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Dave Grohl’s 16-year-old daughter, Violet, is a chip off the old block when it comes to making music.
The talented teen and her Foo Fighters-frontman dad teamed up for a cover of Janis Ian’s classic coming-of-age pop hit “At Seventeen” that was so moving, Ian herself praised the performance.
The pair’s rendition happened during the fourth night of “The Hanukkah Sessions,” Grohl’s annual Hanukkah concert series that finds him and producer Greg Kurstin spotlighting eight songs by Jewish artists each year.
In a YouTube video of the performance, Violet takes lead vocal on the poignant song, which was released in 1975 and tells the story of a woman who recalls being painfully out of step with the popular crowd when she was young.
“I learned the truth at seventeen / that love was meant for beauty queens / and high school girls with clear-skinned smiles / who married young and then retired,” Violet sings while strumming an acoustic guitar.
Grohl is seen sitting to the left of his daughter playing a soft beat on the drums while Kurstin accompanies on piano.
Violet looks as though she could be a fan of her dad’s early 1990s band Nirvana. She sports shaggy bleached blond hair, a nose ring and a grunge-appropriate baggy jacket.
At the song’s end, father and daughter share a sweet embrace.
Ian, who wrote the song when she was in her early 20s, commented beneath the video to praise Violet’s performance. “Thank you both! For singing my song so beautifully, and with such heart, Violet,” Ian wrote, adding that she was grateful to Grohl for “fighting antisemitism” with his annual “Hanukkah Sessions” series.
The Grammy winner, who revealed earlier this year that she had been diagnosed with a “complicated” form of laryngitis, added, “I can’t sing any more, and this helped my journey through that devastation immensely.”
Dave Grohl, left, previously praised his 16-year-old daughter Violet’s musical talent, calling her “a total badass.”Theo Wargo / Getty Images
Ian shared more praise for the Grohls on her Facebook page, writing, “This morning I woke up and thought ‘How strange. I’ll never be able to sing ‘At Seventeen’ again.’ And I don’t mind admitting that it was really depressing. But what better antidote could there be than to hear my work, 47 years after I wrote it, beautifully and sincerely sung by Violet Grohl? What a perfectly happy day this turned out to be. Thank you, Violet. Thank you, Dave. Thank you.”
It’s not the first time fans have witnessed Violet’s musical talent. The teen and her dad have performed together during Foo Fighters concerts in the past and collaborated on a stunning cover of Amy Winehouse’s “Take the Box” during last year’s “Hanukkah Sessions.”
In November 2021, Grohl, who shares Violet and two other daughters, Harper, 13, and Ophelia, 8, with wife Jordyn Blum, gushed about Violet’s musical ability to SmartLess podcast hosts Jason Bateman, Will Arnett and Sean Hayes.
“My daughter Violet, who’s 15, she is the most talented musician that this family has ever known,” Grohl said. “She has perfect pitch, and she has an incredible memory, musical memory. She can pick up an instrument and learn it in, like, a week. She’s a total badass.”
CORRECTION (Dec. 22, 2022 at 7:30 p.m. ET): An earlier version of this story incorrectly spelled Hanukkah as “Hannukah” in the headline. It has been updated with the correct spelling,
Gina Vivinetto is a writer for TODAY.com. She lives in Asheville, North Carolina, where she spends her free time hiking, reading and snuggling with her “Friends” box set. She and her wife, Molly, are the proud moms of two formerly stray cats, Sophie and Pierre, and a rescue dog named Gracie.
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