I say something like,
"So anyway, I was hanging out with Dave Grohl the other day and it turns out he digs the Snack Trap, too!"
Or "Yeah, Dave Grohl says I should get a water table, but I'm not sure Josie will dig it."
Or, "Oh, that's my phone. It's probably Dave Grohl calling. Again."
The point here is to emphasize that me and Dave Grohl -- of Foo Fighters and Nirvana fame -- are practically BFFs, if you expand your definition of BFFs to include a guy who was allowed to hang out in your house for an hour for magazine article. Which I do.
See, I wrote this story about the Foo Fighters for SPIN and Dave was kind enough to introduce me to his lovely wife Jordyn and his insanely-cute daughter Violet, which is pretty much all I wanted to do, because asking him about all the standard rock and roll bullshiz is so done to death already and because I was missing my own ladies and because it's much more interesting to me, in the end, to see how the guy behaves as a dad, than how he behaves as a rock star.
So, for those of you wondering, here's the deal: based on an entire hour spent observing him, Dave Grohl is a great dad. I mean by this that he meets all of my criteria for effective Babydaddying:
1. He openly behaves like an idiot to amuse his daughter
2. He kisses her a great deal
3. Despite being a rock star (and everything) he keeps his home extremely chill
In fact, Dave Grohl has managed to do something that I'm still struggling with. No, I'm not talking about making millions of dollars and touring the world and buying a house with a tennis court. I'm talking about engineering his life such that he's able to separate his work from his parenting. I wrote about this dilemma a few months ago, and basically admitted that I suck when it comes to drawing this line. And I'm sure it's more complicated for Dave Grohl than it looks to some reporter. And it certainly helps to have all that money.
But it seems to me like he really has figured it out. He's got a studio/office a few miles from his house, where he takes care of everything his Rock Star Life requires (recording, rehearsals, video shoots, band meetings, interviews, etc.). And when he comes home, his central duty is to just chill with Jordyn and Violet. He's also made some other good decisions. He's got family right near by (three grandparents within shouting distance) and a large group of friends that came with Jordyn.
Now I know what you're thinking: yeah, sure, he's a great dad when the reporter from SPIN is around. But I've been around enough couples with young kids at this point to know you can't fake those dynamics for more than, say, four minutes. It was quite clear that Grohl spent a lot of time with his daugther, and loved her without restraint or embarrasment. He wasn't just putting on a show. And the thing that really blew me away is that he and Jordyn hadn't even hired any babysitting help. They were making due with grandparents and friends. (In fact, they were both kind of freaked out about hiring a nanny for when the Foo Fighters go on tour.)
Anyway, I didn't want to go all FameCrawler on you guys, but it was kind of cool to sit around with Dave Grohl and his wife and kid and just shoot the shit about snack traps and clothe diapers. And it did make me realize that I've to work harder to create those two separate spheres, so when I go off to work I'm focused, and when I come "home" I'm totally present as a babydaddy.
You may now tell me about any and all celeb BFFs you have...
