DAVE GROHL Says 'It Was An Honor' To Perform At JOE BIDEN's Inauguration

Last month, the FOO FIGHTERS were part of the virtual "Celebrating America" concert special for Joe Biden's inauguration, during which they performed "Times Like These". In a new interview with Tom Power, host of "Q" on Canada's CBC Radio One, FOO FIGHTERS frontman Dave Grohl stated about the experience (see video below): "You have to understand that sometimes it seems so surreal that I feel like I'm standing beside myself and watching it happen. I've actually written a little bit about how it's like your life flashing before your eyes as it's happening. So it's strange.

"It's hard for me to connect all of those dots, because there is a lot of 'full circle' going on there," he continued. "I grew up outside of Washington, D.C. My father was a Republican speech writer. He was involved in politics. I spent time on Capitol Hill.

"So, putting all those things together, with the the First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden, being a teacher, and my mother being a public school teacher for 35 years — retired now — all of these things kind of connected together to then this performance of a song that I wrote 18 years ago that's not a political song at all. It's just a song about hitting some crossroads in your life where you feel that you need some sort of rebirth, or some restart. But you have hope."

Grohl added: "I've always thought that when someone dear to you, someone close to you passes away, you have to start all over again. So you have to do everything in life all over again — your first cup of coffee since you've lost that person; your first trip to the grocery store since you've lost [that person]; and so on and so on and so on. It's basically what that song's about — about learning to love again, learning to live again; things like that.

"I think the reason why we were asked to perform was because, in the States, we need that. So it's a rebuilding in a hopeful way. And I think that's why they requested that we play that song. And it was an honor."

Back in 2018, Grohl said that he was "ashamed" of having Donald Trump as the U.S. leader, explaining that the billionaire real estate mogul "seems like a massive jerk."

"Today, the American Dream is broken," Grohl told the British GQ magazine at the time. "I've probably travelled internationally more than our current president and the one thing I understand that he doesn't is that the world isn't as big as you think it is. It is all in your neighborhood. India, Asia, Iceland aren't other solar systems. I am ashamed of our president. I feel apologetic for it when I travel."

In 2017, Grohl said in an interview with Switzerland's SRF 3 that criticism of Trump's extremist rhetoric by musicians and Hollywood stars only served to embolden and fuel his base. "I think that for years maybe they felt like the minority and now all of a sudden there's a voice that they can sort of attach themselves to, and the more pushback they get from that, it's like the stronger they feel in a lot of ways," Grohl explained. "So all you can do is fight the good fight every day when you wake up and try to be a good person and treat everybody with respect."

Asked how he, as a responsible parent, talked with his kids about the often-inflammatory behavior we saw from America's 45th president on a daily basis, Grohl told SRF 3: "I remember the night of the election, I had to sit down and have a talk with my daughter. She was terrified, man. And I basically told her what I'd just told you. I was, like, 'You can't give up hope. You just have to fight the good fight. And the things you believe in… You have to stand up and represent the things that you actually believe in.' That's what everybody should do. But I think it's hard for a kid to understand that."