Photo Credit: Gary Miller
Following Bruce Springsteen’s 2012 keynote at SXSW would be a daunting task in and of itself, but Dave Grohl had the decked stacked even higher against him last week when the Boss himself laughed at the Foo Fighters leader/Nirvana drummer when told of Grohl’s then-upcoming speech. “[Springsteen] stared at me for a moment, slowly cracked that famous smile that we all know and love, that smile that could light up an entire stadium, and then,” Grohl said in his opening remarks, “he started laughing. AT ME. As if to say “Good ****ing luck, Buddy.”
Now with that nod to last year’s speaker breaking the ice and expectations humbly lowered a bit, Grohl proceeded to deliver a similarly humorous and inspiring look at the landscape for new artists through the prism of his own emergence to the main stage. All told, Grohl posited, the convenience of modern technology has left one core struggle for any up-and-comer intact: to find one’s voice. “What matters most is that it’s your voice,” he said in closing. “Cherish it. Respect it. Nurture it. Challenge it. Stretch it and scream until it’s fucking gone. Because every human being is blessed with at least that, and who knows how long it will last. ” Today — thanks to one of those advances in technology Grohl mentions repeatedly in his talk — you can watch the full speech via the official YouTube video above.
