In Part 1 of this series, I talked about Dave having one of the best screams in rock music today.  Well, not only does Dave have one of the best screams in rock, he can also sing softly with the best of them.  Again, what gives?  Usually really good screamers can't sing smoothly also.  There's always a rasp and roughness present in their voices, even when singing softly.  I'll pick Eddie Vedder as a good example.  On Pearl Jam's latest album, there are a couple of really great slow songs, but years of screaming Lukin, Spin The Black Circle and Do The Evolution and years of cigarette smoking give his voice a pretty rough edge. And I hate to say it, he just can't sing like he used to. 

Listen to Dave Grohl, though and you hear something quite different.  The first time I heard Dave sing was when Nirvana played MTV Unplugged and he was singing background vocals on some songs.  And I remember being struck at the time, thinking, "Wow, he has a really cool voice" (this was way before I hated him). And if you go back to the first Foo Fighters album and listen to a song like For All The Cows or Doll on The Colour And The Shape, his voice has an incredibly smooth, soft quality to it.  Even though Dave has said recently that he's spent the last 15 years wreaking havoc on his vocal chords and turning them into string cheese (and smoking cigarettes), you listen to songs on the latest Foo album like the beginning of Pretender or Let It Die, his voice is still silky smooth. 

This is a guy that when you see him live on TV doing special appearances, his voice usually sounds like crap.  He doesn't seem to concern himself with singing pitch perfect and is more focused on entertaining people and putting energy into his performance.  And people love him for it.  But for the studio he brings it.  Of course I think there's some studio "magic" going on and there's a big difference between $2,000 and $100 microphones. 

So how do I wrap this up?  Dave Grohl has one of the best screaming voices in rock.  Dave Grohl has one of the best soft voices in rock.  I have neither.  I hate Dave Grohl.