13. Foo FightersConcrete And Gold
Concrete And Gold was their first album I worked. Foo Fighters are a band I love so much, but I wasn’t really aware of their back catalogue, except for the stuff you hear on the radio, and I’d never seen them live. When their manager drove me on the LA freeway to meet them he told me the Foo Fighters were the biggest band in the whole world. Then I started to work with them, and I realised he’s right. Dave Grohl is equal parts Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, for me the ideal person. I went from never having seen them to 15 shows in three months on that Concrete And Gold tour all over the world. Now they’re pretty much my favourite band.
I was devastated back in March when Taylor Hawkins died. He was such a lovely man, and literally the heartbeat of the band. I had got close to the band – the Foo Fighters are incredibly welcoming to journalists on tour. You can have a beer in their dressing room, and stand on the side of the stage. That kind of access really pays off, everyone’s gonna benefit. However, I try not to get too attached to the artists. It’s like in the film Almost Famous when the Lester Bangs character says to the writer Cameron Crowe: “These people are not your friends.” While I’m friendly with some of them, I know that they have their own friends and I have my friends. But it’s a great world to mingle in. My philosophy of life would be to enjoy every minute of it.
