Foo Fighters wrap up the NZ leg of their world tour with a show in Wellington tomorrow and the biggest fan going is a toddler.
Evander is a two-year-old who’s already getting amongst drumming. His obsession with the sticks is only beaten by his one for Dave Grohl, and both started before he had even spent a whole year on Earth.
In an open letter to Grohl, asking if the rock legend could meet the whipper snapper, his mum Breigh recalls the first time her son heard Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’. It started playing on the car radio and “even though he was only a few months old, Van broke into an immediate broke into an immediate smile and moved his hands to the drumming.”
When he was one, the Foo Fighters’ ‘My Hero’ became “his anthem”. When he heard the tune for the first time, “he immediately began head banging and drumming his hands,” Breigh told The Rock.
“At that time he didn’t have as much language as he does now but he used baby sign language to sign 'more' as he called out to us: ‘Again. More. More. More!’ and insisted we play it over and over again.”
The tunes, as they have for all of us, struck a chord in the little guy’s soul. Before he could speak, Nirvana songs were the only thing that would stop Van from crying and now he’ll throw little tantrums until they or the Foos get played.
"Evander will literally scream 'Nirvana! Dave!' and break down in tears if we don’t play his favourite songs."
This has led to Van’s older siblings becoming massive fans of Grohl’s bands, despite neither of the parents being fans before (for which they apologise).
“We’ve also got an eight-year-old, fourteen-year-old, and eighteen-year-old and they all LOVE Foo Fighters now,” Breigh explains. “I would say my husband and I appreciate the band now too, but I’ll never willingly choose to play Foo Fighters as I already hear them in my sleep!”
"Evander knows most of the words to Dave’s speech before Shane Hawkins plays the drums."
Van and his parent will be heading to the Foos tomorrow and, after achieving a dream of cuddling Santa, he’s been nagging his mum and dad to get a chance to do the same with Grohl.
“Now he thinks he can cuddle anyone and has been begging since Christmas to 'cuddle Dave!'" Breigh recalls. “I originally told him: ‘We can’t cuddle Dave, but we can see him on stage, but every day he keeps begging, so I figured I needed to do something about it.”
"We’ve got ear protection and drum shields for him, but he rips both off and insists on 'head banging' as 'loud loud loud' as possible."
With Van all set to become the world’s next great drummer - playing on his brother’s old drum kit is part of his daily ritual - meeting one of the greatest of all time would make a great addition to the inevitable biography that'll come decades down the line.
