In the middle of the Foo Fighters’ Australian tour, Dave Grohl used his day off to cook over 430 meals for the homeless community in Melbourne. Talk about a hero!
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Again proving his “good guy of rock” reputation is far more than a persona, Dave Grohl used one of his rare days off to volunteer in Melbourne, Australia. As part of their Everything or Nothing at All Tour, Foo Fighters headlined AAMI Park in Melbourne twice this week, with only one day break to move onto their show in Sydney. While the rest of the band appeared to use that day for travel and rest, frontman Grohl stuck around Melbourne to volunteer with food relief charity The Big Umbrella Foundation. He reportedly cooked and served over 430 meals this past Saturday, including an “epic American style bbq with all the trimmings.”
Saying that the “vibe was at an all time high” at their Federal Square location, Big Umbrella took to Instagram to show their massive thanks. “It will be a day 'our friends on the streets' will never forget as they brushed up against a rock legend and one of the nicest guys on the planet who genuinely cares for people in need” the charity wrote. “No words can fully capture the impact of this positive experience.”
Grohl has a long love of cooking barbeque and has volunteered his passion for food banks countless times, including his nearly 16 hour-long shift at the LA Food Bank earlier this year. In fact, the musician silently launched his own brand after cooking for LA firefighters amidst the Woosley Malibu Fires in 2018. In an interview with Bon Appetit, Grohl said, “What really got me cooking for a crowd were the Malibu fires. I wanted to cook for everyone who was displaced. I ended up barbecuing hundreds of pounds of meat and bringing care packages to the fire stations, just to say thank you. Those guys were heroes.” Thus, his “one-man catering company” Backbeat BBQ officially allows him to show up and cook for those in need.
Yet it’s barely any work to Grohl, saying that his love for cooking mirrors his love for music. “The parallels are insane.” He continued: “The process of making music is a lot like cooking for a crowd, you create a recipe as you would a song. You prepare a meal as you would record in a studio. And you serve it as you would perform live. When people come back for seconds, well, that’s your encore.” With his focus on community outreach and giving back to those that aided him, Dave Grohl is constantly redefining (and improving) what it means to be a rockstar.