Foo Fighters

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05/23/22 • 107 min

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David Eric Grohl was born in Warren, Ohio on January 14, 1969. Mom is teacher Virginia Jean Hanlon and dad was news writer James Harper Grohl. In addition to being an award-winning journalist, Dave’s dad had also served as the special assistant to Republican Congressman and US Senator Robert Taft Jr.

When Dave was young, the Grohl family moved to Springfield, Virginia. When he was seven, his parents divorced, and he was raised primarily by his mom. At the age of 12, he began learning to play the guitar. He grew tired of lessons and instead taught himself, eventually playing in bands with friends.

He said, "I was going in the direction of faster, louder, darker while my sister, Lisa, three years older, was getting seriously into new wave territory. We'd meet in the middle sometimes with Bowie and Siouxsie and the Banshees."

At 13, Grohl and his sister spent the summer at their cousin Tracey's house in Illinois. Cousin Tracey introduced them to punk rock by taking the pair to shows by several different punk bands. His first concert was Naked Raygun at The Cubby Bear in Chicago in 1982. Grohl recalled, "From then on we were totally punk. We went home and bought Maximumrocknroll, (a punk subculture music zine that ran from 1982 to 2019) and tried to figure it all out." In Virginia, he attended Thomas Jefferson High School as a freshman and was shockingly elected class vice-president.

He taught himself to play pieces of songs by punk bands like Circle Jerks and Bad Brains and, using his clout as vice president, would play them over the school intercom before his morning announcements. His mother decided he should transfer to Bishop Ireton High School in Alexandria because he was smoking too much weed and it was affecting his grades. He stayed there for two years, one of those repeating his first year.

After his second year, he transferred yet again to Annandale High School. While in high school, he played in several local bands, including a short stint as guitarist in a band called Freak Baby. It was during this period that he thought it was a good idea to switch to learning drums. When Freak Baby kicked out its bass player and reshuffled its lineup, Davel took on the role of drummer and history was made. Show’s over, folks! The band then changed their name to “Mission Impossible.”

Dave has said he did not take drumming lessons and instead learned by listening to Rush and punk rock bands. Obviously, insanely talented and possible robot and Rush drummer Neil Peart was an early influence: "When I got 2112 when I was eight years old, it fucking changed the direction of my life. I heard the drums. It made me want to become a drummer."

During his beginning years as a drummer, Grohl cited John Bonham as his greatest influence, and eventually had Bonham's three-rings symbol tattooed on his right shoulder. Mission Impossible changed their name once again to “Fast” before breaking up, after which Dave joined the hardcore punk band Dain Bramage in December 1985.

Dain Bramage ended in March 1987 when Dave up and quit without warning to join Scream, having produced the I Scream Not Coming Down LP. Many of Dave’s early influences were at the 9:30 Club, a music venue in Washington, D.C. He said, "I went to the 9:30 Club hundreds of times. I was always so excited to get there, and I was always bummed when it closed. I spent my teenage...

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JAY-Z

JAY-Z, was born Shawn Corey Carter, on December 4, 1969, in Brooklyn, New York, here in the U.S..

He grew up in Brooklyn’s Marcy Projects in the Bedford–Stuyvesant neighborhood, which was pretty rough at the time, where he was raised mainly by his mother, Gloria Carter, who says Shawn used to wake up the household at night, banging out drum patterns on the kitchen table.

His mother bought him his first boombox for his birthday, which set him off on his love of music.

Shawn’s father, Adnis Reeves bailed out on his family, including Shawn’s three siblings, at a young age but they rekindled their relationship right before Adnis passed away.

Shawn has said, through his lyrics, that when he was younger he had once shot his older drug addicted brother, Eric, in the shoulder for stealing his jewelry.

While in the 6th grade, Jay tested at a 12th grade reading level.

Shawn went to Eli Whitney high school in Brooklyn, along with AZ, the longtime friend and co collaborator of Nas and The Firm, who has been revered as “one of the most underrated lyricists of our time.”

