Foo Fighters Week continues here at Consequence with a list of Dave Grohl’s greatest cameos. Keep checking back throughout the week for interviews, lists, editorials and videos — it’s all things Foos, all the time. You can see everything in one convenient place here.
Since Nirvana’s rise to fame, Dave Grohl has displayed a penchant for goofing around on camera (see his absurd “there’s no ice in Holland” rant in the Sonic Youth/Nirvana tour documentary 1991: The Year Punk Broke). And Grohl and his Foo Fighters bandmates have often done a little acting in comedic music videos like “Big Me” and “Learn To Fly.”
But it was still a bit of a surprise to hear that Foo Fighters would be starring in their own feature film, Studio 666, a horror-comedy about what happens when the band records in a haunted house.
With Studio 666 in theaters this Friday (February 25th), here’s a look back at Dave Grohl’s 10 best cameos in films and TV shows. Sometimes he played himself and satirized his public image, and sometimes he took on a little bit of an acting challenge. But all of these brief, entertaining roles helped pave the way Studio 666.
10. Drunk History (2016)
When Drunk History made the jump from web series to television in 2013, Dave Grohl (credited very formally as “David Grohl”) appeared briefly in the first episode that aired on Comedy Central, as a friend of Elvis Presley (played by Jack Black, of course).
In the fourth season, David Grohl returned, and got to ham it up a little more in a powdered wig. He played an unnamed founding father who opposed Alexander Hamilton’s ideas at the constitutional convention in an episode narrated, naturally, by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
09. Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll (2015)
Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll (FX)
We’ve all seen Dave Grohl as a genial talking head in music documentaries, earnestly testifying to the power of an album or a band, including his own directorial efforts Sound City and Sonic Highways. And when the FX comedy Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll opened its pilot episode with a mockumentary segment, Grohl was there to make fun of his rock doc ubiquity and lay on the effusive praise for Denis Leary’s fictional band on the show.
“Honestly, if it weren’t for the Heathens, I don’t think there would have been a Nirvana. We saw the Heathens at CBGB’s and holy shit, man, it changed our lives.”
08. The X-Files (1996)
Given that the band name Foo Fighters is a reference to Dave Grohl’s interest in UFOs, it’s no surprise that the drummer was one of the earliest celebrity fans of The X-Files. Foo Fighters appeared on soundtrack albums for both the series and its first spinoff film. But first, Grohl had an uncredited cameo in a Season 3 episode, visible for about 2 seconds but fairly recognizable, as a guy checking his watch while walking through the lobby of a government building.
