title: A.C. Milan

text: Based on the English model for stadiums, San Siro is specifically designed for football matches, as opposed to many multi-purpose stadiums used in Serie A. It is therefore renowned in Italy for its fantastic atmosphere during matches, largely thanks to the closeness of the stands to the pitch. The frequent use of flares by supporters contributes to the atmosphere but the practice has occasionally caused problems.


title: A.C. Milan

text: On 19 December 2005, Milan vice-president and executive director Adriano Galliani announced that the club was seriously working towards a relocation. He stated Milan's new stadium will be largely based on the Veltins-Arena – the home of Schalke 04 in Gelsenkirchen – and will follow the standards of football stadiums in the United States, Germany and Spain. As opposed to many other stadiums in Italy, Milan's new stadium would likely be used for football only, having no athletics track. On 11 December 2014, Barbara Berlusconi announced a proposal to build a property stadium of 42,000 seats in Portello, behind the new HQ of the Rossoneri, and the large square "Piazza Gino Valle". The new village with shopping malls and hotel is located near CityLife district and is served by the metro. On 20 September 2015, however, Silvio Berlusconi called an end to his club's plans to build a new stadium in the city. In 2017, new CEO Marco Fassone stated that the club may look at either staying in the San Siro or moving to a new stadium with the club hierarchy emphasising the need to increase average attendance for home games.


title: A.C. Milan

text: Milan is one of the most supported football clubs in Italy, according to research conducted by Italian newspaper "La Repubblica". Historically, Milan was supported by the city's working class, which granted them the nickname of (which in Milanese dialect means "screwdrivers"), used until the 1960s. On the other hand, crosstown rivals Inter Milan were mainly supported by the more prosperous middle class. The oldest ultras groups in all of Italian football, "Fossa dei Leoni", originated in Milan. Currently, the main ultras group within the support base is "Brigate Rossonere". Milan ultras have never had any particular political preference, but the media traditionally associated them with the left wing until recently, when Berlusconi's presidency somewhat altered that view.


title: A.C. Milan

text: According to a study from 2010, Milan is the most supported Italian team in Europe and seventh overall, with over 18.4 million fans. It had the thirteenth highest average attendance of European football clubs during the 2019–20 season, behind Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Barcelona, Real Madrid,


title: A.C. Milan

text: Genoa fans consider Milan a hated rival after Genoa fan Vincenzo Spagnolo was stabbed to death by a Milan supporter in January 1995. Milan's main rivalry, however, is with its neighbour club, Inter Milan, where both clubs meet in the widely anticipated Derby della Madonnina twice every Serie A season. The name of the derby refers to the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose statue atop the Milan Cathedral is one of the city's main attractions. The match usually creates a lively atmosphere, with numerous (often humorous or offensive) banners unfolded before the start of the game. Flares are commonly present and contribute to the spectacle but they have occasionally led to problems, including the abandonment of the second leg of the 2004–05 Champions League quarter-final match between Milan and Inter on 12 April 2005, after a flare thrown from the crowd by an Inter supporter struck Milan goalkeeper Dida on the shoulder.


title: A.C. Milan

text: The rivalry with Juventus F.C. is a rivalry between the two most titled teams in Italy. The challenge confronts also two of the clubs with greater basin of supporters as well as those with the greatest turnover and stock market value in the country. The match-ups between Milan and Juventus, is regarded as the championship of Serie A, and both teams were often fighting for the top positions of the standings, sometimes even decisive for the award of the title. Milan also have rivalries with Roma and Napoli.


title: A.C. Milan

text: Milan is one of the most successful clubs in Italy, having won a total of 31 domestic honours, in addition to their 18 international successes. Milan has earned the right to place a star on its jersey in recognition of the fact that it has won at least ten "scudetti". In addition, the club is permanently allowed to display a multiple-winner badge on its shirt as it has won more than five European Cups.


title: A.C. Milan

text: Paolo Maldini holds the records for both total appearances and Serie A appearances for Milan, with 902 official games played in total and 647 in Serie A (as of 31 May 2009, not including playoff matches), the latter being an all-time Serie A record.


title: A.C. Milan

text: Swedish forward Gunnar Nordahl scored 38 goals in the 1950–51 season, 35 of which were in Serie A, setting an Italian football and club record. He went on to become Milan's all-time top goalscorer, scoring 221 goals for the club in 268 games. He is followed in second place by Andriy Shevchenko with 175 goals in 322 games, and Gianni Rivera in third place, who has scored 164 goals in 658 games. Rivera is also Milan's youngest ever goalscorer, scoring in a league match against Juventus at just 17 years.


title: A.C. Milan

text: Legendary tactician Nereo Rocco, the first proponent of "catenaccio" in the country, was Milan's longest-serving manager, sitting on the bench for over nine years (in two spells) in the 1960s and early 1970s, winning the club's first European Cup triumphs. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who purchased the club in 1986, is Milan's longest-serving president (23 years, due to a two-year vacancy between 2004 and 2006).


title: A.C. Milan

text: The first official match in which Milan participated was in the Third Federal Football Championship, the predecessor of Serie A, losing 3–0 to Torinese. Milan's largest ever victory was 13–0 against Audax Modena, in a league match at the 1914–15 season. Its heaviest defeat was recorded in the league at the 1922–23 season, beaten 0–8 by Bologna.


title: A.C. Milan

text: During the 1991–92 season, the club achieved the feature of being the first team to win the Serie A title without losing a single game. Previously, only Perugia had managed to go unbeaten over an entire Serie A season (1978–79), but finished second in the table. In total, Milan's unbeaten streak lasted 58 games, starting with a 0–0 draw against Parma on 26 May 1991 and coincidentally ending with a 1–0 home loss to Parma on 21 March 1993. This is a Serie A record as well as the third-longest unbeaten run in top flight European football, coming in behind Steaua București's record of 104 unbeaten games and Celtic's 68 game unbeaten run.


title: A.C. Milan

text: Since 2007, along with Boca Juniors, Milan has won more FIFA recognised international club titles than any other club in the world with 18 titles. They were overtaken by Al Ahly SC from Egypt after their 2014 CAF Confederation Cup win.


title: A.C. Milan

text: The sale of Kaká to Real Madrid in 2009 broke the eight-year-old world football transfer record held by Zinedine Zidane, costing the Spanish club €67 million (about £56 million). That record, however, lasted for less than a month, broken by Cristiano Ronaldo's £80 million transfer. This record, however, is in terms of nominal British pound rates, not adjusted to inflation or the real value of the euro. Madrid bought Zidane for €77.5 million in 2001, about £46 million at that time.


title: A.C. Milan

text: <nowiki>*</nowiki> Might be restored for one of his two sons, should either of them play professionally for the club.


title: A.C. Milan

text: On 13 April 2017 Milan became a subsidiary of Rossoneri Sport Investment Luxembourg, which acquired 99.92973% shares of AC Milan S.p.A. from Fininvest. Li Yonghong became the new chairman and Marco Fassone was confirmed as CEO. The other members of the board of directors were Roberto Cappelli, David Han Li, Lu Bo ( of Haixia Capital), Marco Patuano, Paolo Scaroni and Xu Renshuo. () However, Li Yonghong's investment vehicle was removed as the shareholder of Rossoneri Sport Investment Luxembourg on 10 July after defaulted in a pledge to Elliott Management Corporation, which lent a large sum of money to Li in 2017 to finalise the acquisition. Other partners of Elliott were Arena Investors and Blue Skye, according to news reports.


title: A.C. Milan

text: Elliott nominated new board of directors for both Rossoneri Sport Investment Luxembourg and Milan, with Paolo Scaroni as the new chairman () of the board of Milan and interim CEO. The four previous Chinese member of the board and former CEO Marco Fassone were all dismissed.


title: A.C. Milan

text: According to "The Football Money League" published by consultants Deloitte, in the 2005–06 season, Milan was the fifth-highest earning football club in the world with an estimated revenue of €233.7 million. However, it fell to eighth in 2011–12 season, tenth in 2012–13 and twelfth in 2013–14 season. The club is also ranked as the eighth-wealthiest football club in the world by "Forbes" magazine , making it the wealthiest in Italian football, just surpassing ninth-ranked Juventus by a narrow margin.


title: A.C. Milan

text: Emirates is the current main sponsor for Milan's shirt starting from the 2010–11 season and through to the 2019–20 season. This follows a four-year relationship with Austrian online betting company bwin.com as sponsor.


title: A.C. Milan

text: Previously, German car manufacturer Opel (owned by General Motors) had sponsored Milan for 12 seasons. For most of those 12 years, "Opel" was displayed on the front of the shirt, but in the 2003–04 and the 2005–06 seasons respectively, "Meriva" and "Zafira" (two cars from the company's range) were displayed.


title: A.C. Milan

text: The current shirts are supplied by Puma. Previously it was supplied by German sportswear manufacturer Adidas, whose deal was scheduled to run until 2023. The deal made Adidas the official manufacturer of all kits, training equipment and replica outfits. However, an early termination of the deal was announced in October 2017, effective on 30 June 2018. Prior to Adidas, the Italian sports company Lotto produced Milan's sportswear.


title: A.C. Milan

text: AC Milan Group made an aggregate net loss in recent years, which was one of the largest among the Italian clubs, notably: 2005, net loss of €4.5 million (separate account); 2006, a net income of €11.9 million (mainly contributed by the sales of Andriy Shevchenko); 2007, a net loss of €32 million; 2008, a net loss of €77 million; 2009, a net loss of €19 million (the decreased net loss was mainly contributed by the sales of Kaká); 2010, a net loss of €65 million; in 2011, a net loss of €67.334 million, in 2012, a net loss of €6.857 million (contributed by the sales of Thiago Silva and Zlatan Ibrahimović). and in 2013, a net loss of €15.7 million (with some contribution by the sales of Kevin-Prince Boateng and Alexandre Pato and other players, as well as decrease in wage bill.)


title: A.C. Milan

text: As a consequence of the aggregate 2.5-year financial result in the reporting periods ending at 31 December 2015, 31 December 2016 and 30 June 2017 (a FFP-adjusted net loss of €146 million, €121 million in excess of the acceptable deviation in the regulation), Milan was initially banned from European competitions due to breach in UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations. However, the European ban was lifted by an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Milan was allowed to achieve the break even condition on or before 30 June 2021.


title: A.C. Milan

text: Note: Re-capitalization figures were obtained from item "versamenti soci in conto capitale e/o copertura perdite", for 2006 to 2017 financial year


title: A.C. Milan

text: Milan had a team in the Superleague Formula race car series where teams are sponsored by football clubs. Robert Doornbos, formerly driving for Minardi and Red Bull Racing in the Formula One World Championship, drove for Milan in 2008. Doornbos won his first race for the team at Nürburgring, Germany. Giorgio Pantano is driving for Milan in the 2009 season and he has also won races for the team. The team folded in 2010 along with the series in 2011.


