NEWS
Dave Grohl has shared that he was completely unaware his daughter Violet had secured a record deal until she casually told him over dinner.
The legendary rocker has been making the rounds with interviews as Foo Fighters get ready to drop their 12th studio album ‘Your Favorite Toy’ on April 24, a project Grohl says is packed with “noisy, loud bangers” that capture a feeling of “the old days”.
Speaking during a recent appearance on The Chris Moyles Show on Radio X, the frontman opened up about his teenage daughter Violet stepping into her own music career, admitting he played no role in creating her material.
The Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter began releasing new music last month, including the David Lynch-inspired ‘What’s Heaven Without You’, which arrived last week to mark the first anniversary of the iconic filmmaker’s passing.
She followed that by confirming she had signed with Republic Records / Island EMI and would soon release two new tracks, ‘Thum’ and ‘Applefish’.
Moyles mentioned to Grohl that her music had recently been selected as ‘Record Of The Week’ on Radio X, prompting the Foo Fighters frontman to speak proudly about her work.
“This is amazing. So Violent, my daughter, she’s 19, about to turn 20, she made this album with a producer named Justin Raisen, and she did it on her own,” he said. “She connected with the producer, they were in the studio every day, and she would send me songs once they were done. But I had absolutely nothing to do with this record at all.”
He added that although he would have loved to be more involved, he did not realize how far things had progressed until she sat him down and told him herself.
“I had no idea. I knew she was looking to sign a record deal, and she was like, ‘Hey dad, can I come over for dinner tonight?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, sure. What do you want me to make?’ And she came over and told me, like, ‘I signed my record deal today.’ I’m just like, ‘Oh my God!’ So, I’m totally uninvolved,” he continued. “I’m the dad who wants to be there and know everything. And she’s just totally doing her own thing. It’s amazing.”
Grohl went on to praise Violet’s upcoming album as “amazing” and said she is “so incredibly talented and has such great taste in music”.
He also shared that watching her create new music ended up inspiring him while working on the latest Foo Fighters record.
“It really did. The way that they made that record and the energy of it, I was like, ‘Oh, man. I’ve just been inspired by my daughter’s debut album.’ It’s cool,” he explained.
Back in late 2024, reports surfaced that Violet had been working on her debut solo album with Raisen, whose credits include Kim Gordon, Charli XCX, and Sky Ferreira. Grohl has also previously said he would love to feature on her first record.
They have collaborated before, releasing a cover of ‘Nausea’, originally by Los Angeles punk band X, in 2021.
She first joined Foo Fighters on tour in 2018, contributing backing vocals at several shows. She later appeared at the Taylor Hawkins tribute concerts in 2022, and after featuring on the band’s 2023 track ‘Show Me How’, she joined them onstage at that year’s Glastonbury to perform it.
Last year, the remaining members of Nirvana, Dave, Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear, reunited for a four-song set at the Fire Aid benefit concert in Los Angeles, with Violet taking on lead vocals for ‘All Apologies’.
As for Foo Fighters, the band revealed details of their 12th studio album ‘Your Favorite Toy’ on Thursday, February 19, alongside its powerful title track. In a four-star review, NME called the song a “futureproof rock beast” that is “snarlingly unapologetic”.
The album is set for release on April 24 and follows 2023’s ‘But Here We Are’. It will also include last year’s track ‘Asking For A Friend’.
Since announcing the new record, Grohl has admitted it was “really complicated” to move forward after the sudden death of Taylor Hawkins in 2022, and said he has often felt like each album could have been their last.
The band are preparing for a run of major stadium shows across the UK and Europe this year, along with North American dates later in the summer and autumn. They have also confirmed an Australia and New Zealand tour scheduled for 2026 and 2027. Tickets are available here.
Over the past week, Foo Fighters have performed their new single ‘Your Favorite Toy’ live for the first time on The Graham Norton Show and announced a string of surprise gigs across London, Dublin and Manchester.
They launched the run in Dublin on Monday, February 23, using the intimate show to debut unreleased material from the upcoming album. The London date is set for tonight, Wednesday February 25, followed by Manchester on Friday, February 27.
Just days after landing her fourth No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with “Drop Dead,” Olivia Rodrigo is now getting major recognition from Niall Horan.
In a recent conversation with Rolling Stone published April 30, the former One Direction member shared insight into how he approaches songwriting, highlighting the comeback of bridges in pop and pointing to Rodrigo as a key influence behind it.
“It’s great to hear [bridges]. I feel like Olivia Rodrigo has been a big influence on that for pop writers,” the Irish artist said, before singing part of the “Drivers License” bridge. “What I like about Olivia’s music is [that] you feel like you’re getting one song and then you get a completely different song. It completely flips on its head musically, goes somewhere different, brings you to a bridge, brings you to some weird musical breakdown thing. Whatever [she] and Dan Nigro are up to is a good little team they’ve got going there. It’s definitely influencing people, including myself.”
Horan also spoke at length about his upcoming project Dinner Party, set to arrive June 5 through Capitol Records. He has already released two tracks from the record, including the title cut and “Little More Time,” both produced alongside Afterhrs, John Ryan and Julian Bunetta. The album rollout will be paired with an extensive 22-date tour across Europe, Ireland and the U.K. The Irish singer’s new release follows 2023’s The Show, which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200. During the interview, Horan also mentioned that his next era leans more into rock elements, something he connects back to his long-standing love for bands like Blink-182.
“That drum sound is something that we were trying to chase, and that comes from that late-’90s, early-2000s punk-rock era,” he said. “Rock’s been a big influence in my life since I was a child. I write pop songs, but dressing them up in a different way sometimes is quite cool. And now, the way my career is going, I’m completely thinking about live shows all the time. I learned so much from being on the road and being out there every night. There’s only so much sitting on Spotify you can do and reading comments before you actually get an idea of what people actually think. You can see it in the room. The rockier stuff really goes off at the shows.”
The “Slow Hands” hitmaker also has two U.S. stadium dates lined up for this year. Joining longtime friend and Grammy-nominated country artist Thomas Rhett, Horan is set to perform at GEODIS Park in Nashville on July 9 and Hersheypark Stadium in Hershey, Pennsylvania on July 19, with Live Nation handling promotion for both shows. Kashus Culpepper and Emily Ann Roberts will open the concerts. With such a packed touring schedule, all four remaining members of One Direction are expected to be on the road with new music this year. When asked about attending his former bandmates’ shows, Horan gave praise to Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson.
“I went to Harry’s show a couple of years ago, and that was just wild. Madness going on there,” he said. “It reminded me of the 1D stadium shows where it was just seas of people jumping up and down. Watching the things going on on the floor, all the fans dancing around, I love that. You feel a sense of pride watching the boys doing what they love to do, and the communities that they’re able to create. I’m going to try and get to a Louis show of some capacity in the next few weeks.”
Horan is now the fourth One Direction member to drop a new album this year. Tomlinson released How Did I Get Here? in January, Styles hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally in March, and ZAYN followed with Konnakol earlier this month on April 17.
