For reasons of his own, Grohl never delves too deeply into the Cobain saga ... That leaves the reader with a pleasant rock-star memoir, a portrait of a really nice kid from the DC suburbs who matured into one of the great rock drummers. That, I think, is Grohl’s signal accomplishment. He is easily the standout drummer of the era Nirvana ushered in ... Deathless fans of Foo Fighters and anyone with Grohl’s face tattooed on their arms are sure to enjoy Storyteller. But I think Grohl would be first to admit that the Foo story falls well below the top shelf of epic rock sagas ... the younger Grohl could have used a more intrusive editor ... Too often, Grohl lapses into industry glad-handing ... This heartwarming tale feels very Dave Grohl, but not very punk rock.
Call it the typical tale of a high school dropout who becomes the drummer in Nirvana, then after unspeakable tragedy transformed himself into the singer, songwriter and guitarist for a band that sells out arenas ... The message that burns through The Storyteller is to those who watch him onstage now: Deep down, I’m just like you. I’ve worked hard to get where I am, but I obsessed over the same music you do. I’m a fan.
The tension between his two groups—ironic vs. sincere, outsider vs. insider, rebellious vs. wholesome—is the precise yet unacknowledged tension of Grohl’s The Storyteller ... This Everyman Dave favors superfluous adjectives (on the first page alone: 'cruel trick', 'false illusion', 'quick look in the mirror') and defaults to cliché ... But perhaps the clichés are the point. Everyman Dave doesn’t put artifice—or labor—into his prose. It’s easier for him to think of himself as rock’s Forrest Gump, haplessly in the right place at the right time (another cliché repeated throughout the book) than an agent of his own triumphs ... it is as difficult to reconcile Everyman Dave with Destiny Dave as it is to reconcile The Storyteller’s prose with the lyrics that Grohl has composed over the past three decades. Surprisingly, he does not analyze or even mention his lyrics ... The book’s prose is banal, buffoonish; the song’s lyrics are personal, empathic ... The tone and topics are, unlike his lyrics but like his drumming, relentlessly upbeat. Grohl wants you to know that he is happy, satisfied, positive, and exuberant. He spends a whole chapter gushing over meeting Little Richard, another over Joan Jett. No doubt those were awesome experiences. These are the qualities of a rich and enviable life, to be sure, but they don’t necessarily make a compelling read ... Instead, Grohl will allude to, then elide, what could have been the substance of a very different book, one in keeping with the depths indicated by his lyrics ... not a memoir. Episodic, nonlinear, and discursive, the book is more indebted to the oral than written tradition. Based on the snippet I listened to, the audiobook, narrated by Grohl himself, captures its spirit better than the text alone.
... kinetic ... The sudden loss of [Grohl's] friend Kurt Cobain and the loss of a lifelong best friend years later are emotionally and beautifully rendered. Grohl also writes with equal fervor about his path from 'that guy from Nirvana' to the leader of the uber-famous Foo Fighters and his parenting experiences. An exciting read for fans and a remarkable perspective on the last 30 years of rock music.
If you are curious about Dave Grohl, drummer from 'tragic grunge poster boys' Nirvana, whose Nevermind album has just turned 30, The Storyteller might not be the memoir for you ... He also has three daughters who will in all likelihood read this; the book feels like an intentionally PG take on what could be a much rowdier, more hair-raising tale ... For anyone interested in how a hyperactive misfit from suburban Virginia became a third of Nirvana and went on to become a stadium-filling star with his own Foo Fighters, The Storyteller lives up to its billing. This is a compendium of vignettes from a rock’n’roll life lived with brio ... As with many memoirs, artists’ origin stories can resonate far more sonorously than their victory laps; so it is with Grohl’s. Those years spent crammed into vans, living off fumes and the kindness of female mud wrestlers are some of the most vivid here. The camaraderie and sudden violence of the international punk ecosystem is beautifully evoked as he lurches from high jinks with Italian tattooists to Dutch squat riots ... somehow, the A-list fun is less exhilarating than the time a very pre-fame Grohl is roped in to play drums for Iggy Pop ... while Grohl is a lively and thoughtful writer, deeper than his great bloke reputation, what rankles are the weird editorial decisions: the repetitions, and the changes to a weird font when he wants to emphasise a point. That hand-holding jars with the image of a bespectacled rock elder statesman on the cover, gazing maturely backwards.
Sixteen-time Grammy-winner Grohl cranks the story of his life to full volume in this exciting debut chronicling his rock ’n’ roll career ... Paired with his sparkling wit, this humility is what makes Grohl’s soulful story a cut above typical rock memoirs. There isn’t a dull moment here.
Grohl’s memoir is thick with name-drops, but not for the sake of gossip or even revelatory detail ... Still, the author is upbeat even when talking about lean or tense moments ... Grohl is good company, but the gee-whiz tone as well as the clichés [...] make the book feel like a missed opportunity ... A high-spirited yet surface-level glimpse into the life of one of the planet’s last rock stars.