title: Dave Grohl

text: David Eric Grohl (born January 14, 1969) is an American musician. He is the founder of the rock band Foo Fighters, in which he is the lead singer, guitarist, and principal songwriter. Prior to forming Foo Fighters he was the drummer of the grunge band Nirvana from 1990 to 1994.


title: Dave Grohl

text: At 17, Grohl joined the punk rock band Scream after the departure of their drummer Kent Stax. Grohl became the drummer for Nirvana after Scream broke up in 1990. Nirvana's second album, "Nevermind" (1991), was the first to feature Grohl on drums and became a worldwide success. After Nirvana disbanded following the death of lead singer Kurt Cobain in April 1994, Grohl formed Foo Fighters as a one-man project. The first Foo Fighters album was released in 1995, and a full band was assembled to tour and record under the Foo Fighters name; they have released 10 studio albums.


title: Dave Grohl

text: Grohl is the drummer and co-founder of the rock supergroup Them Crooked Vultures, and has recorded and toured with Queens of the Stone Age. He has also participated in the side projects Late! and Probot. Grohl began directing Foo Fighters music videos in 1997 and released his debut documentary, "Sound City", in 2013. It was followed by the documentary miniseries "Sonic Highways" (2014) and the documentary film "What Drives Us" (2021). In 2021, Grohl released an autobiography, "The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music". In 2022, Grohl and the Foo Fighters starred as themselves in the comedy horror film "Studio 666."


title: Dave Grohl

text: In 2010, he was described by "Classic Rock Drummers" co-author Ken Micallef as one of the most influential rock musicians of the last 20 years. Grohl was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of Nirvana in 2014 and as a member of Foo Fighters in 2021.


title: Dave Grohl

text: David Eric Grohl was born in Warren, Ohio, on January 14, 1969, the son of teacher Virginia Jean (née Hanlon) and newswriter James Harper Grohl (19382014). He is of German, Irish, and Slovak descent. In addition to being an award-winning journalist, James had also served as the special assistant to Senator Robert Taft Jr. and was described as "a talented political observer who possessed the ability to call every major election with uncanny accuracy". When he was a child, Grohl's family moved to Springfield, Virginia. When he was seven, his parents divorced, and he was subsequently raised by his mother. At the age of 12, he began learning to play guitar. He grew tired of lessons and instead taught himself, eventually playing in bands with friends. He said, "I was going in the direction of faster, louder, darker while my sister, Lisa, three years older, was getting seriously into new wave territory. We'd meet in the middle sometimes with Bowie and Siouxsie and the Banshees."


title: Dave Grohl

text: At 13, Grohl and his sister spent the summer at their cousin Tracey's house in Evanston, Illinois. Tracey introduced them to punk rock by taking the pair to shows by a variety of punk bands. His first concert was Naked Raygun at The Cubby Bear in Chicago in 1982. Grohl recalled, "From then on we were totally punk. We went home and bought "Maximumrocknroll" and tried to figure it all out." In Virginia, he attended Thomas Jefferson High School as a freshman and was elected class vice-president. In that capacity, he managed to play pieces of songs by punk bands like Circle Jerks and Bad Brains over the school intercom before his morning announcements. His mother decided he should transfer to Bishop Ireton High School in Alexandria because his cannabis use was lowering his grades. He stayed there for two years, beginning with a repeat of his first year. After his second year, he transferred yet again to Annandale High School. While in high school, he played in several local bands, including a stint as guitarist in a band called Freak Baby. During this period, he taught himself to play drums. When Freak Baby kicked out its bass player and reshuffled its lineup, Grohl switched to drums. The reconstituted band renamed itself Mission Impossible.


title: Dave Grohl

text: Grohl said he did not take drumming lessons and instead learned by listening to Rush and punk rock. Rush drummer Neil Peart was an early influence: "When I got "2112" when I was eight years old, it fucking changed the direction of my life. I heard the drums. It made me want to become a drummer." During his developing years as a drummer, Grohl cited John Bonham as his greatest influence, and eventually had Bonham's three-rings symbol tattooed on his right shoulder. Mission Impossible rebranded themselves Fast before breaking up, after which Grohl joined the hardcore punk band Dain Bramage in December 1985. Dain Bramage ended in March 1987 when Grohl quit without warning to join Scream, having produced the "I Scream Not Coming Down" LP. Many of Grohl's early influences were at the , a music venue in Washington, DC. He said, "I went to the 9:30 Club hundreds of times. I was always so excited to get there, and I was always bummed when it closed. I spent my teenage years at the club and saw some shows that changed my life."


title: Dave Grohl

text: As a teenager in DC, Grohl briefly contemplated joining shock-rockers Gwar, who were looking for a drummer. At age 17, Grohl auditioned with local Washington, D.C., favorites Scream to fill the vacancy left by the departure of drummer Kent Stax. In order to be considered for the position, Grohl lied about his age, claiming he was older. To Grohl's surprise, the band asked him to join, so he dropped out of high school in his junior year. He has been quoted as saying, "I was 17 and extremely anxious to see the world, so I did it."


title: Dave Grohl

text: Over the next four years, Grohl toured extensively with Scream, recording a live album (their show of May 4, 1990, in Alzey, Germany, being released by Tobby Holzinger as "Your Choice Live Series Vol.10") and two studio albums, "No More Censorship" and "Fumble", on which Grohl penned and sang vocals on the song "Gods Look Down". During a Toronto stop on their 1987 tour, Grohl played drums for Iggy Pop at a CD release party held at famed club the El Mocambo. In 1990, Scream unexpectedly disbanded midtour following the departure of bassist Skeeter Thompson.


title: Dave Grohl

text: While playing in Scream, Grohl became a fan of the Melvins and eventually befriended them. During a 1990 tour stop on the West Coast, Melvins guitarist Buzz Osborne took his friends Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic, of the band Nirvana, to see Scream. Following the breakup of Scream, Grohl called Osborne for advice. Osborne informed him that Nirvana was looking for a drummer and gave Grohl the phone numbers of Cobain and Novoselic, who invited Grohl to Seattle to audition. Grohl passed the audition and soon joined the band. Novoselic later said, "We knew in two minutes that he was the right drummer." Grohl told "Q": "I remember being in the same room with them and thinking, 'What? "That"'s Nirvana? Are you kidding?' Because on their record cover they looked like psycho lumberjacks... I was like, 'What, that little dude and that big motherfucker? You're kidding me'."


title: Dave Grohl

text: When Grohl joined Nirvana, the band had already recorded several demos for the follow-up to their debut album "Bleach", having spent time recording with producer Butch Vig in Wisconsin. Initially, the plan was to release the album on Sub Pop, but the band received a great deal of interest based on the demos. Grohl spent the initial months with Nirvana traveling to various labels as the band shopped for a deal, eventually signing with DGC Records. In the spring of 1991, the band entered Sound City Studios in Los Angeles to record "Nevermind" (as seen in Grohl's 2013 documentary "Sound City").


title: Dave Grohl

text: "Nevermind" (1991) exceeded all expectations and became a worldwide commercial success. At the same time, Grohl was compiling and recording his own material, which he released on a cassette called "Pocketwatch" in 1992 on indie label Simple Machines. Rather than using his own name, Grohl released the cassette under the pseudonym "Late!"


title: Dave Grohl

text: In the later years of Nirvana, Grohl's songwriting contributions increased. In Grohl's initial months in Olympia, Cobain overheard him working on a song called "Color Pictures of a Marigold", and the two subsequently worked on it together. Grohl would later record the song for the "Pocketwatch" cassette. Grohl stated in a 2014 episode of "" that Cobain reacted by kissing him upon first hearing a demo of "Alone + Easy Target" that Grohl had recently recorded.


title: Dave Grohl

text: During the sessions for "In Utero", Nirvana decided to re-record "Color Pictures of a Marigold" and released this version as a B-side on the "Heart-Shaped Box" single, titled simply "Marigold". Grohl also contributed the main guitar riff for "Scentless Apprentice". Cobain admitted in a late 1993 MTV interview that he initially thought the riff was "kind of boneheaded", but was gratified at how the song developed (a process captured in part in a demo on the Nirvana box set "With the Lights Out"). Cobain said that he was excited at the possibility of having Novoselic and Grohl contribute more to the band's songwriting.


title: Dave Grohl

text: Prior to their 1994 European tour, the band scheduled session time at Robert Lang Studios in Seattle to work on demos. For most of the three-day session, Cobain was absent, so Novoselic and Grohl worked on demos of their own songs. They completed several of Grohl's songs, including future Foo Fighters songs "Exhausted", "Big Me", "February Stars", and "Butterflies". Cobain arrived on the third day and the band recorded a demo of "You Know You're Right". It was Nirvana's final studio recording; on April 8, 1994, Cobain was found dead of a self-inflicted shotgun wound at his home. Two decades later, on April 10, 2014, Grohl was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Nirvana.


title: Dave Grohl

text: Following Cobain's death in April 1994, Grohl retreated, unsure what to do. In October 1994, he scheduled studio time at Robert Lang Studios, and quickly recorded a fifteen-track demo. With the exception of a single guitar part on "X-Static" played by Greg Dulli of the Afghan Whigs, Grohl performed all of the instruments himself.


title: Dave Grohl

text: Grohl wondered if his future might be in drumming for other bands. In November, Grohl took a brief turn with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, including a performance on "Saturday Night Live". He declined an invitation to become Petty's permanent drummer. Grohl was also rumored as a possible replacement for Pearl Jam drummer Dave Abbruzzese and performed with the band for a song or two at three shows during Pearl Jam's March 1995 Australian tour. However, by then, Pearl Jam had already settled on ex-Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons, and Grohl had other solo plans.


title: Dave Grohl

text: Grohl's demo received interest from major labels. Nirvana's A&R rep Gary Gersh was now president of Capitol Records and lured Grohl to sign with the label. Grohl did not want the effort to be considered the start of a solo career, so he recruited other band members: former Germs and touring Nirvana guitarist Pat Smear and two members of the recently disbanded Sunny Day Real Estate, William Goldsmith (drums) and Nate Mendel (bass). He and Novoselic decided against Novoselic joining; Grohl said it would have felt "really natural" for them to work together again, but would have been uncomfortable for the other band members and placed more pressure on Grohl. Rather than re-record the album, Grohl's demo was mixed by Rob Schnapf and Tom Rothrock and was released in July 1995 as Foo Fighters' self-titled debut album. During a break between tours, the band entered the studio and recorded a cover of Gary Numan's "Down in the Park". In February 1996, Grohl and his then-wife Jennifer Youngblood made a brief cameo appearance on "The X-Files" third-season episode "Pusher".


