My Hero

Dave Grohl made the first recording of "My Hero" alone. On July 17, 1995, he demoed it on an 8-track reel-to-reel in the basement of his Seattle home, singing and playing drums, bass and guitars. The lyrics were unfinished, but the vocal melody already matched the one on the studio recording. Bassist Nate Mendel said that when he heard the demo he knew the band had a future.

Grohl described the song as a tribute to ordinary heroes. In a 1999 interview he said he looked up to everyday people more than to celebrities. He told VH1 Storytellers in 2009 that he wrote it while watching 1980s movies such as Valley Girl, and that the band had written it about Pete Stahl and Chip Donaldson without knowing it.

Foo Fighters released it in January 1998 as the third single from The Colour and the Shape, and it reached number six on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart. Grohl directed the video, in which a man rushes into a burning building. Guitarist Franz Stahl appears in it even though he did not play on the record. In 2008 the band objected when John McCain's presidential campaign played the song at rallies without their permission.