Foo Fighters Rockers Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins Stop By the Stern Show

Musicians visit ahead of the band's new album, "Wasting Light"

April 11, 2011
Photo: The Howard Stern Show

Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins from Foo Fighters stopped by to promote their new album, “Wasting Light.”

Dave told Howard he’d lost a lot of hearing since their last appearance on the show. “My left [side] is … almost gone,” he said.

Asked why he didn’t use the Ultimate Ears in-ear monitor plugs like most other rock stars, Dave shrugged and said they made it difficult to judge dynamics. “There’s no sonic perspective,” he explained. “Those things just put everything in the middle of your brain.”

Dave said the hearing loss wasn’t all bad: “Like, if my kids are running around and going bananas, I sleep on this ear.”

Both Dave and Taylor are married with children. Howard asked if Dave’s wife was a model, so Dave said his wife had been a TV producer: “But to be honest, she was [model-esque].”

Taylor also said he didn’t have an “agency” wife, though she was beautiful.

Nirvana’s End

In reference to the recent anniversary of Kurt Cobain’s death, Howard asked if Foo Fighters would exist if Nirvana still did too.

Dave was unsure. “I know I’d still be writing and recording stuff on my own,” he said.

He went on to say he’d never talked with his former Nirvana bandmate Krist Novoselic about playing together again: “It’d be way too heavy. We’ve never talked about that. Ever. It’s been 20 years and we still haven’t talked about it.”

Dave said he’d actually heard about Kurt’s death from a second party: “I think maybe it was on the news or something weird.”

Afterward, he went to Krist’s house and just “hung out.” “I couldn’t listen to music. I couldn’t listen to Nirvana,” he told Howard.

Dave added that “things got weird toward the end.” “There were drugs around, and there were the people who did the drugs and the people who didn’t to the drugs,” he explained. “And I didn’t do the drugs. And so I was just out that world.”

ON COURTNEY LOVE & ‘GLEE’

Howard wondered how Dave felt about Kurt’s ex, Hole singer Courtney Love, trashing the Foo Fighters frontman.

“I got better stuff to do,” Dave shrugged. “Why would I focus on that?”

Dave was similarly dismissive when asked about his public feud with “Glee” creator Ryan Murphy, saying he just didn’t think artists should have to pander to TV. “I think it’s important that bands don’t feel pressure to do that sort of thing,” he said.