title: Dave Grohl

text: After touring for the self-titled album for more than a year, Grohl returned home and began work on the soundtrack to the 1997 movie "Touch". Grohl performed all of the instruments and vocals himself, save for vocals from Veruca Salt singer Louise Post on the title track, keyboards by Barrett Jones (who also co-produced the record) on one track, and vocals and guitar by X's John Doe on "This Loving Thing (Lynn's Song)". Grohl completed the recording in two weeks, and immediately joined Foo Fighters to work on their follow-up.


title: Dave Grohl

text: During the initial sessions for Foo Fighters' second album, tension emerged between Grohl and drummer William Goldsmith. According to Goldsmith, "Dave had me do 96 takes of one song, and I had to do thirteen hours' worth of takes on another one. ... It just seemed that everything I did wasn't good enough for him, or anyone else". Goldsmith also believed that Capitol and producer Gil Norton wanted Grohl to drum on the album. With the album seemingly complete, Grohl headed home to Virginia with a copy of the rough mixes and found himself unhappy with the results. He wrote and recorded a few new songs, "Walking After You" and the hit single “Everlong”, alone at a studio in Washington, D.C. Inspired by the session, Grohl opted to move the band, without Goldsmith's knowledge, to Los Angeles to re-record most of the album with Grohl on drums. After the sessions were complete, Goldsmith announced his departure from the band. Grohl later expressed regret, and said that "there were a lot of reasons it didn't work out, but there was also a part of me that was like, you know, I don't know if I'm finished playing the drums yet".


title: Dave Grohl

text: The second Foo Fighters album, "The Colour and the Shape", was released in May 1997 and cemented Foo Fighters as a staple of rock radio. It produced several hit singles, including "Everlong", "My Hero", and "Monkey Wrench". Prior to the album's release, former Alanis Morissette drummer Taylor Hawkins joined on drums. The following September, Smear left the band, citing a need to settle down following a lifetime of touring. Smear was replaced by Grohl's former Scream bandmate Franz Stahl. Stahl was fired prior to recording of Foo Fighters' third album and was replaced by touring guitarist Chris Shiflett, who later became a full-fledged member during the recording of "One by One".


title: Dave Grohl

text: Grohl's life of non-stop touring and travel continued with Foo Fighters' popularity. During his infrequent pauses he lived in Seattle and Los Angeles before returning to Alexandria, Virginia. It was there that he turned his basement into a recording studio where the 1999 album "There Is Nothing Left to Lose" was recorded. It was recorded following the departure from Capitol and their former president Gary Gersh. Grohl described the recording experience as "intoxicating at times" because the band members were left completely to their own devices. He added, "One of the advantages of finishing the record before we had a new label was that it was purely our creation. It was complete and not open to outside tampering."


title: Dave Grohl

text: In 2000, the band recruited Queen guitarist Brian May to add some guitar flourish to a cover of Pink Floyd's "Have a Cigar", a song which Foo Fighters previously recorded as a B-side. The friendship between the two bands resulted in Grohl and Taylor Hawkins being asked to induct Queen into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001. Grohl and Hawkins joined May and Queen drummer Roger Taylor to perform "Tie Your Mother Down", with Grohl standing in on vocals for Freddie Mercury. May later contributed guitar work for the song "Tired of You" on the ensuing Foo Fighters album, as well as on an unreleased Foo Fighters song called "Knucklehead".


title: Dave Grohl

text: Near the end of 2001, Foo Fighters returned to the studio to work on their fourth album. After four months in the studio, with the sessions finished, Grohl accepted an invitation to join Queens of the Stone Age and helped them to record their 2002 album "Songs for the Deaf". (Grohl can be seen drumming for the band in the video for the song "No One Knows".) After a brief tour through North America, Britain and Japan with the band and feeling rejuvenated by the effort, Grohl recalled the other band members to completely re-record their album at his studio in Virginia. The effort became their fourth album, "One by One". While initially pleased with the results, in another 2005 "Rolling Stone" interview, Grohl admitted to not liking the record: "Four of the songs were good, and the other seven I never played again in my life. We rushed into it, and we rushed out of it."


title: Dave Grohl

text: On November 23, 2002, Grohl achieved a historical milestone by replacing himself on the top of the "Billboard" modern rock chart, when "You Know You're Right" by Nirvana was replaced by "All My Life" by Foo Fighters. When "All My Life" ended its run, after a one-week respite, "No One Knows" by Queens of the Stone Age took the number one spot. Between October 26, 2002, and March 1, 2003, Grohl was in the number one spot on the Modern rock charts for 17 of 18 successive weeks, as a member of three different groups.


title: Dave Grohl

text: Grohl and Foo Fighters released their fifth album "In Your Honor" on June 14, 2005. Prior to starting work on the album, the band spent almost a year relocating Grohl's home-based Virginia studio to a brand new facility, dubbed Studio 606, located in a warehouse near Los Angeles. Featuring collaborations with John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age and Norah Jones, the album was a departure from previous efforts, and included one rock and one acoustic disc.


title: Dave Grohl

text: Foo Fighters' sixth studio album "Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace" was released on September 25, 2007. It was recorded during a three-month period between March 2007 and June 2007, and its release was preceded by the first single "The Pretender" on September 17. The second single, "Long Road to Ruin", was released on December 3, 2007, followed by the third single, "Let It Die", on June 24, 2008.


title: Dave Grohl

text: On November 3, 2009, Foo Fighters released their first "Greatest Hits" collection, consisting of 16 tracks including a previously unreleased acoustic version of "Everlong" and two new tracks "Wheels" and "Word Forward" which were produced by Nevermind's producer Butch Vig. Grohl has been quoted saying the "Greatest Hits" is too early and "can look like an obituary". He does not feel they have written their best hits yet.


title: Dave Grohl

text: Foo Fighters' seventh studio album, "Wasting Light", was released on April 12, 2011. It became the band's first album to reach No. 1 in the United States. Despite rumors of a hiatus, Grohl confirmed in January 2013 that the band had completed writing material for their follow-up to "Wasting Light".


title: Dave Grohl

text: Grohl and members of Foo Fighters sometimes perform as a cover band "Chevy Metal", as they did in May 2015 at "Conejo Valley Days", a county fair in Thousand Oaks, California.


title: Dave Grohl

text: On November 10, 2014, Foo Fighters released their eighth studio album, "Sonic Highways", which reached number two in the United States. The album features eight songs, each inspired by a different U.S. city's musical history and culture researched by Grohl himself.


title: Dave Grohl

text: On June 12, 2015, while playing a show in Gothenburg, Sweden, Grohl fell off the stage, breaking his leg. He left temporarily and returned with a cast to finish the concert. Afterward, the band cancelled the remainder of its European tour. To avoid having to cancel the band's upcoming North American tour, Grohl designed a large "elevated throne" which would allow him to perform on stage with a broken leg. The throne was unveiled at a concert in Washington, D.C. on July 4, where Grohl used the stage's video screens to show the crowd video of him falling from the stage in Gothenburg as well as X-rays of his broken leg. Beginning with the show on July 4, Foo Fighters began selling new tour merchandise rebranding the band's North American tour as the "Broken Leg Tour". In 2016, Grohl lent his throne to Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses after Rose broke his foot. He lent it again in 2021 to Darin Wall, of the Seattle metal band Greyhawk, after Wall was shot in the leg.


title: Dave Grohl

text: On July 31, 2015, Grohl posted a personal reply to Fabio Zaffagnini, Marco Sabiu, and the 1,000 participants of the "Rockin' 1000" project in Cesena, Italy, thanking them for their combined performance of the Foo Fighters' song "Learn to Fly" from their 1999 album "There Is Nothing Left to Lose", indicating (in broken Italian), ""... I promise [Foo Fighters will] see you soon"." On November 3, Foo Fighters performed in Cesena, where Grohl invited some "Rockin' 1000" members onto the stage to perform with the band.


title: Dave Grohl

text: On September 15, 2017, Foo Fighters released their ninth studio album "Concrete and Gold", which became the band's second album to debut at number one on the "Billboard" 200. After the Concrete and Gold Tour, Grohl announced that the band would be taking a break. The tenth Foo Fighters studio album, "Medicine at Midnight", was delayed by to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was released on February 5, 2021, and debuted at number three on the "Billboard" 200. The "Medicine at Midnight" tour was cancelled following the death of Hawkins on March 25, 2022.


title: Dave Grohl

text: Apart from his main bands, Grohl has been involved in other music projects. In 1992, he played drums on Buzz Osborne's Kiss-styled solo-EP "King Buzzo", where he was credited as "Dale Nixon", a pseudonym that Greg Ginn adopted to play bass on Black Flag's "My War". He also released the music cassette "Pocketwatch" under the pseudonym "Late!" on the now-defunct indie label Simple Machines.


title: Dave Grohl

text: In 1993, Grohl was recruited to help recreate the music of The Beatles' early years for the movie "Backbeat"; he played drums in an "all-star" lineup that included Greg Dulli of the Afghan Whigs, indie producer Don Fleming, Mike Mills of R.E.M., Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, and Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum. A music video was filmed for the song "Money" while Grohl was with Nirvana on their 1994 European tour, footage of Grohl was filmed later and included.


title: Dave Grohl

text: Later in 1994, Grohl played drums on two tracks for Mike Watt's "Ball-Hog or Tugboat?". In early 1995, Grohl and Foo Fighters played their first US tour, the Ring Spiel Tour both opening for Watt and playing with Eddie Vedder as Watt's supporting band.


title: Dave Grohl

text: In 1997, Grohl played a few songs with David Bowie for Bowie's 50th birthday concert, which was recorded and shown on pay-per-view later that year.


title: Dave Grohl

text: During the early 2000s, Grohl spent time in his basement studio writing and recording a number of songs for a metal project. Over the span of several years, he recruited his favorite metal vocalists from the 1980s, including Lemmy of Motörhead, Conrad "Cronos" Lant from Venom, King Diamond, Scott Weinrich, Snake of Voivod and Max Cavalera of Sepultura, to perform the vocals for the songs. The project was released in 2004 under the nickname Probot.


title: Dave Grohl

text: Also in 2003, Grohl stepped behind the kit to perform on Killing Joke's second self-titled album. The move surprised some Nirvana fans, given that Nirvana had been accused of plagiarizing the opening riff of "Come as You Are" from Killing Joke's 1984 song "Eighties". However, the controversy failed to create a lasting rift between the bands. Foo Fighters covered Killing Joke's "Requiem" during the late 1990s, and were even joined by Killing Joke singer Jaz Coleman for a performance of the song at a show in New Zealand in 2003. Also in 2003, at the 45th Annual Grammy Awards, Grohl performed in an ad hoc supergroup with Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, and Steven Van Zandt for a performance in tribute of then-recently deceased singer/guitarist Joe Strummer.


