DAVE GROHL On His Daughter VIOLET's Music Career: 'I Didn't Wanna Be A Stage Dad'

FOO FIGHTERS frontman Dave Grohl recently spoke with host Kat Corbett on SiriusXM's Lithium about his daughter Violet's musical endeavors — explaining that he had nothing to do with it. He said: " With Violet, I knew that she had a beautiful voice and had amazing pitch and sang with depth and something beyond just the sound of it. There was a lot of feeling to what she would sing, when she was, like, eight years old. And then as she got older, maybe around 13, she's, like, 'Hey, I wanna make a record.' And I said, 'Okay, well, you have to write songs.' And I didn't tell her how to do it. I think I gave her, like, a pen and a notebook, and I said, 'Just start writing stuff.' And she did. And she taught herself all of the instruments that she plays by ear and just learned in her bedroom. There were times where I'd walk downstairs and pick up a guitar it'd be in some freaky tuning, and I'm, like, 'What is this tuning?' And she'd say, 'Oh, that's a Joni Mitchell tuning.' And I'm, like, 'Really?' She goes, 'Yeah, check it out.' And then she starts doing this intricate Joni fingerpicking thing, where I'm, like, 'Where the fuck did you learn how to do that?' And she was kind of woodshedding in her bedroom."

Dave continued: "She wanted to leave school to play music. I was, like, 'Just stick through it. Stay in school.' And then right when she graduated, she met with her producer, Justin Raisen. And I had nothing to do with the recording. She would come home and play me things, and she wouldn't really ask for advice. Now, as she's getting deeper into stuff, we will sit and talk and talk about kind of the bigger picture of things. 'Cause getting thrown into it is — it's a lot. But no, I didn't wanna be a stage dad."

This past February, Dave told "The Chris Moyles Show" on Radio X about his daughter's music career: "So Violet, my daughter, she's 19, about to turn 20, she made this album with a producer named Justin Raisen, and she did it on her own. She met the producer, and they would go to the studio every day and she would send me songs when she was finished. But I had absolutely nothing to do with this record at all."

Dave went on to say that he wasn't aware of Violet's progress until she sat down and told him one day.

"I had no idea," Dave said. "I knew she was looking to sign a record deal, and she was, like, 'Hey, Dad, can I come over for dinner tonight?' And I'm, like, 'Yeah, sure. What do you want me to make?' And she came over and told me, like, 'I signed my record deal today,'" he recalled.

Dave continued: "I'm just like, 'Oh my God!' So, I'm totally uninvolved. I'm the dad who wants to be there and know everything. And she's just totally doing her own thing. It's amazing."

Violet will release her debut album, "Be Sweet To Me", on May 29 via Auroura/Republic. The LP was recorded from late 2024 into early 2025 at Raisen's (Kim Gordon, Charli XCX) Los Angeles home studio alongside musicians assembled in the spirit of the Wrecking Crew session players in the 1960s and 1970s. The first song Violet wrote with her collaborators, a fuzzy ripper called "THUM", was influenced by the old-school packaging of anti-nail-biting polish that Grohl brought into the studio. "Self help me/Self help myself/Chew my bitter fingers," she snarls in a honeyed voice over ecstatic squall.

Alternative music from the late 1980s and early 1990s is a perpetual influence. "There's something so powerful about that period of music, from the messaging to the visuals, it's authentic and raw." PIXIES, SOUNDGARDEN, COCTEAU TWINS, THE BREEDERS, PJ Harvey, THE MUFFS, Björk, ALICE IN CHAINS, L7, Juliana Hatfield: "I've listened to that stuff since I was a kid," Violet says.

The songs on "Be Sweet To Me" were conjured from the immediate present and tend to be impressionistic, colored by Violet's love of film, particularly the work of David Lynch. The slippery and melodic "Bug In A Cake" recalls the paranormal activities surrounding Grohl's recent move into the home of her late paternal grandma, a beloved "guiding force" in her life. "Turn the TV off so it turns back on/Come on, grandma, play me your favorite song," Grohl roars.

In January, Violet released "What's Heaven Without You", a haunting track written in the aftermath of the Altadena fires in Los Angeles, inspired by David Lynch. The track will be available along B-side "Swallowtail" as an exclusive seven-inch Record Store Day release on April 18. Flood magazine said it "features an atmospheric instrumental bolstered by a marching snare drum and ethereal synths," while Alternative Press said it "shows Grohl's voice drifting over an enigmatic instrumental as she grapples with an internal monologue, feeling trapped between devotion and self-protection.