Dave Grohl headlines Soundstage of Hope gala: 'I just want to give food to people who are hungry'

Dave Grohl has had many roles in his more than three-decade career: Foo Fighters frontman, Nirvana drummer, documentary director, rock elder statesman. But away from the stage, he's also spent years helping Angelenos experiencing homelessness.

At 6:30 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 10, at Chaplin Studios in Hollywood, Grohl headlines Soundstage of Hope, a gala benefiting homeless services providers Hope the Mission and Los Angeles Mission.

Grohl said his passion to serve started with a passion for food.

"I fell in love with barbecue at a young age,” Grohl said. "Over time, I started cooking myself. When we had the Malibu fires in 2018, I thought, 'OK, well, I'm going to start cooking for people in need.'"

As Grohl got more experienced with a spatula, the grills began to grow.

“Like with any backyard barbecue fanatic, you go from the Big Green Egg to the bigger Green Egg to the biggest Green Egg,” Grohl said. “Then you wind up with a cabinet [smoker]. Then you wind up with a giant smoker in your driveway where you can cook for up to 500 people.”

Grohl’s attention turned to people experiencing homelessness during a trip to his L.A. recording studio in Northridge.

“It was cold and it was raining, and I saw so many people on the street,” Grohl said. “I thought, ‘Rather than cook for a fundraiser, I just wanna give food to people that are hungry and hand someone a plate of food.'"

Grohl said preparing and serving a meal to someone is a gesture of love to him.

“It's that good feeling knowing that you've shown another human being love and care and dignity, and all of those things that you would hope we'd share with each other every day,” he said.

Grohl will be performing at Saturday's gala along with John Mayer and the band Chevy Metal, which was founded by Taylor Hawkins, the late Foo Fighters drummer.

“When the Foo Fighters weren't touring, (Hawkins) would play pizza places and corner bars with this classic rock cover band called Chevy Metal,” Grohl said. “Since Taylor passed, his son Shane is the drummer now. So, it's kind of like this big family rock 'n' roll experience where I get to play Talking Heads and Black Sabbath and Rolling Stones songs with Shane and our friends. Chevy Metal rocks, dude. We're not messing around. We're gonna get out there and blast that place.”

If Grohl ever retires from music, he already knows his next career move.

“ I remember the first time I went down to Skid Row and carried a bunch of hot boxes of food to two, three, 400 people on the street,” Grohl said. “And I had that feeling, ‘Oh my God, I've found what I wanna do for the rest of my life.’ I found the thing that I love as much as music, if not more, and it was a really beautiful, liberating feeling.”

Grohl has found an analogy connecting food and music.

“The song is your recipe,” Grohl said. “The preparation and the cook is the recording. Serving to people, that’s your performance. And if people came back around for a second plate, that’s your encore.”

Tickets for Soundstage of Hope are available here.