title: Dave Grohl

text: Grohl lent his drumming skills to other artists during the early 2000s. In 2000, he played drums and sang on a track, "Goodbye Lament", from Tony Iommi's album "Iommi". In 2001, Grohl performed on Tenacious D's debut album, and appeared in the video for lead single "Tribute" as a demon. He later appeared in the duo's 2006 movie "Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny" as the devil in the song "The Pick of Destiny", and performed on its soundtrack. He also performed drums for their 2012 album "Rize of the Fenix". In 2002, Grohl helped Chan Marshall of Cat Power on the album "You Are Free" and played with Queens of the Stone Age on their album "Songs for the Deaf". Grohl also toured with the band in support of the album, delaying work on the Foo Fighters' album "One by One". In 2004, Grohl drummed on six tracks for Nine Inch Nails' 2005 album "With Teeth" and played percussion on one more, later returning to play drums on 'The Idea of You' from their 2016 EP "Not the Actual Events". He also drummed on the song "Bad Boyfriend" on Garbage's 2005 album "Bleed Like Me". Most recently, he recorded all the drums on Juliette and the Licks's 2006 album "Four on the Floor" and the song "For Us" from Pete Yorn's 2006 album "Nightcrawler". Beyond drumming, Grohl contributed guitar to a cover of Neil Young's "I've Been Waiting For You" on David Bowie's 2002 album "Heathen".


title: Dave Grohl

text: In June 2008, Grohl was Paul McCartney's special guest for a concert at the Anfield football stadium in Liverpool, in one of the central events of the English city's year as European Capital of Culture. Grohl joined McCartney's band singing backup vocals and playing guitar on "Band on the Run" and drums on "Back in the U.S.S.R." and "I Saw Her Standing There". Grohl also performed with McCartney at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards, again playing drums on "I Saw Her Standing There". Grohl also helped pay tribute to McCartney at the 2010 Kennedy Center Honors along with No Doubt, Norah Jones, Steven Tyler, James Taylor, and Mavis Staples. He sang a duet version of "Maybe I'm Amazed" with Norah Jones on December 5, 2010.


title: Dave Grohl

text: Grohl played drums on the tracks "Run with the Wolves" and "Stand Up" on The Prodigy's 2009 album "Invaders Must Die".


title: Dave Grohl

text: In July 2009, it was revealed that Grohl was recording with Josh Homme and John Paul Jones as Them Crooked Vultures. The trio performed their first show together on August 9, 2009, at Metro in Chicago. The band played their first UK gig on August 26, 2009, with a surprise appearance at Brixton Academy in London, supporting the Arctic Monkeys. The band released their debut album Them Crooked Vultures on November 16, 2009, in the UK and November 17, 2009, in the US.


title: Dave Grohl

text: On October 23, 2010, Grohl performed with Tenacious D at BlizzCon. He appeared as the drummer for the entire concert, and a year later he returned with Foo Fighters and played another set there, this time as guitarist and vocalist.


title: Dave Grohl

text: Also in 2010, Grohl helped write and performed on drums for "Watch This" with guitarist Slash and Duff McKagan on Slash's self-titled album that also included many other famous artists.


title: Dave Grohl

text: In October 2011, Grohl temporarily joined Cage the Elephant as a replacement on tour after drummer Jared Champion's appendix burst.


title: Dave Grohl

text: Grohl directed a documentary entitled Sound City which is about the Van Nuys studio of the same name where "Nevermind" was recorded that shut down its music operations in 2011.


title: Dave Grohl

text: In 2012, following the departure of Joey Castillo from Queens of the Stone Age, Grohl performed on some tracks as drummer on their 2013 album "...Like Clockwork".


title: Dave Grohl

text: At the Paul McCartney joined Grohl and the surviving members of Nirvana (Krist Novoselic and touring guitarist Pat Smear) to perform "Cut Me Some Slack", a song later recorded for the Sound City soundtrack. In what was regarded as a Nirvana reunion with McCartney as a stand-in for Kurt Cobain, this was the first time in eighteen years that the three had played alongside each other.


title: Dave Grohl

text: Grohl delivered a keynote speech at the 2013 South by Southwest conference in Austin Texas, U.S. on the morning of March 14. Lasting just under an hour, the speech covered Grohl's musical life from his youth through to his role with the Foo Fighters and emphasized the importance of each individual's voice, regardless of who the individual is: "There is no right or wrong—there is only your voice ... What matters most is that it's your voice. Cherish it. Respect it. Nurture it. Challenge it. Respect it." Grohl said during the speech that Psy's "Gangnam Style" was one of his favorite songs of the past decade. He also referenced Edgar Winter's instrumental "Frankenstein" as the song that made him want to become a musician.


title: Dave Grohl

text: On November 6, 2013, Grohl played drums at the 2013 CMA Awards replacing drummer Chris Fryar for Country Music band Zac Brown Band. The band debuted their new song "Day for the Dead". Grohl also produced Zac Brown Band's EP "The Grohl Sessions, Vol. 1".


title: Dave Grohl

text: Grohl also featured on drums for new indie hip-hop band RDGLDGRN. He worked with them closely on their EP. The group asked fellow Northern Virginia native Grohl, who was filming his Sound City documentary, to drum on "I Love Lamp". Grohl agreed and played drums for the entire record, with the exception of "Million Fans", which features a sampled breakbeat.


title: Dave Grohl

text: Grohl, a fan of theatrical Swedish metal band Ghost, produced their EP "If You Have Ghost". He was also featured in a number of songs on the EP. Grohl played rhythm guitar for the song "If You Have Ghosts" (a cover of a Roky Erickson song), and drums on "I'm a Marionette" (an ABBA cover) as well as "Waiting for the Night" (a Depeche Mode cover). According to a member of Ghost, Grohl has appeared live in concert with the band wearing the same identity concealing outfit that the rest of the band usually wears.


title: Dave Grohl

text: In September, the all-star covers album by the Alice Cooper-led Hollywood Vampires supergroup was released and features Grohl playing drums on the medley "One/Jump Into the Fire".


title: Dave Grohl

text: On August 10, 2018, Grohl released "Play", a solo recording lasting over 22 minutes. A mini documentary accompanied it.


title: Dave Grohl

text: Between August and November 2020, Grohl performed in an online drum battle with ten-year-old drummer and YouTube celebrity Nandi Bushell, who had challenged Grohl after previously covering songs from Nirvana and Foo Fighters. Grohl had previously been impressed by her talent and energy. After going back and forth with Bushell a few times, he jokingly conceded victory to her, and later wrote and performed a song in her honor. Later, after speaking to Bushell over a video chat, Grohl offered to have Bushell perform with the Foo Fighters on stage, an offer he made good on when she appeared with the band during their August 26, 2021 show at the L.A. Forum, where she performed drums on "Everlong" as the show's finale. The videos of the drum battle received tens of millions of views.


title: Dave Grohl

text: During Hanukkah of 2020, Grohl collaborated with Greg Kurstin to release previously recorded covers of songs by Jewish artists, one per night. This continued in 2021.


title: Dave Grohl

text: On October 5, 2021, Grohl's memoir "The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music" was published by Dey Street Books. Grohl developed a thrash metal record for a fictional band named Dream Widow who self-destructed 25 years ago as developed for a horror-comedy movie titled "Studio 666". Grohl worked to create the Dream Widow album and aimed to release it at the same time as the film, on February 25, 2022. On March 25, 2022, the self-titled "Dream Widow" EP was released to digital streaming services featuring eight tracks ranging from thrash, death and extreme metal. The EP also featured Rami Jaffee, Jim Rota and Oliver Roman.


title: Dave Grohl

text: On 25 June 2022 Grohl duetted with Paul McCartney when he headlined the Glastonbury Festival. It was his first performance since the death of Taylor Hawkins earlier in the year.


title: Dave Grohl

text: Since his first appearance in 1992, Grohl has been a musical guest on "Saturday Night Live" 14 timesmore than any other musician. He has appeared with Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Them Crooked Vultures, Mick Jagger, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.


title: Dave Grohl

text: Grohl has also appeared in several sketches on "SNL". On October 13, 2007, he performed in the "SNL" Digital Short "People Getting Punched Just Before Eating". On February 6, 2010, he appeared as a middle-aged punk rock drummer reuniting the group "Crisis of Conformity" (fronted by Fred Armisen) after 25 years in a skit later on in the episode. On March 9, 2011, he appeared in the "SNL" Digital Short "Helen Mirren's Magical Bosom" and the sketch "Bongo's Clown Room".


title: Dave Grohl

text: In August 2000, Grohl voiced Daniel Dotson, an egotistical art instructor, in "Is It Fall Yet?", the first of two film-length installments for MTV's animated series "Daria".


title: Dave Grohl

text: In mid-2010, Grohl added his name to the list of contributing rock star voice cameos for Cartoon Network's heavy metal parody/tribute show, "Metalocalypse". He voiced the controversial Syrian dictator, Abdule Malik in the season 3 finale, "Doublebookedklok".


title: Dave Grohl

text: In February 2013, Grohl filled in as host of "Chelsea Lately" for a week. Guests included Elton John, who disclosed on the E! show that he would appear with Grohl on the next Queens of the Stone Age album. Grohl had previously hosted the show during the first week of December 2012 as part of "Celebrity Guest Host Week".


title: Dave Grohl

text: On May 20, 2015, David Letterman selected Grohl and the Foo Fighters to play "Everlong" as the last musical guest on the final episode of "Late Show with David Letterman". Letterman stated that he considered "Everlong" to be his favorite song and that he and the band were "joined at the hip" ever since the band canceled tour dates to play his first show back from heart bypass surgery at his request.


title: Dave Grohl

text: On December 1, 2015, Grohl appeared on an episode of "The Muppets" where he competed in a "drum off" with Animal.


title: Dave Grohl

text: On January 28, 2021, it was announced that the first authorized Dave Grohl documentary will be released via The Coda Collection. The documentary was released April 30, 2021, as "What Drives Us".


title: Dave Grohl

text: On 8 October 2021, Grohl was the guest storyteller on CBeebies "Bedtime Story", reading a story based on The Beatles song, Octopus's Garden.


title: Dave Grohl

text: Grohl directed the Foo Fighters music videos for "Monkey Wrench" (1997), "My Hero" (1998), "All My Life" (2002), "White Limo" (2011), and "Rope" (2011), as well as all the music videos from the "Sonic Highways" and "Concrete and Gold" era. Outside of Foo Fighters, he also filmed the music video for Soundgarden's "By Crooked Steps" (2014).


