“You’re Not Going Out Dressed Like That!”: Dave Grohl’s mum on what it was like bringing up the rock legend

Behind every rock god there’s a devoted mother trying to get strange stains out of leather trousers. Yet, on her regular tours with Foo Fighters, Virginia Hanlon Grohl never seemed to run into any of the other rock stars’ mums. So she set out to interview them, telling the stories of the mothers of R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe, Dr Dre, Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello, Amy Winehouse, Beastie Boys’ Mike D, Haim, Pharrell Williams and more in her new book From Cradle To Stage. “It turned out to be an amazing group of women who all said in the beginning, ‘There’s nothing special about me, nothing interesting about my story’,” she says, “and that turned out to be entirely untrue.”

What’s life like as the mother of one of the biggest rock stars in the world?

“It’s very good – I recommend it. Buy your kid a guitar and a drum and hope things go the way my life did. I’ve been able to travel the world with them. David always said, ‘Jump on the bus, jump on the plane, come along,’ and I do. I used to think I should hide because I didn’t want anyone to think he was a momma’s boy, but he’d pull me on stage and introduce me. The crew know who I am. I have the best seat in the house.”