Norah Jones hosts a podcast called Norah Jones is Playing Along, where she welcomes fellow musicians for an hour of conversation and live collaboration. Her latest episode features Dave Grohl.
The episode was recorded back in April prior to the release of Foo Fighters’ latest album, But Here We Are, but is only being released today. It’s an absolutely phenomenal listen.
During their 90-minute powwow, Jones and Grohl performed several songs together, including a few Foo Fighters rarities that Grohl hadn’t played in years — or ever, for that matter. Notably, with Jones’ backing on piano, Grohl played “Statues,” from 2007’s Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, for the very first time. He also revisited “Razor” and the Jones duet “Virginia Moon,” two songs from In Your Honor that hadn’t been performed live since 2006.
Grohl also joined Jones for a performance of her own song “Flame Twin” which ended with the two interpolating a portion of Nirvana’s “In Bloom.” Other songs performed included “The Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners” and an acoustic version of “Everlong.”
In between these performances, Jones and Grohl touched on a variety of different topics, including Grohl’s upbringing in North Virginia and the time he got lost in the White House during George W. Bush’s administration. In a rather emotional moment, Grohl spoke about the loss of his mother last year and revealed that the song “Show Me How” came about as he played guitar for her during her final days.
The two also spent quite a bit of time discussing music theory and chord progressions, with Grohl joking that he only learned to read music after taking his daughter to piano lessons.
Listen to the full episode below. Here are the performance time stamps: “Statues” (23:42), “Flame Twin” (38:05), The Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners (56:35), “Razor” (1:02:45), “Everlong” (1:16:45), and “Virginia Moon” (1:31:00).
This is Grohl’s second notable podcast interview of the week. Yesterday, he joined Nirvana bandmate Krist Novoselic and In Utero producer Steve Albini for a Q&A with Conan O’Brien.