title: Dave Grohl

text: In 2013, Grohl produced and directed the documentary "Sound City", about the history of the famed Sound City Studios recording studios in Van Nuys. The film, Grohl's feature-length directorial debut, premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.


title: Dave Grohl

text: Accompanying the release of "Sonic Highways", Grohl directed an eight-part documentary miniseries of the same name that chronicles the album's development and recording across eight different American cities. It premiered on HBO on October 17, 2014.


title: Dave Grohl

text: In 2021, Grohl directed "What Drives Us", a feature-length documentary on van touring. It was released on April 30, 2021, on the Coda Collection via Amazon Prime.


title: Dave Grohl

text: Inspired by California Jam, to celebrate the release of Foo Fighters' ninth studio album "Concrete and Gold" and begin their North American tour, Cal Jam 17, a music festival curated by Grohl and Foo Fighters, was held from October 67, 2017 at Glen Helen Amphitheater, with 27,800 attendees, 3,100 campers, and nine arrests.


title: Dave Grohl

text: Cal Jam 18 was held October 5–6, 2018 in San Bernardino, California which featured the Foo Fighters and a Nirvana reunion.


title: Dave Grohl

text: Grohl is a self-taught musician and cannot read music, instead plays only by ear. Grohl's two primary guitars are based on the Gibson ES-335. His primary recording guitar is an original cherry red Gibson Trini Lopez Standard that he bought in the early 1990s because he liked the look of the diamond-shaped sound holes. He also has an original Pelham blue Trini Lopez from 1965 which he bought from a doctor in the UK.


title: Dave Grohl

text: Grohl's primary stage guitar is his signature model Pelham Blue Gibson DG-335, which was designed by Gibson based on the Trini Lopez Standard specs, but in a different color and with a stop tailpiece instead of the Trini Lopez's trapeze tailpiece. He also has another signature guitar called the "Memphis Dave Grohl ES-335" in silver finish that is otherwise similar to the DG-335. His primary acoustic guitar is a black Elvis Presley model Gibson Dove.


title: Dave Grohl

text: Grohl's drum kit, as designed by Drum Workshop, features five different sized toms ranging from 5x8 inches to 16x18 inches, a 19-inch crash cymbal, two 20-inch crash cymbals, an 18-inch China cymbal, a 24-inch ride cymbal, and a standard kick drum, snare drum, and hi-hat.


title: Dave Grohl

text: In May 2006, Grohl sent a note of support to the two trapped miners in the Beaconsfield mine collapse in Tasmania, Australia, who had survived the initial rockfall. In the initial days following the collapse, one of the men requested an iPod with the Foo Fighters album "In Your Honor" to be sent to them. Grohl's note read, in part, "Though I'm halfway around the world right now, my heart is with you both, and I want you to know that when you come home, there's two tickets to any Foos show, anywhere, and two cold beers waiting for . Deal?" In October 2006, one of the miners took up his offer, joining Grohl for a drink after a Foo Fighters acoustic concert at the Sydney Opera House. Grohl wrote an instrumental piece for the meeting, which he pledged to include on the band's next album. The song, "Ballad of the Beaconsfield Miners", appears on Foo Fighters' 2007 release "Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace", and features Kaki King.


title: Dave Grohl

text: Grohl is an advocate for LGBT rights. He has worn a White Knot ribbon, a symbol of support for same-sex marriage, to various events; when questioned about the knot, he responded, "I believe in love and I believe in equality and I believe in marriage equality." Grohl's gay rights activism dates back to the early 1990s, when Nirvana performed at a benefit to raise money to fight Oregon Ballot Measure 9, which forbade governments in Oregon from promoting or facilitating homosexuality. Grohl has also participated in two counter-protests against the Westboro Baptist Church for their anti-gay stance, once by performing "Keep It Clean" on the back of a flatbed truck and most recently by Rickrolling them.


title: Dave Grohl

text: Grohl is an advocate for gun control. Shortly after the 2002 D.C. sniper attacks ended, he stated in an interview that the attacks were "an indication of the direction the country's heading in if we don't get tougher with gun laws". He further stated, "People need to realize that our country has to get tougher on gun laws, it just does, and I grew up in suburban Virginia going hunting in season. I grew up with a firearm myself. But I'd be willing to give it up, if everyone else would."


title: Dave Grohl

text: In a 2008 interview, Grohl said he had never taken cocaine, heroin, or speed, and that he had stopped smoking cannabis and taking LSD at the age of 20. He said, "I've seen people die. It ain't easy being young, but that stuff doesn't make it any easier." He contributed to a 2009 anti-drug video for the BBC. He has described himself as a coffee addict who drinks an average of six cups of coffee every morning; in 2009, he was admitted to a hospital with chest pains caused by a caffeine overdose.


title: Dave Grohl

text: Grohl supported Barack Obama's 2012 presidential campaign and performed "My Hero" at the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina. Foo Fighters supported Joe Biden's 2020 presidential campaign and played at the "Celebrating America" concert on the day of Biden's inauguration in 2021.


title: Dave Grohl

text: In 1994, Grohl married Jennifer Leigh Youngblood, a photographer from Grosse Pointe, Michigan. They separated in December 1996 and divorced in 1997. On August 2, 2003, he married Jordyn Blum. They reside in Los Angeles and have three children, named Violet Maye (born April 15, 2006), Harper Willow (born April 17, 2009), and Ophelia Saint (born August 1, 2014).


title: Dave Grohl

text: With a fortune of $260 million at the time, Grohl was estimated by a 2012 "Stereogum" article to be the third wealthiest drummer in the world, behind Ringo Starr and Phil Collins.


title: Dave Grohl

text: In a June 2011 interview, Grohl revealed that he was going deaf in his left ear due to decades of performing on stage. During his appearance on "The Howard Stern Show" in February 2022, he stated that he suffers from hearing loss and that this has an impact on both his daily life and life as a musician; his tinnitus has forced him to read lips for about 20 years, a situation which became more difficult when people began wearing face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic. As for producing music, he refuses to use in-ear monitors despite their ability to protect his ears because it "removes [him] from the natural atmosphere sound so [he] cannot hear [his] bandmates". He said that his ears are "still tuned in to certain frequencies, meaning [he's] still able to pick up on minute sonic details — even down to the slightest differences between cymbal crashes".


title: Dave Grohl

text: In August 2009, Grohl was given the key to the city of Warren, Ohio, his birthplace, and performed the songs "Everlong", "Times Like These", and "My Hero". A roadway in downtown Warren named "David Grohl Alley" has been dedicated to him with murals by local artists.


title: Dave Grohl

text: Grohl's hometown of Warren unveiled gigantic drumsticks in 2012 to honor him. According to "The Hollywood Reporter", the massive pair broke the Guinness World Record. The record-breaking drumsticks were shown to the public for the first time on July 7 during a concert at the Warren Amphitheater.


title: Dave Grohl

text: On November 11, 2014, Grohl joined Bruce Springsteen and Zac Brown on stage at the Concert for Valor in Washington, D.C. to support U.S. troops and veterans.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: Jean-Michel Basquiat (; December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) was an American artist who rose to success during the 1980s as part of the Neo-expressionism movement.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: Basquiat first achieved fame as part of the graffiti duo SAMO, alongside Al Diaz, writing enigmatic epigrams in the cultural hotbed of Manhattan's Lower East Side during the late 1970s, where rap, punk, and street art coalesced into early hip-hop music culture. By the early 1980s, his paintings were being exhibited in galleries and museums internationally. At 21, Basquiat became the youngest artist to ever take part in "documenta" in Kassel. At 22, he was one of the youngest to exhibit at the Whitney Biennial in New York. The Whitney Museum of American Art held a retrospective of his artwork in 1992.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: Basquiat's art focused on dichotomies such as wealth versus poverty, integration versus segregation, and inner versus outer experience. He appropriated poetry, drawing, and painting, and married text and image, abstraction, figuration, and historical information mixed with contemporary critique. He used social commentary in his paintings as a tool for introspection and for identifying with his experiences in the Black community, as well as attacks on power structures and systems of racism. His visual poetics were acutely political and direct in their criticism of colonialism and support for class struggle.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: Since Basquiat's death at the age of 27 from a heroin overdose in 1988, his work has steadily increased in value. In 2017, "Untitled", a 1982 painting depicting a black skull with red and yellow rivulets, sold for a record-breaking $110.5 million, becoming one of the most expensive paintings ever purchased.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: Basquiat was born on December 22, 1960, in Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York City, the second of four children to Matilde Basquiat (née Andrades, 1934–2008) and Gérard Basquiat (1930–2013). He had an older brother, Max, who died shortly before his birth, and two younger sisters, Lisane (b. 1964) and Jeanine (b. 1967). His father was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and his mother was born in Brooklyn to Puerto Rican parents. He was raised Catholic.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: Matilde instilled a love for art in her young son by taking him to local art museums and enrolling him as a junior member of the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Basquiat was a precocious child who learned to read and write by the age of four. His mother encouraged her son's artistic talent and he often tried to draw his favorite cartoons. In 1967, he started attending Saint Ann's School, a private school. There he met his friend Marc Prozzo and together they created a children's book, written by Basquiat at the age of seven and illustrated by Prozzo.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: In 1968, Basquiat was hit by a car while playing in the street at the age of seven. His arm was broken and he suffered several internal injuries, which required a splenectomy. While he was hospitalized, his mother brought him a copy of "Gray's Anatomy" to keep him occupied. After his parents separated that year, Basquiat and his sisters were raised by their father. His mother was committed to a psychiatric hospital when he was ten and thereafter spent her life in and out of institutions. By the age of eleven, Basquiat was fluent in French, Spanish and English, and an avid reader of all three languages.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: Basquiat's family resided in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Boerum Hill and then in 1974, moved to Miramar, Puerto Rico. When they returned to Brooklyn in 1976, Basquiat attended Edward R. Murrow High School. He struggled to deal with his mother's instability and rebelled as a teenager. He ran away from home at 15 when his father caught him smoking pot in his room. He slept on park benches at Washington Square Park and took acid. Eventually, his father spotted him with a shaved head and called the police to bring him home.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: In the 10th grade, he enrolled at City-As-School, an alternative high school in Manhattan, home to many artistic students who found conventional schooling difficult. He would skip school with his friends, but still received encouragement from his teachers, and began to write and illustrate for the school newspaper. He developed the character SAMO to endorse a faux religion. The saying "SAMO" had started as a private joke between Basquiat and his schoolmate Al Diaz, as an abbreviation for the phrase "Same old shit." They drew a series of cartoons for their school paper before and after using SAMO©.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: In May 1978, Basquiat and Diaz began spray painting graffiti on buildings in Lower Manhattan. Working under the pseudonym SAMO, they inscribed poetic and satirical advertising slogans such as "SAMO© AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO GOD." In June 1978, Basquiat was expelled from City-As-School for pieing the principal. At 17, his father kicked him out of the house when he decided to drop out of school. He worked for the Unique Clothing Warehouse in NoHo while continuing to create graffiti at night. On December 11, 1978, "The Village Voice" published an article about the SAMO graffiti.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: In 1979, Basquiat appeared on the live public-access television show "TV Party" hosted by Glenn O'Brien. Basquiat and O'Brien formed a friendship and he made regular appearances on the show over the next few years. Eventually, he began spending time writing graffiti around the School of Visual Arts, where he befriended students John Sex, Kenny Scharf, and Keith Haring.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: In April 1979, Basquiat met Michael Holman at the Canal Zone Party and they founded the noise rock band Test Pattern, which was later renamed Gray. Other members of Gray included Shannon Dawson, Nick Taylor, Wayne Clifford and Vincent Gallo. They performed at nightclubs such as Max's Kansas City, CBGB, Hurrah and the Mudd Club.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: Around this time, Basquiat lived in the East Village with his friend Alexis Adler, a Barnard biology graduate. He often copied diagrams of chemical compounds borrowed from Adler's science textbooks. She documented Basquiat's creative explorations as he transformed the floors, walls, doors and furniture into his artworks. He also made postcards with his friend Jennifer Stein. While selling postcards in SoHo, Basquiat spotted Andy Warhol at W.P.A. restaurant with art critic Henry Geldzahler. He sold Warhol a postcard titled "Stupid Games, Bad Ideas".


