Dave Grohl’s Story Of Branding Himself With A Sewing Needle

From His Obsession With John Bonham

Dave Grohl’s obsession with Led Zeppelin began when he was still a teenager particularly with John Bonham’s powerful and monstrous drumming. In total, Grohl has three tattoos dedicated to the band. And ahead of the release of the Foo Fighters’ tenth studio album, Grohl was recently interviewed on The Guardian where he talked about the first of those aforementioned tattoos.

He recalled, “I had learned to play drums by arranging pillows on my floor and my bed in the formation of a drum set and playing along to Bad Brains. We discovered Led Zeppelin just as I started progressing as a drummer and I became obsessed with John Bonham: what he played and why. It’s hard to explain, but his feel and sound is unmistakable and undefinable. Anyone can take the chart of what he played, but it would never be the same because it was as unique to that human as a fingerprint.”

Then he mused, “I became like a monk, listening to these records and memorising them. It was like poetry to me. I became so obsessed that I gave myself a three-interlocked-circles John Bonham tattoo on my arm with a fucking sewing needle and some ink. I was branded for life.”

His second tattoo was done by an Italian guy in an illegal squat in Amsterdam and for the third one, he paid for it with his first check from Nirvana.

Dave Grohl has played with one Led Zeppelin member, though – bassist John Paul Jones. They’re both members of the alternative rock supergroup Them Crooke Vultures.