When you’ve been a world-famous artist and father for as long as Dave Grohl has been, it’s inevitable that you’re going to miss some parts of your children’s lives. There was one event that Grohl was committed to attending, though, so much so that he flew from Australia to Los Angeles while in the middle of a Foo Fighters tour.
Speaking with Mark Hoppus on his After School Radio show (as NME notes), Grohl told the story of the measures he took to make it to a father-daughter dance:
“I had to fly back from Australia for one day to take my kids to the daddy-daughter dance. It was ridiculous. I could not not go to this daddy-daughter dance, it was not an option. And I told everybody, ‘I’m sorry, we’re going to have to cancel that Perth stadium [show] because I have to do this thing.’”
Ultimately, Grohl and the band’s tour manager, Gus Brandt, came up with a plan that allowed him to get to LA in time for the dance without missing any concerts.
Grohl continued, “Going to this dance, the kids didn’t even care I was there. They were like, ‘OK, dad, bye.’ And then [I] go straight back to the plane and then land in Australia, and literally have a show in four hours. It was ridiculous.”
On top of the normal stresses that traveling brings, Grohl also had to deal with a bout of food poisoning: “We get on the flight back to Australia and I’m like, ‘I’m just going to drink a bottle of wine and pass out. I’m just going to sleep for 15 hours. This is going to be great.’ And within three or four hours, I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I felt like someone was stabbing me in the stomach.’ I had the gnarliest food poisoning three hours into a flight to Sydney. It was the worst-case scenario.”