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: In October 1979, at Arleen Schloss's open space called A's, Basquiat showed his SAMO montages using color Xerox copies of his works. Schloss allowed Basquiat to use the space to create his "MAN MADE" clothing, which were painted upcycled garments. In November 1979, costume designer Patricia Field carried his clothing line in her upscale boutique on 8th Street in the East Village. Field also displayed his sculptures in the store window.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: When Basquiat and Diaz had a falling out, he inscribed "SAMO IS DEAD" on the walls of SoHo buildings in 1980. In June 1980, he appeared in "High Times" magazine, his first national publication, as part of an article titled "Graffiti '80: The State of the Outlaw Art" by Glenn O'Brien. Later that year, he began filming O'Brien's independent film "Downtown 81" (2000), originally titled "New York Beat," which featured some of Gray's recordings on its soundtrack.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: In June 1980, Basquiat participated in "The Times Square Show", a multi-artist exhibition sponsored by Collaborative Projects Incorporated (Colab) and Fashion Moda. He was noticed by various critics and curators, including Jeffrey Deitch, who mentioned him in an article titled "Report from Times Square" in the September 1980 issue of "Art in America". In February 1981, Basquiat participated in the "New York/New Wave" exhibition, curated by Diego Cortez at New York's P.S.1. Italian artist Sandro Chia recommended Basquiat's work to Italian dealer Emilio Mazzoli, who promptly bought 10 paintings for Basquiat to have a show at his gallery in Modena, Italy in May 1981. In December 1981, art critic Rene Ricard published "The Radiant Child" in "Artforum" magazine, the first extensive article on Basquiat. During this period, Basquiat painted many pieces on objects he found in the streets, such as discarded doors.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: Basquiat sold his first painting, "Cadillac Moon" (1981), to Debbie Harry, lead singer of the punk rock band Blondie, for $200 after they had filmed "Downtown 81" together. He also appeared as a disc jockey in the 1981 Blondie music video "Rapture", a role originally intended for Grandmaster Flash. At the time, Basquiat was living with his girlfriend, Suzanne Mallouk, who financially supported him as a waitress.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: In September 1981, art dealer Annina Nosei invited Basquiat to join her gallery at the suggestion of Sandro Chia. Soon after, he participated in her group show "Public Address". She provided him with materials and a space to work in the basement of her gallery. In 1982, Nosei arranged for him to move into a loft which also served as a studio at 101 Crosby Street in SoHo. He had his first American one-man show at the Annina Nosei Gallery in March 1982. He also painted in Modena for his second Italian exhibition in March 1982. Feeling exploited, that show was canceled because he was expected to make eight paintings in one week.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: By the summer of 1982, Basquiat had left the Annina Nosei Gallery and gallerist Bruno Bischofberger became his worldwide art dealer. In June 1982, at 21, Basquiat became the youngest artist to ever take part in "documenta" in Kassel, Germany. His works were exhibited alongside Joseph Beuys, Anselm Kiefer, Gerhard Richter, Cy Twombly and Andy Warhol. Bischofberger gave Basquiat a one-man show at his Zurich gallery in September 1982, and arranged for him to meet Warhol for lunch on October 4, 1982. Warhol recalled, "I took a Polaroid and he went home and within two hours a painting was back, still wet, of him and me together." The painting, "Dos Cabezas" (1982), ignited a friendship between them. Basquiat was photographed by James Van Der Zee for an interview with Henry Geldzahler published in the January 1983 issue of Warhol's "Interview" magazine.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: In November 1982, Basquiat's solo exhibition opened at the Fun Gallery in the East Village. Among the works exhibited were "A Panel of Experts" (1982) and "Equals Pi" (1982). Later that month, Basquiat began working at the studio space art dealer Larry Gagosian had built below his Venice, California home. There, he commenced a series of paintings for a March 1983 show, his second at the Gagosian Gallery in West Hollywood. He was accompanied by his girlfriend, then-unknown singer Madonna. Gagosian recalled: "Everything was going along fine. Jean-Michel was making paintings, I was selling them, and we were having a lot of fun. But then one day Jean-Michel said, 'My girlfriend is coming to stay with me.' ... So I said, 'Well, what's she like?' And he said, 'Her name is Madonna and she's going to be "huge".' I'll never forget that he said that."


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: Basquiat took considerable interest in the work that artist Robert Rauschenberg was producing at Gemini G.E.L. in West Hollywood. He visited him on several occasions and found inspiration in his accomplishments. While in Los Angeles, Basquiat painted "Hollywood Africans" (1983), which portrays him with graffiti artists Toxic and Rammellzee. He often painted portraits of other graffiti artists—and sometimes collaborators—in works such as "Portrait of A-One A.K.A. King" (1982), "Toxic" (1984), and "ERO" (1984). In 1983, he produced the hip-hop record "Beat Bop" featuring Rammellzee and rapper K-Rob. It was pressed in limited quantities on his Tartown Inc. imprint. He created the cover art for the single, making it highly desirable among both record and art collectors.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: In March 1983, at 22 years old, Basquiat became one of the youngest artists to participate in the Whitney Biennial exhibition of contemporary art. Paige Powell, an associate publisher for "Interview" magazine, organized a show of his work at her friend's New York apartment in April 1983. Shortly after, he began a relationship with Powell, who was instrumental in fostering his friendship with Warhol. In August 1983, Basquiat moved into a loft owned by Warhol at 57 Great Jones Street in NoHo, which also served as a studio.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: In the summer of 1983, Basquiat invited Lee Jaffe, a former musician in Bob Marley's band, to join him on a trip throughout Asia and Europe. On his return to New York, he was deeply affected by the death of Michael Stewart, an aspiring black artist in the downtown club scene who was killed by transit police in September 1983. He painted "Defacement" "(The Death of Michael Stewart)" (1983) in response to the incident. He also participated in a Christmas benefit with various New York artists for the family of Michael Stewart in 1983.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: Having joined the Mary Boone's SoHo gallery in 1983, Basquiat had his first show there in May 1984. A large number of photographs depict a collaboration between Warhol and Basquiat in 1984 and 1985. When they collaborated, Warhol would start with something very concrete or a recognizable image and then Basquiat defaced it in his animated style. They made an homage to the 1984 Summer Olympics with "Olympics" (1984). Other collaborations include "Taxi, 45th/Broadway" (1984–85) and "Zenith" (1985). Their joint exhibition, "Paintings", at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery, caused a rift in their friendship after it was panned by critics and Basquiat was called Warhol's mascot.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: Basquiat often painted in expensive Armani suits and would appear in public in the same paint-splattered clothes. He was a regular at the Area nightclub, where he sometimes worked the turntables as a DJ for fun. He also painted murals for the Palladium nightclub in New York City. His swift rise to fame was covered in the media. He appeared on the cover of the February 10, 1985, issue of "The New York Times Magazine" in a feature titled "New Art, New Money: The Marketing of an American Artist". His work appeared in "GQ" and "Esquire", and he was interviewed for MTV's "Art Break" segment. In 1985, he walked the runway for Comme des Garçons Spring fashion show in New York.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: In the mid-1980s, Basquiat was earning $1.4 million a year and he was receiving lump sums of $40,000 from art dealers. Despite his success, his emotional instability continued to haunt him. "The more money Basquiat made, the more paranoid and deeply involved with drugs he became," wrote journalist Michael Shnayerson. Basquiat's cocaine use became so excessive that he blew a hole in his nasal septum. A friend claimed that Basquiat confessed he was on heroin in late 1980. Many of his peers speculated that his drug use was a means of coping with the demands of his newfound fame, the exploitative nature of the art industry, and the pressures of being a black man in the white-dominated art world.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: For what would be his last exhibition on the West Coast, Basquiat returned to Los Angeles for his show at the Gagosian Gallery in January 1986. In February 1986, Basquiat traveled to Atlanta, Georgia for an exhibition of his drawings at Fay Gold Gallery. That month, he participated in Limelight's Art Against Apartheid benefit. In the summer, he had a solo exhibition at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in Salzburg. He was also invited to walk the runway for Rei Kawakubo again, this time at the Comme des Garçons Homme Plus fashion show in Paris. In October 1986, Basquiat flew to Ivory Coast for an exhibition of his work organized by Bruno Bischofberger at the French Cultural Institute in Abidjan. He was accompanied by his girlfriend Jennifer Goode, who worked at his frequent hangout, Area nightclub. In November 1986, at 25 years old, Basquiat became the youngest artist given an exhibition at Kestner-Gesellschaft in Hanover, Germany.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: During their relationship, Goode began snorting heroin with Basquiat since drugs were at her disposal. "He didn't push it on me, but it was just there and I was so naïve," she said. In late 1986, she successfully got herself and Basquiat into a methadone program in Manhattan, but he quit after three weeks. According to Goode, he didn't start injecting heroin until after she ended their relationship. In the last 18 months of his life, Basquiat became something of a recluse. His continued drug use is thought to have been a way of coping after the death of his friend Andy Warhol in February 1987.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: In 1987, Basquiat had exhibitions at Galerie Daniel Templon in Paris, the Akira Ikeda Gallery in Tokyo, and the Tony Shafrazi Gallery in New York. He designed a Ferris wheel for André Heller's "Luna Luna", an ephemeral amusement park in Hamburg from June to August 1987 with rides designed by renowned contemporary artists.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: In January 1988, Basquiat traveled to Paris for his exhibition at the Yvon Lambert Gallery and to Düsseldorf for an exhibition at the Hans Mayer Gallery. While in Paris, he befriended Ivorian artist Ouattara Watts. They made plans to travel together to Watts' birthplace, Korhogo, that summer. Following his exhibition at the Vrej Baghoomian Gallery in New York in April 1988, Basquiat traveled to Maui in June to withdraw from drug use. After returning to New York in July, Basquiat ran into Keith Haring on Broadway, who stated that this last encounter was the only time Basquiat ever discussed his drug problem with him. Glenn O'Brien also recalled Basquiat calling him and telling him he was "feeling really good."


