Has there been a more remarkable rock career than that of Dave Grohl?

The Foo Fighters released their ninth album this week. And although front man Dave Grohl isn’t technically from Seattle, it feels like he is. The band has sold in excess of 12 million units in the US alone. This, of course, is the second most famous band Dave has been in.

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As I listen to the new album, my favorite track right now is “Run.”

Listening to the album, I couldn’t help but think, “Has there ever been a more remarkable career in rock than that of Dave Grohl?”

He’s only 48 and already in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for his ferocious drumming in Nirvana. To put things in perspective, Dave was in Nirvana for less than 4 years. They have three studio albums that sold 25 million copies in the US. So the Foos have been around 19 years longer than Grohl played in Nirvana.

But back to my original question. Who else has had such a crazy ride?

The reason I say it’s crazy is that he was the drummer that occasionally sang back up vocals in Nirvana, then he became the lead singer and guitarist for the Foo Fighters. There are plenty of people that have been in multiple historic groups. Paul McCartney, Neil Young, and Eric Clapton to name a few. But those guys all played the same role in both bands.

So maybe we look at the best singing drummers? OK, you’ve got Don Henley from the Eagles. He played acoustic guitar a few times in his solo days. But he also sang lead on the Eagles biggest hits, so I count him out. Ringo Starr you say? Please. To say that he can sing is a bit of an over statement, yes? And the Ringo Starr All Star band is not really a legit second act is it?

The best one I can come up with that might be in the ballpark is Genesis. You have the original line up with Peter Gabriel on lead vocals and Phil Collins on the drums. Gabriel leaves the band, and when the boys in Genesis are trying out new singers, they find that nobody can do the songs better than Collins. So he becomes the vocalist. But he stays on as the drummer. In fairness to Phil, he did go solo and would give up the drumming to be a proper front man. And he appeared to be playing piano in a few videos from the 80s.

Phil does have the lead in total album sales at 33 million in the US. In fairness to Dave, if you throw in streaming and online video streams, he could be in that same area. Record sales are much different now than when Phil was in his prime.

While popular, in my mind, Nirvana are a much more important band than Genesis in the canon of rock music, but I’ll give some props to Collins.

Other than that one guy, I can’t come up with another person that’s had a career that’s close to Dave Grohl. He’s known as the nicest guy in rock, and I’ll leave you with a partial list of people he’s played with besides that guy named Kurt.

• Them Crooked Vultures – with Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones
• Queens of the Stone Age
• Paul McCartney
• Garbage
• Killing Joke
• Nine Inch Nails
• David Bowie
• Slash
• Iggy Pop
• Tenacious D
• Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (rumor has it that Petty asked Dave to permanently join the band and Dave declined)
• Lemmy
• Stevie Nicks
• The Zac Brown Band

And that’s a partial list.

Check out their new album. Grohl and company are still bringing it.