The visual elements of The Storyteller also turn it into a distinctive scrapbook, with reproduced photographs and ephemera from the musician’s life.

The Ramones, the Cramps, Talking Heads, Television, Patti Smith, Bad Brains-this was hallowed ground, and it was my life’s greatest achievement that I had even made it this far.” “This was punk rock ground zero, the epicenter of the soundtrack of my youth, and I would soon be standing on that stage myself, playing my heart out for the ghosts of those who had paved the way for young punks like me. His description of being inside CBGB in 1986 for the first time is one of the most charming descriptions in The Storyteller: Not only is he out of his mind when he meets Iggy, but he can’t believe Tom Petty asks him to play drums on Saturday Night Live, worries that Madeleine Albright will think he’s a “moron,” and recognizes Santa Cruz because he’s watched “Corey Haim’s vampire masterpiece The Lost Boys” as many times as I have. Speaking of Iggy Pop, the memoir also invites the reader into an intimate and casual conversation with Grohl because of the way he reminds us that he’s just as taken with rock stars, film sets, political activists, and music venues as the rest of us. Text like TRACEY IS A PUNK ROCKER reminds the reader, naturally, of the Ramones’ Sheena is a Punk Rocker, while the section in which he meets “IGGY FUCKING POP!” is entitled SURE, I WANNA BE YOUR DOG! Grohl uses the many of the vignette titles to link his own personal narrative to music history. In both cases, it seems, his commentary is relevant: “I’m in so much fucking trouble right now.” In nearly every vignette, Grohl links various moments in his life, such as having his head “split open like an overripe pumpkin long after the trick-or-treaters have gone home” as a kid to falling off the stage at a Foo Fighters gig in Sweden and breaking his leg. Some of the material flows in chronological order, but some of the transitions are a product of memory and stream of consciousness. More a series of vignettes than chapters, the memoir introduces readers to various moments in Grohl’s life, from teaching his daughter to be a drummer to getting thrown in jail in Australia to nearly getting killed after a Nirvana show in Texas. That same intimate voice comes through in his memoir. At The Storyteller Live! In NYC, I laughed as the Foo Fighters frontman recalled encounters with Iggy Pop, sleeping on Kurt Cobain’s couch in Seattle, and drinking way too much coffee. I should tell you that I’m writing this review after hearing the author do some in-person storytelling at one of the limited live events last month connected to this book’s release. “I will always be ‘that guy from Nirvana,’ and I am proud of it.” - Dave Grohl, The Storyteller

The storyteller by dave grohl