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: Despite attempts at sobriety, Basquiat died at the age of 27 of a heroin overdose at his home on Great Jones Street in Manhattan on August 12, 1988. He had been found unresponsive in his bedroom by his girlfriend Kelle Inman and was taken to Cabrini Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: Basquiat is buried at Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery. A private funeral was held at Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel on August 17, 1988. The funeral was attended by immediate family and close friends, including Keith Haring, Francesco Clemente, Glenn O'Brien, and Basquiat's former girlfriend Paige Powell. Art dealer Jeffrey Deitch delivered a eulogy.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: A public memorial was held at Saint Peter's Church on November 3, 1988. Among the speakers was Ingrid Sischy, who as the editor of "Artforum" got to know Basquiat well and commissioned a number of articles that introduced his work to the wider world. Basquiat's former girlfriend Suzanne Mallouk recited sections of A. R. Penck's "Poem for Basquiat" and his friend Fab 5 Freddy read a poem by Langston Hughes. The 300 guests included musicians John Lurie and Arto Lindsay, Keith Haring, poet David Shapiro, Glenn O'Brien, and members of Basquiat's former band Gray.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: In memory of the late artist, Keith Haring created the painting "A" "Pile of Crowns for Jean-Michel Basquiat". In the obituary Haring wrote for "Vogue", he stated: "He truly created a lifetime of works in ten years. Greedily, we wonder what else he might have created, what masterpieces we have been cheated out of by his death, but the fact is that he has created enough work to intrigue generations to come. Only now will people begin to understand the magnitude of his contribution".


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: Art critic Franklin Sirmans analyzed that Basquiat appropriated poetry, drawing, and painting, and married text and image, abstraction, figuration, and historical information mixed with contemporary critique. His social commentary were acutely political and direct in their criticism of colonialism and support for class struggle. He also explored artistic legacies from wide sources, including an interrogation of the Classical tradition. Art historian Fred Hoffman hypothesizes that the underlying of Basquiat's self-identification as an artist was his "innate capacity to function as something like an oracle, distilling his perceptions of the outside world down to their essence and, in turn, projecting them outward through his creative act", and that his art focused on recurrent "suggestive dichotomies" such as wealth versus poverty, integration versus segregation, and inner versus outer experience.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: Before his career as a painter began, Basquiat produced punk-inspired postcards for sale on the street, and became known for his political–poetical graffiti under the name of SAMO. He often drew on random objects and surfaces, including other people's clothing. The conjunction of various media is an integral element of his art. His paintings are typically covered with codes of all kinds: words, letters, numerals, pictograms, logos, map symbols, and diagrams.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: Basquiat primarily used texts as reference sources. A few of the books he used were "Gray's Anatomy", Henry Dreyfuss' "Symbol Sourcebook", "Leonardo da Vinci" published by Reynal & Company, and Burchard Brentjes' "African Rock Art", "Flash of the Spirit" by Robert Farris Thompson.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: A middle period from late 1982 to 1985 featured multi-panel paintings and individual canvases with exposed stretcher bars, the surface dense with writing, collage and imagery. The years 1984 to 1985 were also the period of the Basquiat–Warhol collaborations.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: In his short but prolific career, Basquiat produced around 1,500 drawings, around 600 paintings, and many sculpture and mixed media works. He drew constantly and often used objects around him as surfaces when paper was not immediately at hand. Since childhood, he produced cartoon-inspired drawings when encouraged by his mother's interest in art, and drawing became a part of his expression as an artist. He drew in many different media, most commonly ink, pencil, felt-tip or marker, and oil-stick. He sometimes used Xerox copies of fragments of his drawings to paste onto the canvases of larger paintings.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: The first public showing of Basquiat's paintings and drawings was in 1981 at the MoMA PS1 "New York/New Wave" exhibition. Rene Ricard's article "Radiant Child" in "Artforum" magazine brought Basquiat to the attention of the art world. Basquiat immortalized Ricard in two drawings, "Untitled (Axe/Rene)" (1984) and "René Ricard" (1984).


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: A poet as well as an artist, words featured heavily in his drawings and paintings, with direct references to racism, slavery, the people and street scene of 1980s New York, black historical figures, famous musicians and athletes, as his notebooks and many important drawings demonstrate. Often Basquiat's drawings were untitled, and as such to differentiate works a word written within the drawing is commonly in parentheses after "Untitled". After Basquiat died, his estate was controlled by his father Gérard Basquiat, who also oversaw the committee which authenticated artworks, and operated from 1994 to 2012 to review over 2000 works, the majority of which were drawings.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: A prominent theme in Basquiat's work is the portrayal of historically prominent black figures, who were identified as heroes and saints. His early works often featured the iconographic depiction of crowns and halos to distinguish heroes and saints in his specially chosen pantheon. "Jean-Michel's crown has three peaks, for his three royal lineages: the poet, the musician, the great boxing champion. Jean measured his skill against all he deemed strong, without prejudice as to their taste or age," said his friend and artist Francesco Clemente. Reviewing Basquiat's show at the Bilbao Guggenheim, "Art Daily" noted that "Basquiat's crown is a changeable symbol: at times a halo and at others a crown of thorns, emphasizing the martyrdom that often goes hand in hand with sainthood. For Basquiat, these heroes and saints are warriors, occasionally rendered triumphant with arms raised in victory."


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: Basquiat was particularly a fan of bebop and cited saxophonist Charlie Parker as a hero. He frequently referenced Parker and other jazz musicians in paintings such as "Charles the First" (1982) and "Horn Players" (1983), and "King Zulu" (1986). "Basquiat looked to jazz music for inspiration and for instruction, much in the same way that he looked to the modern masters of painting," said art historian Jordana Moore Saggese.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: A major reference source used by Basquiat throughout his career was the book "Gray's Anatomy", which his mother had given him while he was in the hospital when he was seven. It remained influential in his depictions of human anatomy, and in its mixture of image and text as seen in "Flesh and Spirit" (1982–83). Art historian Olivier Berggruen situates in Basquiat's anatomical screen prints "Anatomy" (1982) an assertion of vulnerability, one which "creates an aesthetic of the body as damaged, scarred, fragmented, incomplete, or torn apart, once the organic whole has disappeared. Paradoxically, it is the very act of creating these representations that conjures a positive corporeal valence between the artist and his sense of self or identity."


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: Heads and skulls are significant focal points of many of Basquiat's most seminal works. Heads in works like "Untitled (Two Heads on Gold)" (1982) and "Philistines" (1982) are reminiscent of African masks, suggesting a cultural reclamation. The skulls allude to Haitian Vodou, which is filled with skull symbolism; the paintings "Red Skull" (1982) and "Untitled" (1982")" can be seen as primary examples. In reference to the potent image depicted in "Untitled (Skull)" (1981")", art historian Fred Hoffman writes that Basquiat was likely "caught off guard, possibly even frightened, by the power and energy emanating from this unexpected image." Further investigation by Hoffman in his book "The Art of Jean-Michel Basquiat" reveals a deeper interest in the artist's fascination with heads that proves an evolution in the artist's oeuvre from one of raw power to one of more refined cognizance.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: Basquiat's diverse cultural heritage was one of his many sources of inspiration. He often incorporated Spanish words into his artworks like "Untitled (Pollo Frito)" (1982) and "Sabado por la Noche" (1984). Basquiat's "La Hara" (1981), a menacing portrait of a white police officer, combines the Nuyorican slang term for police (la jara) and the Irish surname O'Hara. The black-hatted figure that appears in his paintings "The Guilt of Gold Teeth" (1982) and "Despues De Un Pun" (1987) is believed to represent Baron Samedi, the spirit of death and resurrection in Haitian Vodou.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: Basquiat has various works deriving from African-American history, namely "Slave Auction" (1982), "Undiscovered Genius of the Mississippi Delta" (1983), "Untitled (History of the Black People)" (1983), and "Jim Crow" (1986). Another painting, "Irony of Negro Policeman" (1981), illustrates how African-Americans have been controlled by a predominantly Caucasian society. Basquiat sought to portray that African-Americans have become complicit with the "institutionalized forms of whiteness and corrupt white regimes of power" years after the Jim Crow era had ended. This concept has been reiterated in additional Basquiat works, including "Created Equal" (1984).


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: In the essay "Lost in Translation: Jean-Michel in the (Re)Mix," Kellie Jones posits that Basquiat's "mischievous, complex, and neologistic side, with regard to the fashioning of modernity and the influence and effluence of black culture" are often elided by critics and viewers, and thus "lost in translation."


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: Shortly after his death, "The New York Times" indicated that Basquiat was "the most famous of only a small number of young black artists who have achieved national recognition." Art critic Bonnie Rosenberg wrote that Basquiat experienced a good taste of fame in his last years when he was a "critically embraced and popularly celebrated artistic phenomenon"; and that some people focused on the "superficial exoticism of his work", missing the fact that it "held important connections to expressive precursors."


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: Traditionally, the interpretation of Basquiat's works at the visual level comes from the subdued emotional tone of what they represent compared to what is actually depicted. For example, the figures in his paintings, as stated by writer Stephen Metcalf, "are shown frontally, with little or no depth of field, and nerves and organs are exposed, as in an anatomy textbook. Are these creatures dead and being clinically dissected, one wonders, or alive and in immense pain?" Writer Olivia Laing noted that "words jumped out at him, from the back of cereal boxes or subway ads, and he stayed alert to their subversive properties, their double and hidden meaning."


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: A second recurrent reference to Basquiat's aesthetics comes from the artist's intention to share, in the words of gallerist Niru Ratnam, a "highly individualistic, expressive view of the world". Art historian Luis Alberto Mejia Clavijo believes Basquiat's work inspires people to "paint like a child, don't paint what is in the surface but what you are re-creating inside. Musician David Bowie, who was a collector of Basquiat's works, stated that "he seemed to digest the frenetic flow of passing image and experience, put them through some kind of internal reorganization and dress the canvas with this resultant network of chance."


