into town, it will be riding high. "Austin City Limits inspired me as a kid. I was about 8 when I first saw it and just learning to play." Grohl continues. "There was nothing like it on TV. You could watch an entire musical performance in front of an audience." At 46, Grohl is the longhaired, hard-rocking, and passionately talkative nice guy of the music world. He has never lost his appreciation for the business that made him an icon among wildly disparate groups, ranging from grunge-rock kids to 40-some- thing moms and dads. But, he is quick to point out, he is surrounded by guys who also know their stuff. "Our band is kind of a group of musicologists," says Grohl. "Chris [Shif lett] knows a lot about country. Nate [Mendel] and I know a lot about the underground scene. Pat [Smear] and Taylor [Hawkins] know a ton about classic rock. And so when we started choosing the cities [for Sonic Highways], people would say, 'Oh what about this guy? What about this club? What about this stu- dio?'" The complicated project took years to produce, with Grohl interviewing music inf luenc- ers in each of the cities and then writing lyrics to new songs, weaving phrases and references from the interviews into each to place the song firmly in the city in which it was recorded. Each song was recorded in a studio that helped shape the music of the city—in Austin, it was K LRU's Studio 6A, the AUSTIN CITY LIMITS MUSIC FESTIVAL WHEN: October 2–4 and October 9–11 WHO: Foo Fighters, Gary Clark Jr., Drake, The Strokes, Alt-J, Tame Impala, TV on the Radio, Billy Idol, Run the Jewels, Leon Bridges, and dozens more. WHERE: Zilker Park TICKETS: Three-day passes for each weekend are sold out, but at press time, premium weekend passes and single-day tickets ($100 each) were still available. INFO: aclfestival.com original home of Austin City Limits. Recalls drum- mer Taylor Hawkins, "Dave says, 'I'm going take sentences from the interviews and write a song.' And I thought, That seems really difficult. But it's given him a whole new way of writing lyrics." Chris Shif lett, the band's lead guitarist, says, "Sonic Highways became a way to show our love and passion for what we do and for music history." Adds Grohl: "The whole concept really came out of trying to explain how these cities seem connected some- how. Whether it begins with Robert Johnson or ends with Lady Gaga, it's all connected by something." The cities chosen were relevant not only to the band members themselves, but to music history as a whole. The Austin track, "What Did I Do?/God is my Witness" references Austin music legend Roky Erickson's psychedelic band, The 13th Floor Elevators, and local punk rockers Tim Kerr and Chris Gates, who f lipped a coin to see who would play guitar in their band, The Big Boys. On the song, the Foos are joined by Austin blues guitarist Gary Clark Jr., who is also performing at this ACL Festival. "Gary represents something very important," Grohl says. "He is so humble, but he is carrying the torch of the blues greats who came before him. That's a responsibility I don't know that anybody wants to have, but he has it in his soul. There's no disconnect between his heart and the instrument." Foo Fighters perform at the ACL Music Festival on Friday, October 2, and Friday, October 9. AW CULTURE Festivalia 50 AUSTINWAY.com