The Storyteller

The Storyteller collects Dave Grohl's memories from a childhood in Springfield, Virginia, where he discovered punk and hardcore and taught himself to play drums, through joining Scream and then Nirvana, and into the aftermath of Kurt Cobain's death, when he had to figure out whether he had another act in him at all. He did: Foo Fighters, which he started largely alone before it became a full band, and has fronted for three decades since.

Rather than a chronological autobiography, the book is arranged as a series of standalone stories — touring disasters, unlikely encounters with childhood heroes, becoming a father, playing drums for Tom Petty and Queens of the Stone Age, and reflections on the friends and mentors who shaped him. The tone throughout is enthusiastic and self-deprecating rather than confessional, closer to hearing Grohl tell stories in person than reading a conventional rock memoir.

It grew out of a series of pieces Grohl originally wrote for The Atlantic and Instagram, and became a #1 New York Times bestseller.