Having transcended the turmoil of the recording sessions for The Colour And The Shape, Dave Grohl was in understandably bullish mood as his new-look Foo Fighters prepared to make their third studio album. The band, he declared, were ready to make their “freak-out record”, a “big, strong, rock opera”. “It’s time for our version of The Beatles’ White Album,” he insisted.The plan, as Dave saw it, was fiendishly simple. The Foos would retire to the state-of-the-art studio he’d installed in the basement of his new home in Alexandria, Virginia, far from the distractions of Hollywood and within spitting distance of his old high school, and reconnect with the full panorama of music that had fired his teenage imagination. “Having grown up in the punk rock scene, I’ve been so inspired...
