That Beat

June 17, 2021

Last May, Dave Grohl, frontman for the rock band Foo Fighters, wrote a beautiful essay for The Atlantic magazine called "The Day the Live Concert Returns." In it, he describes the raw power of live music as "the most life-affirming experience" we have as humans. "I don’t know when it will be safe to return....But I do know that we will do it again, because we have to." I read those words last year and became an instant fan of Dave and all of his projects.

And then I became an even bigger fan of his mom.

In 2017, Virginia Hanlon Grohl published From Cradle to Stage: Stories from Mothers Who Rocked and Raised Rock Stars: It's a compilation of reflections on raising music stars from the moms of Adam Levine, Miranda Lambert, Pharrell Williams, Dr. Dre, Amy Winehouse, and 13 others. In the momentum of the book's success, Virginia and Dave went on the road to record video interviews with some of the moms featured in her book; that companion series From Cradle To Stage was released this spring on Paramount Plus.

Woven throughout both the book and the videos is the message of what it means to let kids take risks. The last episode (highlighting Geddy Lee of Rush and his mother, Mary Weinrib) opens with Dave reflecting:

I wasn't so different from a million other kids. What made me different is that my mother ALLOWED me to do it. What made me different is that she believed in me.

Virginia Grohl, Mary Winerib, Verna Griffin, Janis Winehouse, and the rest somehow found the courage to let their kids march to the beat of the drum they heard in their own ears, even when it sent them off the traditional success path, even when the uncertainty felt overwhelming. Their stories show the good that comes from doing so, for the world and for their relationship with their kids, both then and now.

Believe in your kids. Not because they might be Dave Grohl someday, but because, if you do, they're certain to be them.

P.S. Poetically, Foo Fighters will be the band to reopen live music at Madison Square Garden in the wake of the pandemic. The show is this Sunday evening at 8 pm, so I'm headed to New York for the weekend. Dave's right: I have to be there. 

—Deb