Four Reasons Why Dave Grohl is Rock Music.

Just the other day, "All My Life" by the Foo Fighters came on my car radio. It's a good tune, certainly not a great one. But as I listened, I reflected on how Dave Grohl basically is modern rock music. I'm not a major Foo Fighters fan, yet I'm inclined give it up for this guy. Here's why…

#1. He's a jack of rock trades.
Over the course of his musical career, Grohl's been involved with indie (grew up in DC amongst the hardcore scene), emo (formed the Foos with William Goldsmith and Nate Mendel of emo godfathers Sunny Day Real Estate), alternative (Foo Fighters frontman), and grunge (hi there, Nirvana). How many artists can say that they've successfully surfed the most significant rip curls of modern rock music for the last 20 years? The guy is a standard-bearer.

#2. He's immensely talented.
Grohl is a devotee of Led Zeppelin's legendary drummer, John Bonham. This should tell you a lot about Grohl's penchant for thunderous stickwork and why, for a while, everyone was thinking: "Led Zep reunion…Page, Plant, and Jones with Dave Grohl…hey, this could actually work!"

Grohl essentially wrote, performed, and recorded the entire Foo Fighters debut album himself. He also developed into a skilled melodic songwriter on subsequent records, balancing ragers ("Best of You", "Monkeywrench") with heartfelt ballads ("Times Like These", "Walking After You"). Grohl's voice ably shifts to match his tunes' quiet/loud dynamics, from a tuneful, earnest lower register to a straining, gutsy howl. Check out "The Pretender" for prime examples of both.

#3. Nobody doesn't like Dave Grohl.
Okay, this probably isn't true. But you could play a musical version of "7 Degrees of Dave Grohl" much easier than Kevin Bacon (The Bacon Brothers are a real bitch). It seems as if most anybody in the music biz likes Grohl and wants to be involved with him, whether it's the Queens of the Stone Age, Norah Jones, Prodigy, Tenacious D, or Nine Inch Nails. The 2004 debut of Grohl's side project, Probot, showed how much pull he had with his heavy metal heroes: it featured the talents of Lemmy Kilmister (Motörhead), Max Cavalera (Sepultara), Cronos (Venom) and Kim Thayil (Soundgarden). To sum up: Grohl gets respect and plays nice with others.

#4. He was the drummer for Nirvana, unquestionably the most popular, influential rock band of the 1990's…and he's somehow managed to make people forget this fact.
Contrast this with Krist Novoselic, who will likely remain notable only for being the former bassist of Nirvana. That's probably what is says on Novoselic's business cards. You think Jakob Dylan or Damian Marley will ever escape their respective "Son of Bob" tags? Johnny Marr's in Modest Mouse now, but I bet even Isaac Brock still thinks of him as the guitarist from The Smiths. Iconography is hard to shake. When you can do it and actually make people care about what you're creating now…that's sheer talent, folks.

A hat's off and two horns in the air to you, Mr. Dave Grohl. You were clearly born to rock.