‘All My Life’: The Foo Fighters song Dave Grohl wrote about giving oral sex
The sound of the Foo Fighters has always changed, from the almost-soft ‘Big Me’ from Dave Grohl‘s first output under the band name to the classic ‘Everlong’ from 1997’s The Colour and the Shape, over to something much harder-hitting, like ‘All My Life’, the opening track from 2002’s One by One.
‘All My Life’ combined Grohl’s early love for classic rock and punk, two of the loudest forms of guitar music. In the end, the song spent several weeks at the top of the charts over the world, and it was even awarded a Grammy for ‘Best Hard Rock Performance’.
Discussing the early versions of ‘All My Life’, Grohl once told Kerrang, “At first, it was really dissonant and noisy. The middle section sounded like ‘Wipeout.’ It was just nuts! We recorded the instrumental, and I had no idea how I was gonna sing it.” But like every song, that version took many twists and turns and arrived in the form we know by today.
Grohl then explained the kind of influences from his early days that inspired the song’s guitar parts. “I have mountains of riffs that are reminiscent of everything I grew up listening to, from Black Sabbath to Mercyful Fate or whatever,” he said. “I grew up listening to that, but the rest of the guys didn’t, and a lot of the time, I’d take a riff, and I’d think, ‘That’s fucking badass!’ and try to turn it into a Foo Fighters song, and it wouldn’t necessarily work.”
Back in 2003, readers of Q magazine and Foo Fighters fans asked Grohl a number of questions from the backstage area of V Festival. One asked Grohl about the meaning behind ‘All My Life’, suggesting that it, particularly the line, “I love it, but I hate the taste”, was about giving oral sex.
Grohl replied, “That song is a little dirty. Use your imagination, but good call – you’re the first person that’s ever asked that. From experience? Many. I’m very fond of giving oral sex to women. It’s a pleasure-giving experience – giving someone something that they’ll remember for the rest of their lives, and if you do it right, they will.”
In the Kerrang interview, Grohl also noted that while the verses to ‘All My Life’ are open to interpretation, there was only one thing on his mind when it came to writing the chorus. “Well, the middle section is about eating pussy, and the verses are kind of vague,” he said. “That’s all you’ve gotta know!”