Dave Grohl on His Hearing Loss: “I’ve Been Lip-reading for 20 Years”

Dave Grohl has revealed that he has been lip-reading for years because of his hearing loss. Wearing the respirators during the corona pandemic has led to illness-related problems for him in the past two years: “The worst thing about this pandemic shit is that people wear masks. I’ve been lip reading for 20 years… I’m a rock musician. I am stone deaf. I can’t hear what you’re saying,” said the 53-year-old.

In the restaurant he is almost deaf, in the studio Grohl hears the finest nuances

In an interview with Sirius XM talk radio host Howard Stern, the Foo Fighters boss said, “If you were to sit here at dinner with me, I wouldn’t understand a single word you were saying to me the entire time,” and further: “That is impossible. In a crowded restaurant – that’s the worst.”

Despite his condition, Grohl can hear the sounds in the studio precisely thanks to his decades of experience: “When we record and mix a record, I can hear the smallest details. My ears are still tuned to certain frequencies and if I hear something out of tune or a cymbal that isn’t bright enough or something. In the mix I can fucking hear everything we did on the song.”

Dave says no to ear monitors

Because he’s relied on the same sound engineer for 31 years, he even feels confident enough to go on stage without headphones – which he considers to be the better alternative: “The problem I have with (ear monitors) is that it takes away from removed from the natural sound atmosphere. I want to hear the audience in front of me… It disrupts spatial understanding of where you are on stage,” explained the American.

Will the Foos debut as an album-length trash metal band on Friday?

Under the band name Dream Widow, the Foo Fighters recently released a thrash metal song called “March of the Insane”. The excursion into new genre waters has a reason: this Friday (February 25) the horror comedy “Studio 666” conceived by the group will be released – and with it probably also a complete trash metal album, as Grohl indicated.