In November 2013, Dave Grohl and Mike Fraser came to Southern Ground Nashville to produce and record an album for Zac Brown Band. (I"ll write a whole-nother post about my introduction to Dave, as it is its own story.) In the midst of recording, ZBB was to perform at the Country Music Awards show. They all got dolled up in their Manuel-Nudi jackets and invited Dave to play drums on Day for the Dead. It was FANTASTIC! Then they decided that Dave would play drums on Let it Rain in the studio for the album:
After the session ended, the band and crew loaded out, and studio staff rested up from very long studio days, we came back to tear down, clean up, and restock. The clean up was fruitful with souvenirs from the session: Dave had left behind a taped up drumstick AND A DRUM GLOVE! We pinned the glove up in the control room kind of like a rack of antlers or a deer head, but nobody died because of it - even if we might've wanted to, but just for the sleep it would've brought!
We got through the holidays and learned that Foo Fighters were going to be doing a new album and documentary series on HBO called Sonic Highways. Studio staff joked that we should BeDazzle Dave's glove and return it to him. In March of 2014, Foo Fighters, with producer Butch Vig and engineer James Brown, alongside Jim Rota and the fine folks at Therapy Studios moved into Southern Ground Nashville for 10 days to film interviews, write and record a song, make a music video, and enjoy the spoils of our studio and of Music City.
One night, most of the band had left for the day but studio staff, crew and film folks were still hanging around tying up loose ends. We'd made sure the kegerator was full and I made some FAF (that's "Fancy As Fuck" for you who don't do acronyms) popcorn (truffle honey, Studio Mama Herb Salt) and put out a few other snacks and we just HUNG OUT. A couple beers in, I excused myself up to my office for a sec. When I returned to my kitchen post, Dave came and sat down in front of me. I smirked and slid the sparkling glove to his spot across the black granite countertop. We all laughed as he put the glove on "his drinking hand."
It's now about 7 years later and I've been digging in my email in search of something remarkably unrelated when I came across this gem again. It's lodged into a note to the Southern Ground accounting team to explain a Michaels receipt in my expense report. The fine print on top of the photo says, "That Michaels receipt is from the time that I BeDazzled Dave Grohl's drum glove." And right now, I'm cackling out loud, remembering how his face changed when he turned to me and said, "Did YOU do this??" Yes. Yes I did.