After the closing of his high school, Shawn attended the George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School. There, he would be amongst future Icons and Outlaws alumni Busta Rhymes and Biggie Smalls, the one and only Notorious B.I.G.

Shawn then attended Trenton Central High School, shortly, before dropping out.

He claims to have been selling crack at this time and was even shot at three times.

His firsthand experience with illicit drug dealing would form his lyrics when he began rapping under the stage name Jazzy, soon shortened to Jay-Z (a name that may also have been derived from the proximity of the J and Z subway lines to the Marcy Projects or possibly an Homage to his rapping mentor, Jaz-O).

He lived in London in 1989 for a short time. JAY recorded music with Monie Love and soaked in the culture, before moving back to the States.

You can hear Jay on some of Jaz-O’s earlier recordings from the 80’s and 90’s, like “H.P. Gets Busy”, “Hawaiian Sofie” and “The Originators.”

In the early 90’s, Jay-Z found himself involved in rap battles with LL Cool J, who eventually had a falling out while they were both involved at Def Jam. They’ve resolved their differences since then.

Big Daddy Kane’s 1994 album, “Daddy’s Home”, introduced the world to Jay in the song “Show and Prove”, a posse cut that had multiple rappers doing verses on one track.

Big Daddy Kane has said in regards to Jay being referred to as his “hype man,”

“When I would leave the stage to go change outfits, I would bring out Jay-Z and Positive K (“I Got A Man”) and let them freestyle until I came back to the stage.”

Jay then found himself appearing on Big L’s “Da Graveyard” and alongside young versions of DMX and Ja Rule (Holla Holla) in 1995.

1995 also saw Jay’s first official single, “In My Lifetime” that had a music video as well as an unreleased video for the song’s B-Side, “I Can’t Get With that.”

What do you do when you want to get your music out but have no financial backing from a record label? You get out and hustle your album yourself. Jay Z would spend hours a day selling CD’s out of his car.

Tired of not getting where he wanted to be in the music world, Jay-Z and two friends, Damon Dash and Kareem Burke, founded their own company and independent record label, Roc-A-Fella Records, in 1995 to release his debut album, Reasonable Doubt (1996). It eventually sold more than a million copies in the United States, certifying it platinum and hes been revered as “one of the greatest rap albums ever” and, arguably, “Jay-Z’s best work.”

This album featured beats by renowned producers like DJ Premier and DJ Clark Kent and even had very early appearances from the Notorious B.I.G. and the queen, Mary J Blige.

Reasonable Doubt debuted at 23 on the Billboard 200 and charted for 18 weeks.

The four singles from this album were “Dead Presidents”, “Ain’t No N Word”, “Can’t Knock the Hustle”, and “Feelin It”. It would later make Rolling Stone’s Magazines “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.”

A string of successful albums followed at a rate of at least one per year through 2003. Vol. 2: Hard Knock Life (1998) was not only one of the first of Jay-Z’s releases to top the Billboard 200 album chart but also won him his first Grammy Award, for best rap album.

This record saw Jay relying more on “wordplay and flow” and featured beats by DJ Premier, Erick Sermon from future Icons, EPMD, Kid Capri and Swizz Beatz, who was a producer for DMX and the record label, Ruff Ryders as well as Timbaland.

Singles from this album included “Can I Get A..”, featuring Ja Rule and Amil, as well as several other head bobbin’ bangers.

Vol. 2 would go on to sell over 5 million copies.

Remember how we said he won a gram...

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Michael Jackson Part 1 of 2

The future king of pop, Michael Joseph Jackson, was born on August 29, 1958 in Gary, Indiana.