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: Art critics have also compared Basquiat's work to the emergence of hip-hop during the same era. "Basquiat's art—like the best hip-hop—takes apart and reassembles the work that came before it," said art critic Franklin Sirmans in a 2005 essay, "In the Cipher: Basquiat and the Hip-Hop Culture".


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: Art critic Rene Ricard wrote in his 1981 article "The Radiant Child":I'm always amazed at how people come up with things. Like Jean-Michel. How did he come up with the words he puts all over everything, his way of making a point without overstating the case, using one or two words he reveals a political acuity, gets the viewer going in the direction he wants, the illusion of the bombed-over wall. One or two words containing a full body. One or two words on a Jean-Michel contain the entire history of graffiti. What he incorporates into his pictures, whether found or made, is specific and selective. He has a perfect idea of what he's getting across, using everything that collates to his vision.Curator Marc Mayer wrote in the 2005 essay "Basquiat in History":Basquiat speaks articulately while dodging the full impact of clarity like a matador. We can read his pictures without strenuous effort—the words, the images, the colors and the construction—but we cannot quite fathom the point they belabor. Keeping us in this state of half-knowing, of mystery-within-familiarity, had been the core technique of his brand of communication since his adolescent days as the graffiti poet SAMO. To enjoy them, we are not meant to analyze the pictures too carefully. Quantifying the encyclopedic breadth of his research certainly results in an interesting inventory, but the sum cannot adequately explain his pictures, which requires an effort outside the purview of iconography ... he painted a calculated incoherence, calibrating the mystery of what such apparently meaning-laden pictures might ultimately mean.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: In the 1980s, art critic Robert Hughes dismissed Basquiat's work as absurd. He attributed the Basquiat phenomenon to be a mixture of hype, overproduction, and a greedy art market.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: In a 1997 review for "The Daily Telegraph", art critic Hilton Kramer begins by stating that Basquiat had no idea what the word "quality" meant. He relentlessly criticized Basquiat as a "talentless hustler" and "street-smart but otherwise invincibly ignorant", arguing that art dealers of the time were "as ignorant about art as Basquiat himself." In saying that Basquiat's work never rose above "that lowly artistic station" of graffiti "even when his paintings were fetching enormous prices," Kramer argued that graffiti art "acquired a cult status in certain New York art circles." He further opined, "As a result of the campaign waged by these art-world entrepreneurs on Basquiat's behalf—and their own, of course—there was never any doubt that the museums, the collectors and the media would fall into line" when talking about the marketing of Basquiat's name.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: Basquiat's first public exhibition was at "The Times Square Show" in New York in June 1980. In May 1981, he had his first solo exhibition at Galleria d'Arte Emilio Mazzoli in Modena. In late 1981, he joined the Annina Nosei Gallery in New York, where he had his first American one-man show from March 6 to April 1, 1982. In 1982, he also had shows at the Gagosian Gallery in West Hollywood, Galerie Bruno Bischofberger in Zurich, and the Fun Gallery in the East Village. Major exhibitions of his work have included "Jean-Michel Basquiat: Paintings 1981–1984" at the Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh in 1984, which traveled to the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam in 1985. In 1985, the University Art Museum, Berkeley hosted Basquiat's first solo American museum exhibition. His work was showcased at Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hannover in 1987 and 1989.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: The first retrospective of his work was held by the Baghoomian Gallery in New York from October to November 1989. His first museum retrospective, "Jean-Michel Basquiat", was at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York from October 1992 to February 1993. The show was sponsored by AT&T, MTV and Madonna. It subsequently traveled to the Menil Collection in Texas; the Des Moines Art Center in Iowa; and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts in Alabama, from 1993 to 1994. The exhibition's catalog was edited by Richard Marshall and included several essays from different perspectives. In 1996, Madonna sponsored an exhibition of his work at the Serpentine Gallery in London.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: In March 2005, the retrospective "Basquiat" was mounted by the Brooklyn Museum in New York. It traveled to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. From October 2006 to January 2007, the first Basquiat exhibition in Puerto Rico took place at the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico (MAPR), produced by ArtPremium, Corinne Timsit and Eric Bonici.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: Basquiat remains an important source of inspiration for a younger generation of contemporary artists all over the world, such as Rita Ackermann and Kader Attia—as shown, for example, at the exhibition "Street and Studio: From Basquiat to Séripop" co-curated by Cathérine Hug and Thomas Mießgang and previously exhibited at Kunsthalle Wien, Austria, in 2010. "Basquiat and the Bayou", a 2014 show presented by the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, focused on the artist's works with themes of the American South. The Brooklyn Museum exhibited "Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks" in 2015. In 2017, "Basquiat Before Basquiat: East 12th Street, 1979–1980" exhibited as Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, which displayed works created during the year Basquiat lived with his friend Alexis Adler. Later that year, the Barbican Centre in London exhibited "Basquiat: Boom for Real".


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: In 2019, the Brant Foundation in New York, hosted an extensive exhibition of Basquiat's works with free admission. All 50,000 tickets were claimed before the exhibition opened, so additional tickets were released. In June 2019, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York presented "Basquiat's "Defacement": The Untold Story". Later that year, the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne opened the exhibition "Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat: Crossing Lines". The Lotte Museum of Art hosted the first major exhibition of Jean-Michel Basquiat in Seoul from October 2020 to February 2021. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston exhibited "Writing the Future: Basquiat and the Hip-Hop Generation" from October 2020 to July 2021.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: In February 2022, the Orlando Museum of Art mounted the controversial exhibition "Heroes & Monsters", which consisted of 25 cardboard works that were claimed to have been sold by Basquiat directly to screenwriter Thad Mumford in 1982, and then placed in storage, where they remained until being rediscovered in 2012. The paintings were seized in a raid by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in June 2022. "The" "New York Times" obtained an affidavit that revealed Mumford signed a declaration in the presence of federal agents stating that "at no time in the 1980s or any other time did I meet with Jean-Michel Basquiat, and at no time did I acquire or purchase any paintings from him."


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: In 2022, Basquiat's family curated "Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure", an immersive exhibition with over 200 never-before-seen and rarely shown works, at the Starrett-Lehigh Building in Chelsea, New York. In September 2022, the Albertina presented the first museum retrospective of Basquiat's work in Austria.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: Basquiat sold his first painting to singer Debbie Harry for $200 in 1981. Advised by Italian artist Sandro Chia, gallerist Emilio Mazzoli purchased ten of Basquiat's works for $10,000 and held an exhibition at his gallery in Modena in May 1981. Spurred by the Neo-expressionism art boom, his work was in great demand by 1982, which is considered his most valuable year. A majority of his highest-selling paintings at auction date to 1982. Recalling that year, Basquiat said, "I had some money; I made the best paintings ever." His paintings were priced at $5,000 to $10,000 in 1983—lowered from the range of $10,000 to $15,000 when he joined Mary Boone's gallery to reflect what she felt was consistent with those of other artists in her gallery. In 1984, it was reported that in two years his work appreciated in value by 500%. In the mid-1980s, Basquiat was earning $1.4 million a year as an artist. By 1985, his paintings were selling for $10,000 to $25,000 each. Basquiat's rise to fame in the international art market landed him on the cover of "The New York Times Magazine" in 1985, which was unprecedented for a young African-American artist.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: Since Basquiat's death in 1988, the market for his work has developed steadily—in line with overall art market trends—with a dramatic peak in 2007 when, at the height of the art market boom, the global auction volume for his work was over $115 million. Brett Gorvy, deputy chairman of Christie's, is quoted describing Basquiat's market as "two-tiered ... The most coveted material is rare, generally dating from the best period, 1981–83." Until 2002, the highest amount paid for an original work of Basquiat's was $3.3 million for "Self-Portrait" (1982), sold at Christie's in 1998. In 2002, Basquiat's "Profit I" (1982) was sold at Christie's by drummer Lars Ulrich of the heavy metal band Metallica for $5.5 million. The proceedings of the auction were documented in the 2004 film "".


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: In June 2002, New York con-artist Alfredo Martinez was charged by the Federal Bureau of Investigation with attempting to deceive two art dealers by selling them $185,000 worth of fake Basquiat drawings. The charges against Martinez, which landed him in Manhattan's Metropolitan Correction Center for 21 months, involved a scheme to sell drawings he copied from authentic artworks, accompanied by forged certificates of authenticity. Martinez claimed he got away with selling fake Basquiat drawings for 18 years.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: In 2007, Basquiat's painting "Hannibal" (1982) was seized by federal authorities as part of an embezzlement scheme by convicted Brazilian money launderer and former banker Edemar Cid Ferreira. Ferreira had purchased the painting with illegally acquired funds while he controlled Banco Santos in Brazil. It was shipped to a Manhattan warehouse, via the Netherlands, with a false shipping invoice stating it was worth $100. The painting was later sold at Sotheby's for $13.1 million.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: Between 2007 and 2012, the price of Basquiat's work continued to steadily increase up to $16.3 million. The sale of "Untitled" (1981) for $20.1 million in 2012 elevated his market to a new stratosphere. Soon other works in his oeuvre outpaced that record. Another work, "Untitled" (1981), depicting a fisherman, sold for $26.4 million in 2012. In 2013, "Dustheads" (1982) sold for $48.8 million at Christie's. Japanese businessman Yusaku Maezawa purchased "Untitled" (1982), depicting a devil-like figure, for $57.3 million at Christie's in 2017. He sold the painting for $85 million at Phillips in 2022. Maezawa also purchased Basquiat's "Untitled" (1982), a powerful depiction of a black skull with red and yellow rivulets, for a record-setting $110.5 million in May 2017. It is the second highest price ever paid at auction for artwork by an American artist.


title: Jean-Michel Basquiat

text: In 2018, "Flexible" (1984) sold for $45.3 million, becoming Basquiat's first post-1983 painting to surpass the $20 million mark. In June 2020, "Untitled (Head)" (1982), sold for $15.2 million; a record for a Sotheby's online sale and a record for a Basquiat work on paper. In July 2020, Loïc Gouzer's Fair Warning app announced that an untitled drawing on paper sold for $10.8 million, which is a record high for an in-app purchase. Earlier that year, American businessman Ken Griffin purchased "Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump" (1982) for upwards of $100 million from art collector Peter Brant. In March 2021, Basquiat's "Warrior" (1982) sold for $41.8 million at Christie's in Hong Kong, which is the most expensive Western work of art sold at auction in Asia. In May 2021, Basquiat's "In This Case" (1983), sold for $93.1 million at Christie's in New York. Later that year, his painting "Donut Revenge" (1982) sold for $20.9 million at Christie's in Hong Kong.