From Cradle to Stage: Stories from the Mothers Who Rocked and Raised Rock Stars by Virginia Hanlon Grohl

Author:Virginia Hanlon Grohl [Hanlon Grohl, Virginia]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Published: 2017-04-18T04:00:00+00:00

Several months later Fred asked David to appear in another production, this time a political roast of a US cabinet member. He would play the president’s daughter, Amy Carter! Of course that meant donning a wig, dress, and patent leather Mary Janes—full juvenile drag. David instantly and resoundingly declined. But Fred persisted, offering an eighty-dollar paycheck, a kingly sum to us then.

“No thanks,” David said.

“And you get a whole day out of school.”

“I’m in!” was the excited response.

As I look back on the performance—that one day out of school in the ridiculous wig and navy polka-dot dress—I recall the surges of laughter and applause from the packed audience at the Sheraton Hotel. Applause moment number three.

Whatever it is about that kind of affirmation from a group I can’t pretend to fully understand. I think we have to agree that it feels good to hear unanimous, loud approval for something we have accomplished. Some believe it’s addictive. For a while I believed it was formative.

David left his acting career at that early age and didn’t resume it until he started performing in music videos years later. The “Learn to Fly” video features David as a flamboyant airline attendant, a smitten schoolgirl (drag again!), and a pilot. Other silly, funny videos would follow.

Soon after the Amy Carter gig, David met guitar. I bought him an inexpensive acoustic instrument and a tall stool with a woven rush seat. I pictured David sitting in the kitchen strumming classical guitar music while I, glass of red wine in hand, prepared dinner.

He had an alternative vision.

Inspired by Rush, Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, and Neil Young (to name a few), he began to imitate the sounds he loved. He took a few lessons from a local teacher but much preferred his own material to the simple schoolboy tunes he was being taught, so the lessons were discontinued and he began playing with his friends in the neighborhood.

At the same time, the punk rock scene was thriving just a few miles down the road in DC and spreading its influence into the suburbs. This music was not about applause and commendation. It was about rage and dissatisfaction. It had sprung from discontent and desire for change. David embraced it, learned it, collected it… and began to play it. Because of his new direction I knew his music wasn’t driven from the outside, from the glorious approval of a loud audience. It was so much deeper than that. The screams and rants and thundering drums weren’t being played on the radio or television. They were heard in small, grungy clubs and at festivals in parks. Bands put out records a few at a time to sell at shows, and many of them went on very low-budget tours. A growing number of bands and fans in major cities across this country and in Europe proved that punk was a legitimate genre, but not one that was Grammy bound. To my knowledge there has never been a punk rock category at the Grammys, just the more palatable “alternative.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.