The one drummer Dave Grohl said could match John Bonham: “That’s always been the challenge”

Posted On January 7, 2026January 7, 2026

Dave Grohl has felt at home behind the drumkit since day one. Before he had any idea of becoming the lead singer in a band like Foo Fighters, Grohl was looking to make as much noise as possible from behind the kit, playing at a speed that would leave most punk drummers in shambles. While Grohl has a certain amount of power behind his delivery, he can also understand the power of restraint in other drummers.

From the virtuoso drumming school, Grohl was always drawn to artists like John Bonham and Neil Peart. While Led Zeppelin may have had their fair share of similarities, the main ingredient that made both bands work was the amount of power that went into every single strike, from Bonham’s raw, animalistic abilities to Peart’s technical masterworks.

Taking all those lessons into Nirvana, Grohl wrote rhythmic hooks with his drums, creating the cascading sound of mayhem on ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ while finding ways to toy with his usual drum sound on tracks like ‘Heart Shaped Box’. Even though Grohl had the potential to hammer a drumkit until it was pleading for mercy, one of his heroes comes from the opposite side of the spectrum.

Long after Foo Fighters had started making the rounds on the stadium circuit, The White Stripes were beginning to make their first inroads to success. With Jack White writing every track, Meg pounded away on the drums, bringing a ramshackle spontaneity to the music. Although the band intended to bring rock and roll back to its roots, many unfairly saw Meg’s drumming as weak, playing only the bare essentials on every song.

Despite the pushback from a handful of rock purists, Grohl was one of the first to commend Meg’s work on The White Stripes’ albums, recalling, “She’s one of my favourite drummers! She is one of those drummers that if you hear 15 seconds of her recording, you’ll know who it is, and that to me has always been the gold standard.”

While Grohl and Meg may look like they have two separate drumming styles on paper, there are more than a few common threads in both of their drumming styles. Across albums like Nevermind and Elephant, the drums are often looking to serve the song rather than play anything too flashy. When talking about their approach, Grohl and Meg made the analogy of children’s songs, bringing a certain innocence to their heaviest material.

More than anything, Grohl respected Meg for having her sonic fingerprint, explaining, “That’s always been the challenge. You want to know when you hear it, like, you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s John Bonham. Oh, that’s Charlie Watts. That’s Ringo. That’s Stewart Copeland. That’s Meg White.”

Now, we aren’t going to sit here and pretend that the drumming Meg White produced n The White Stripes’ records matches up to Bonham in many ways. He is definitely more powerful, technically he is more gifted, and his command of the instrument is more impressive, generally speaking. But what White had was the power of uniqueness.

Like so many would happily decry the paintings of Mark Rothko as simplistic and meet them in the gallery with a snort of derision, and a sighed “I could have done that”, so too White is often forgotten as a uniquely positioned percussionist. Yes, you may have been able to put together the simplistic fills she created, but, crucially, you didn’t. White’s sound is unequivocally her own, and that i the greatest triumph any musician can hope to attain.

While Meg could have continued as one of the most identifiable voices in rock percussion, creative tension with Jack and her unwillingness to go out on tour led to The White Stripes calling it quits after their album Icky Thump. Regardless of Jack’s various solo projects, though, there will always be a specific energy missing from his material without Meg behind him.

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