Dave Grohl knows how to get the new year started off right.
Videos by American Songwriter
On Saturday (January 1), the Foo Fighters frontman released The Hanukkah Sessions collections from 2020 and 2021. Now fans of the two-year-annual series can have all the songs together in one place to enjoy.
The rocker announced the news and provided links to the new records on the Foo’s social media, writing on Twitter, “You ask, we deliver! The Hanukkah Sessions, now streaming. Here’s to 2022! L’chaim! https://kurstingrohl.lnk.to/2020https://kurstingrohl.lnk.to/2021“
Last year, Grohl (who is not Jewish) with the help of Foo Fighters producer, Greg Kurstin (who is), began the tradition of covering eight songs by Jewish artists for the eight nights of Hanukkah.
In 2020, Grohl and Kurstin covered the Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage”, Drake’s “Hotline Bling”, Mountain’s “Mississippi Queen”, Peaches’ “Fuck the Pain Away”, Bob Dylan’s “Rainy Day Women #12 & 35”, Elastica’s “Connection”, The Knack’s “Frustrated” and The Velvet Underground’s “Rock and Roll”.
This year, the duo covered Lisa Loeb’s “Stay (I Missed You)”, the Ramones’ “Blitzkrieg Bop”, Barry Manilow’s “Copacabana”, Van Halen’s “Jump”, Amy Winehouse’s “Take the Box”, Billy Joel’s “Big Shot”, The Clash’s “Train in Vain”, and KISS’ “Rock and Roll All Nite”.
Grohl and the Foo Fighters later invited KISS’ frontman Gene Simmons up on stage at their show in Las Vegas. Footage from that performance shows Grohl chiding a fan in the front of the audience on his KISS makeup, calling it “a little shoddy.”
The Foo Fighters then bust into a quick cover of KISS’ “Calling Dr. Love” before Grohl stops and says: “We can’t do that in front of Gene Simmons. Gene, you can at least come out and show ’em your punim.” (Punim is a Yiddish word for face.)
Simmons then walks out in a black baseball hat and jacket and face covering. He then gives Grohl a dollar bill as a presumed tip. Hey, it’s Vegas after all.
After Simmons walked off stage, Grohl told the crowd, “All right. We’ve got a rock show now… Listen, Gene Simmons — legendary bass player. I had posters of that motherf–ker on my wall when I was a kid. Hold on, let me rephrase that—I still have posters of Gene Simmons on my f–king wall at home.”
Check out the full video below, posted by a fan on YouTube. And check out The Hanukkah Sessions KISS cover below, as well.
