Dave Grohl is one of the most famous musicians in rock history, and he might just be one of the best dads in the world, too. On this week’s episode of After School Radio, a podcast hosted by Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus, Grohl revealed that he once took a red-eye flight home in the middle of an Australian tour so he wouldn’t miss a father-daughter dance for his kids. However, the trip didn’t go exactly as he planned.
Grohl and the Foo Fighters’ tour manager, Gus Brandt, came up with the perfect plan to pull off the ridiculously expensive and time-intensive gift. The two decided they would run offstage in Adelaide, hop in a car, drive to an airport, and fly straight to Sydney. From there, they would wait out a three-hour layover before hopping on a plane to Los Angeles, California, catching a ride home to sleep for two hours, and then go straight to the school’s dance because he loves his kids. However, things didn’t quite go as planned.
“Maybe five years ago or something, I had to fly back from Australia for one day to take my kids to the daddy-daughter dance. And I told everybody like, ‘I’m sorry, we’re going to have to cancel that Perth stadium, because I have to do this thing,’” the Foo Fighters’ frontman said midway through the episode. “Going to this dance, the kids didn’t even care I was there. They were like, ‘Okay, dad. Bye.’ And then [I] go straight back to the plane and then land in Australia, and literally have a show in four hours. It was ridiculous.”
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Perhaps unsurprisingly if you’re a pessimist, things only got more risky from there. “We get on the flight back to Australia and I’m like, ‘I’m just going to drink a bottle of wine and pass out. I’m just going to sleep for 15 hours. This is going to be great,’” said the Medicine at Midnight singer. “And within three or four hours, I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I felt like someone was stabbing me in the stomach.’” It turned out Grohl had food poisoning, intense chills, and spent “the next eight hours in the bathroom” feeling terrible.
Like a scene pulled straight out of a comedy movie, Grohl then found himself being handed a customs card by a flight attendant, including one with questions about Ebola because the virus was spreading around the world at the time. “I’m looking at this card and it’s like, ‘Do you have any of these symptoms? Nausea, diarrhea, fever, chills.’ And I’m just like, ‘Oh my God, they’re going to think I have Ebola, and they’re going to put me in a room with people that have Ebola, then I’m going to get Ebola, and I’m going to die at the airport in Australia.’”
Thankfully Grohl did not contract Ebola so he got through customs just fine. He did have a show to play in Australia that same day, though, which he prepped for by chugging a Guinness and asking God to save his life. When all was said and done, Grohl collapsed on a bed to sleep for six hours and then flew right back to Los Angeles because the tour was over. Hear him recount the whole experience below.
The rockstar life may be lavish, but it does come with its own set of exhausting tasks. At least things have worked out for Grohl since then, especially on the virus front. He stayed healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic, used his platform to promote safe reopening plans for schools, and took the lead in holding vaccinated-only shows.
Foo Fighters recently announced a lengthy tour that includes their first-ever concert in Alaska as well as performances at music festivals Shaky Knees, Bonnaroo, and Boston Calling. Tickets to all of Foo Fighters’ upcoming shows can be purchased here.
