Though Dave Grohl has claimed “My Hero” is more about “every day, regular heroes” than anyone in particular, the timing of its release in conjunction with his own emergence from a drummer’s relegation to the background to Hall of Fame-destined frontman is too hard to ignore.
Many fans and pundits alike contend, based on what’s known about Grohl’s otherworldly famous mentor and late ex-bandmate, Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain, is all the proof needed to confirm it. The Cobain mythos suggests Foo Fighters’ “My Hero” is more than partially inspired by the man who crashed the “no teen spirit permitted” gates to then promptly bring grunge into the mainstream.
“There’s definitely an element of Kurt in that song,” Grohl confessed in a 1999 interview with Howard Stern.
In fact, there may be several.
This week marks 28 years since Cobain, 27, was discovered dead in his Seattle home – succumbing to what was ruled a self-inflicted gunshot wound after enduring a public battle with heroin addiction, depression and other ailments.
He may have passed in 1994; but in many ways, it feels as if Cobain has yet to exit from the forefront of the zeitgeist. So much so, he was even a key basis for director Matt Reeves and actor Robert Pattinson’s crafting of the titular hero in the biggest movie event of the decade thus far.
Still Number One at the Box Office well over a month into its run, The Batman, as Reeves told Esquire, in many ways exists the way it does due to Cobain and Nirvana’s eternal influence; both on pop culture and his own creative psyche.
“When I considered, ‘How do you do Bruce Wayne in a way that hasn’t been seen before?’ I started thinking, ‘What if some tragedy happened [ie: Wayne sees his parents murdered] and this guy becomes so reclusive, we don’t know what he’s doing? Is this guy some kind of wayward, reckless, drug addict?’” Reeves admitted, while also citing his foremost soundtrack selection, Nirvana’s “Something in the Way,” as crucial to the film’s thematic development and pathos.
On the promotional tour, he and Pattinson alike prepared viewers to expect no “Playboy Bruce Wayne” this go-around. Instead, they’d earn a “broken” Bruce-by-day who must escape himself and become Batman-by-night – retaining all of the Cobain-esque obsessions and fame disregard, while coveting none of the credit for his overwhelming contributions to society. “There goes my hero,” Grohl sings eight times over in the song that keeps on giving. “He’s ordinary!”
Over two decades later, Grohl’s own protégé – who he deemed the only musician other than he stealth enough to man the drums in a band led by someone Axl Rose called “the greatest drummer of the ‘90s” – suffered what’s been largely-presumed a drug-related fatal demise.
Left behind in Hawkins’ wake: one of the most accomplished and universally beloved artists, whose next move the world awaits.
His best mates may be gone, but they will cease to be forgotten. If past precedent is any indicator, Grohl has been dealt one too many dark nights for someone who has notably walked the straight-and-narrow, vice-less path to let his impressions on the music – and his – world’s latest loss stay contained within his everlong Rock ‘n Roll soul.
“The Dark Night of the Soul“
by
16th-century Spanish mystic and poet, St. John of the Cross
In an obscure night
Fevered with love’s anxiety
(O hapless, happy plight!)
I went, none seeing me
Forth from my house, where all things quiet be.
