"There's no guarantee that it will ever pay off – the reward has to be the experience."
A homage to the moment in a musician's life when their commitment to the craft and their band is tested, 'What Drives Us' is a new music documentary directed by Dave Grohl and produced by Foo Fighters that examines the allure of packing up your instruments into a van and hitting the road for the unknown."This film is my love letter to every musician that has ever jumped in an old van with their friends and left it all behind for the simple reward of playing music," Grohl says.
"What started as a project to pull back the curtain on the DIY logistics of stuffing all of your friends and equipment into a small space for months on end eventually turned into an exploration of 'why? What drives us?'"
'What Drives Us' follows emerging bands RadKey and Starcrawler, who are undertaking the age-old rock & roll initiation and hitting the highways and back lanes of the world one town at a time.
The film explores what it takes to turn a van into a home, and how the tricks of this trade have been handed down through the decades featuring interviews with a who's who of the music world. "You gotta get in the van, if you want to make it in this business," Ringo Starr says.
"When we were doing those van tours, it was us against the world," adds No Doubt's Tony Kanal.
Other musicians to feature include Brian Johnson, Flea, St. Vincent, Slash, Duff McKagan, Ben Harper, The Edge, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel, Chris Shiflett, Rami Jaffee, Pat Smear, Mike Watt, Ian Mackaye, Exene Cervenka, DH Peligro, Charlie Gabriel, Jennifer Finch, Dave Lombardo, Kira Roessler, Pete Stahl, Lars Ulrich and Steven Tyler.
"It's the greatest thing you could ever do; I felt like we were this roaming band of gypsies – we show up and we rock you," Flea says.
'What Drives Us' will stream exclusively on Amazon Prime Video from 30 April.
