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Dave Grohl: The Last Rock Star
The headbanging animal on the endangered species list.
There have been five mass extinction events on our planet. Our polar caps are melting, seas are rising, we wear medical masks while grocery shopping but the most worrisome sign of the impending apocalypse is there’s only one true rockstar left in the world. His name is Dave Grohl.
There are many stars in music but recently the rockstar cosmos looks a little empty. Who fits the bill for shooting across the musical universe like a demigod with devil-may-care chutzpah and legions of rabid fans? Lenny Kravitz maybe, but even Lenny is not Dave Fucking Grohl.
Part of our dearth of rockstars comes from their tendency to die young, seemingly in one of three ways: drugs, suicide, or aircraft crashes. Their fame is immortalized by tragic events before time can soften their edges. Those who survive often suffer a mortal death as they outlive their greatness and become your grandpa in comfortable shoes. This is the cruelest way to go, the lust for life that launched their legends whimpering into a greatest hits album as their original fans see them as symbolic of their own faded youth.
The past few years we’ve experienced a rock exodus from our earthly plane, with Bowie, Prince, Petty, Little Richard, and Scott Weiland booking tour dates…