(From the Glasgow, Scotland Evening Times, 21 August 2003).

Foo Fighters

DAVE GROHL

FOO Fighters' frontman Dave Grohl has a dream... "As a kid, my fantasy was that I would go to a concert, any concert, and something would happen to the drummer.

"The lead singer would look out into the audience and asks, 'Is there anyone out there who knows how to play our songs?' And, of course, they'd have to pick me."

The ex-Nirvana drummer is doing nothing short of realising his fantasy at the age of 34.

Some 13 years ago, he was the drummer in the most influential rock bands in the world.

When Nirvana were torn apart by the death of Kurt Cobain, he formed the Foo Fighters. Four albums down the line, they stand is one of the best-loved and hardest-rocking bands of the last 10 years.

But while his own band roll from one success to the next, with excellent singles such as Times Like These rolling off their last album, One By One, he is also getting to live the dream.

Before appearing at a New Zealand festival he invited Jaz Coleman, frontman of 80s goths Killing Joke, to sing with the Foos at a warm-up gig. Coleman repaid the compliment by inviting Grohl to play on Killing Joke's new album.

When Grohl fell in love with Queens Of The Stone Age, describing them as the "best and the hardest" band, he then set off to drum with them on record and on tour.

He also picked up the sticks for female singer-songwriter Cat Power, performed with Elvis Costello and Bruce Springsteen at the Grammys, and has been touted as a possible drummer for the much talked-about Led Zeppelin reunion.

While nothing has yet materialised, he says he'd give anything to fill the late John 'Bonzo' Bonham's drum stool if Zep tour again.

"I have John Bonham tattoos all over my arms," raves the rocker. "I learned to play by listening to Zeppelin."

As well as being one of the hardest working men in the music biz, Grohl is also universally recognised as one of its finest characters.

So it's no wonder that the guest-list for his recent wedding to Foos' 'docu-mentarian' Jordyn Blum was 250-strong.

He described the marquee in his back garden as being like the "the main tent at the Reading festival".