Dave Grohl Clarifies His Grammy Acceptance Speech

At Sunday night’s Grammy Awards, the Foo Fighters won five trophies — but it was the speech Dave Grohl gave after they picked up the prize for Best Rock Performance that lit up the interwebs. Now Grohl has written a lengthy clarification.

For those of you who missed it, here’s what he originally said when accepting the award:

To me this award means a lot because it shows that the human element of music is what’s important. Singing into a microphone and learning to play an instrument and learning to do your craft, that’s the most important thing for people to do… It’s not about being perfect, it’s not about sounding absolutely correct, it’s not about what goes on in a computer. It’s about what goes on in here [your heart] and what goes on in here [your head].”

Rock fans cheered, but apparently the monologue wasn’t quite so well-received by everyone — some thought Grohl was being a snob and that he basically said any music other than rock was crap. So on Friday, he wrote a follow-up:

[My speech wasn't] the Gettysburg Address, but hey……I’m a drummer, remember?

Well, me and my big mouth. Never has a 33 second acceptance rant evoked such caps-lock postboard rage as my lil’ ode to analog recording has. OK….maybe Kanye has me on this one, but….Imma let you finish….just wanted to clarify something…

I love music. I love ALL kinds of music. From Kyuss to Kraftwerk, Pinetop Perkins to Prodigy, Dead Kennedys to Deadmau5…..I love music. Electronic or acoustic, it doesn’t matter to me. The simple act of creating music is a beautiful gift that ALL human beings are blessed with. And the diversity of one musician’s personality to the next is what makes music so exciting and…..human.

That’s exactly what I was referring to. The “human element”. That thing that happens when a song speeds up slightly, or a vocal goes a little sharp. That thing that makes people sound like PEOPLE. Somewhere along the line those things became “bad” things, and with the great advances in digital recording technology over the years they became easily “fixed”. The end result? In my humble opinion…..a lot of music that sounds perfect, but lacks personality. The one thing that makes music so exciting in the first place.

And, unfortunately, some of these great advances have taken the focus off of the actual craft of performance. Look, I am not Yngwie Malmsteen. I am not John Bonham. Hell…I’m not even Josh Groban, for that matter. But I try really f—ing hard so that I don’t have to rely on anything but my hands and my heart to play a song. I do the best that I possibly can within my limitations, and accept that it sounds like me. Because that’s what I think is most important. It should be real, right? Everybody wants something real.

I don’t know how to do what Skrillex does (though I f—ing love it) but I do know that the reason he is so loved is because he sounds like Skrillex, and that’s bada–. We have a different process and a different set of tools, but the “craft” is equally as important, I’m sure. I mean…..if it were that easy, anyone could do it, right? (See what I did there?)

So, don’t give me two Crown Royals and then ask me to make a speech at your wedding, because I might just bust into the advantages of recording to 2 inch tape.

Now, I think I have to go scream at some kids to get off my lawn.

Stay frosty.

(That last line might have been an homage to Van Halen, by the way — ‘Stay Frosty’ is the name of one of the songs on the band’s new album, ‘A Different Kind of Truth.’)

Anyway, this should put any controversy to rest. Dave Grohl likes music — all kinds of music. But anyone who didn’t know that probably won’t care that he went out of his way to say so.