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The Foo Fighters recently played “Times Like These” at Joe Biden’s Celebrating America inauguration concert and played during Barack Obama’s presidency, but in the 1980s Dave Grohl attended an event in Washington DC for a very different reason. During a recent interview with the independent, he recalled being “beaten by police and rednecks” during a “Rock Against Reagan” concert with bands like Bad Brains and Dead Kennedys.
The meeting took place “right in the mall, in front of the Lincoln Memorial, a quarter of a mile from where I would one day be invited to play at Obama’s first big ‘party’ on the South Lawn,” Grohl recalled. “They happened every July 4th. Hundreds of thousands of people from the suburbs would come to watch the national fireworks. And right in the middle of it was a punk concert with bands like the Dead Kennedys and the Bad Brains. “
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“There was police on horses with damn batons,” he noted. ‘It was crazy. I would be beaten by police and rednecks. But it was the right place and the right time, under Reagan’s stifling conservative government. “
The Foos are gearing up to release their 10th studio album, Medicines at midnight, on Feb. 5, celebrating the new tunes with a live stream and limited engagement radio channel on SiriusXM.
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