Psychobabble
Melody Maker
The Foo Fighters frontman on snuff videos and teeth-shattering nightmares
What is your most treasured memory?
"Playing Saturday Night Live for the first time. Either that or having the audience sing Happy Birthday to my mother when Nirvana played the Reading Festival in 1992. That was pretty great. She was sitting on the side of the stage and she had tears in her eyes."
What was your most enjoyable dream?
"I have crazy vivid dreams every night and remember them all. I once dreamt that I had drowned. I was in the water trying to catch my breath and someone swam up to me and said 'It's OK you can let go and you can breathe now.' All of a sudden , I wasn't in the water anymore. I was just floating. I took this breath of air and realised I'd died. It wasn't so much the visual of the dream , but the feeling that , 'OK this is the moment I've waited for my whole life.' It felt so real, no pain, just that this was it. I floated through this series of tunnels and wound up in a gallery with other people floating around. It was pretty wild feeling waking up from that."
When did you last cry in front of another person?
"I cried at my grandmother's funeral a couple of months ago, so that was the last time. I cried in front of a journalist once! It was totally unexpected. I'd met this kid from the Make A Wish Foundation, for kids who are terminally ill. This kid's wish was to meet me before he died and I was just fucking...I can't explain it. It was too insane. He was such a good kid - he's still alive, actually. So I was doing an interview with this journalist the next day and he mentioned it. I just totally fucking broke down in front of him. It was horrible...I was like, 'Please don't write about this.'"
When was the last time you stole something?
"It was probably when I was 10 or 11. I stole some chewing tobacco, it was green apple-flavour Redman Chew. I went into our laundry room and started chewing it and got so violently ill that I never chewed tobacco again. I also stole a keg of beer from this pizza place I worked at. I'm not much of a thief really."
Do your interactions with friends involve much touching, hugging and kissing?
"With friends? Yeah, good friends. I don't know about kissing friends...with tongues? That's not common practice in my circle. I don't mind people being touchy with me, but it depends. If they seem like a decent person, then it's OK."
How do you rate your physical attractivenes?
"I think I have bland features which don't really stand out at all. I don't think I'm ugly, I just look normal. I don't think about it that often."
If there was a public execution on TV, would you watch it?
"Nah. I can't stand that kinda shit. I can't stand those video tapes that are so huge in America. They're called 'Banned From Television', where people are getting hit by trains, committing suicide, being burned. It's so horrendous. They're real things caught on CCTV. They sell them on TV for 30 bucks a pop. I'm sure they sell millions. I watched one and couldn't stop thinking about it. It's like wanting to watch a snuff film - who want's to do that?"
What's the worst psychological torture you can imagine enduring?
"Probably a dentists drill. I often have nightmare that my teeth have broken like shards of glass and that my mouth is raw and I can't move it because, if I do the raw nerves at the ends of these shards of glass in my mouth...eugh, teeth totally freak me out. The last time I went to the dentists? Not long ago, two, three months ago. He told me I need my wisdom teeth out, a fucking root canal and two fillings, and I was like 'See ya bye, I feel fine. I'm not having any trouble!"
Who do you admire most?
"My mother, because she's a strong, independent mother of two who raised us on absolutely nothing and is happy. She's an English teacher, she's creative, articulate, and full of life."
If a flying saucer arrived and aliens invited you to visit their planet for five years, would you go?
"Five years? I'm under contract with RCA, so I'd be in breach of that and get sued. You'd after ask me after our contracts fulfilled. Nah, I don't think I'd do that. It'd be tempting, but there's too much going on here. I'm having too much of a good time. It's not like going on tour. If the Foo Fighters could tour different galaxies? I'd go, but only if they had good T-shirts. Got to get the rider right. I won't play unless we get Crown Royal - it's a blended whisky from Canada - and an ounce of blow."