Joe Jackson, Michael's dad, was a former boxer and crane operator at U.S. Steel during the 1950s in Gary – according to a fantastic article by Rolling Stone, quoted in the book; Dave Marsh's Trapped: Michael Jackson and the Crossover Dream, there were actual quotas in place on how many black workers were allowed to move up the ladder into skilled trades in the city's mills. This idiocy meant black workers were paid less than white workers. Unfortunately, this also meant they were subject to higher rates of fatal industry-related illnesses – but Papa Joe hoped that music would lift his life. Michael's mother, Katherine Scruse, was from Alabama but lived in East Chicago, Indiana when she met Joe. Momma Katherine played clarinet and piano, had dreams of being a country-and-western performer, worked part-time at Sears, and was a Jehovah's Witness. She grew up listening to country & western music, and even though she had a dream to be a musician, she was stricken with a bout of polio that had left her with an unfortunate and permanent limp. Papa Joe and Momma Katherine were young when they married in 1949 and started on the idea of a big ol family. The first of the bunch was Maureen (aka Rebbie) in 1950, then Sigmund (aka Jackie) in 1951, Toriano (Tito) followed up in 1953, Jermaine in 1954, La Toya in 1956, Marlon in 1957. Then there came Michael in 1958, Randy in 1961, and little baby Janet in 1966, making her 16 years younger than Rebbie. Marlon was actually a twin but their brother, Brandon, died shortly after birth.

M.J. and his cluster of brothers and sisters constantly had music around them. Papa Joe was super into the new electric R&B sound tearing up Chicago, which wasn't far away, not to mention the beginning stages of early rock & roll. So Papa Joe formed a band with his brothers called "the Falcons," making some extra coin in the surrounding area at parties and small clubs. In his 1988 autobiography, Moonwalk, Michael wrote, "They would do some of the great early rock & roll and blues songs by Chuck Berry, Little Richard ... you name it," Going on to say, "All those styles were amazing, and each had an influence on ... us, though we were too young to know it at the time."

The Falcons eventually broke up, and Papa Joe put down his guitar and hid it in his bedroom closet. He wouldn't let anyone near it, let alone touch it, giving us insight into his control over the household. Regardless of Papa Joe's musical dismay, Momma Katherine taught her flock of kiddies how to harmonize while listening to her favorite country/western songs. Tito, just like daddy, was drawn to music and one day thought it was a bright idea to snag Papa Joe's precious guitar from the closet and take it to practice with his brothers. Well, guess what? He broke a string. Michael later said Joe whipped Tito for the infraction and, "he let him have it,." After the whoopin', Papa Joe told Tito to show him what he could do on the guitar. Well, Papa joe was floored. Tito impressed the crap out of him.

Is it possible that at that very moment, Papa Joe's lightbulb blew a breaker and saw his musical dreams come to fruition vicariously through his kids? First, he bought Tito his own guitar and taught him some Ray Charles music, then he got Jermaine a bass. Soon he was working all his sons into an ensemble. So, I'm going to say yes, the breaker blew. Papa Joe loved the blues, but he appreciated that his kids liked the new R&B – Motown and soul – and more than likely saw dollar signs every time they mentioned it. Joe wanted Jermaine to be the lead singer with Jackie and Tito, and Michael and Marlon playing the tambourine and congas. Michael has said that his father told him he had a "fat nose" (just a little foreshadowing here) and abused him during rehearsals. Michael recalled that Joe often sat in a chair with a belt in his hand as his children rehearsed, ready to punish any mistakes. Joe acknowledged that he regularly whipped Michael. Katherine said that although whipping came to be considered abuse, it was a common way to discipline children when Michael was growing up. Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, and Marlon have said that their father wasn't abusive and that the whippings, which were harder on Michael because he was younger, kept them disciplined and out of trouble. Michael said his childhood was lonely and isolated.

At just four years old, Momma Katherine saw Michael singing along to a James Brown song, and she saw – in both his voice and moves – he was already better than his older brother. So she told Joe, "I think we have another lead singer." Katherine would later say that sometimes Michael's precocious abilities frightened her – she probably saw that his childhood might give way to stardom – but she also noticed that there was something undeniable about his young voice. Michael was ...