Dave Grohl Shares His Life Philosophy: ‘You Just Have to Kick Ass the Whole Time’

If it seems like Dave Grohl has been everywhere lately, well, that's because it's basically true: Between promoting the new Foo Fighters album, playing live dates and starring in the HBO documentary about the band's latest record, these last few weeks have found the rock world in a full-on season of Foo.

Not that Grohl minds being, as he put it to Esquire, too busy to "spend time thinking about anything outside of what I have to do today." In fact, he claims that's the way it always is for him: "There are times where I will sit down, take a deep breath, drop my shoulders and I just kind of breathe and deflate. But I'm not kidding -- that happens about once a year for three and a half minutes. In that time, I can really appreciate it. I'm very proud of what I've accomplished."

It's an attitude that Grohl credits to an epiphany he had after his Nirvana bandmate Kurt Cobain died in April 1994. "When Kurt died, I had this whole new outlook at life, that we're all so lucky to be here," he said. "You can't take life for granted. It's short. It's fragile. And you don't know when it's going to be taken away from you. So the short time that you're here? You just have to kick ass the whole time and not look back. That's basically what I try to do."

Grohl insists, however, that he isn't as driven as all that might make him sound. Although he was quick to say he isn't "ready to stop," he also added, "If it all ended today, I'd be the happiest person in the world."

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