Dave Grohl has shared a hilarious exchange with his daughter Violet after she turned to him for reassurance while struggling with vocal problems on her first solo tour.
The Foo Fighters frontman appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! this week, where he revealed that his eldest daughter had been finding life on the road challenging as she performs across the US, Mexico and Europe.
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“She’s out on the road and she’s doing the thing,” Dave explained. “She’s playing the pubs and she’s playing the clubs and she’s losing sleep and she’s losing her voice.”
Violet, 20, regularly FaceTimes her dad while touring, and he explained that she recently contacted him about a scratchy throat.
“I FaceTime her almost every day, and I say, ‘How’s it going?’” he said. “And she’s like, ‘Oh my throat’s kind of scratchy. It kind of hurts.’ And I’m like, ‘It’s fine, man. Go in the shower, stand in there for half an hour, take an Advil, drink some tea.’”
However, his attempts to reassure her did not quite go to plan.
“Then the response is, ‘Dad, I don’t know if I can do it,’” he recalled. “I’m like, ‘Violet, they don’t care if your voice is raspy. Just get up there and do it.’ And she’ll go, ‘They’re gonna notice!’”
Dave then compared his own vocal performances to hers, explaining that he regularly takes to the stage with a rough voice.
“And I go, ‘They’re not gonna notice! I get up on stage every night and I sound like Lemmy [Kilmister] from Motörhead. They’re not gonna notice!’ And she goes, ‘Yeah, but you scream. I sing.’”
The response left the audience laughing, with Dave admitting that his daughter had a point.
“And she's not wrong! I mean, you'll hear it, man. She's the real deal,” he added.
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During the interview, Dave also opened up about his daughter's musical ability, revealing that he recognised her talent when she was still a toddler.
“I knew she was a musician when she was four years old, in her car seat, singing along to Amy Winehouse with perfect pitch and following every tiny little inflection,” he said.
“I'm like, 'Oh my God. She has an ear. She really has an ear.'”
Violet grew up travelling on the road with the Foo Fighters and began singing backing vocals for the band when she was just 12.
Dave recalled how she would happily walk out in front of crowds of up to 50,000 people, even when he was nervous about her performing.
“She was born to do this,” he said.
Now, Violet is establishing herself as a solo artist with her debut album, Be Sweet To Me, released on May 29, 2026.
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The 11-track record marks a major step in her musical career, taking her out from behind her famous father's shadow and into the spotlight in her own right.
It features songs including THUM, 595, Bug In The Cake and Applefish, with its sound drawing heavily on alternative rock from the 1980s and 1990s.
Violet has previously cited artists including Pixies, Soundgarden, The Breeders, PJ Harvey, Björk and Alice in Chains among her influences.
Although she is now pursuing her own career, she has already collaborated with her father's band.
She featured on Show Me How, from the Foo Fighters' 2023 album But Here We Are, and performed with them at Glastonbury that same year.
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Her Be Sweet To Me tour sees her playing smaller venues as she builds her own following, with performances across North America and Europe scheduled through the end of the year.
And while Dave's advice about performing through a raspy voice might not have been entirely convincing, he clearly has no doubts about his daughter's talent.
