“How lucky are we? We get to do something that we love. Something that we’re good at.” These inspiring words, spoken by a blonde-mustachioed coach wearing an American-flag windbreaker (played by Saturday Night Live alum Jason Sudeikis), opens the new music video from the Foo Fighters for their song “Love Dies Young”.
The Foo Fighters have won 12 Grammys, produced nine platinum albums, and were inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021 (their first year of eligibility).
Sudeikis is no stranger to playing the coach role. He has won an Emmy for his portrayal of Ted Lasso, an American Football coach taking his folksy charm across the pond to coach in the English Premier League. While Lasso may possibly be the world’s favorite coach, Sudeikis’ character in this video is quite possibly the world’s worst coach.
The first two-and-a-half minutes of the video feature a motivational speech from Sudeikis. The speech features lines such as, “I yell at you because I love you” and “I picked you up out of the water with my hands by the scruffs of your necks. And I looked at you, and I said ‘you will be a champion!…or not’”. While the speech won’t be used at any pre-meet pump-up sessions by swim coaches any time soon, it is good for a laugh.
Following the speech we follow the synchronized swimmers as they walk to the pool. Once out on the pool deck, the swimmers turn to face the camera and reveal the faces of the Foo Fighters. The Foo Fighters have donned wigs to play female characters in videos before, but for this video they have superimposed their faces on the bodies of the swimmers. The uncanny valley feeling is hard to shake off but still fun to watch. The Foo Fighters start to sing the opening lines of “Love Dies Young” while performing a synchronized swimming routine, all under the watchful eyes of Coach Sudeikis.
The music video premiered on YouTube back in late November and has over a million views as of this writing. Dave Grohl, who at 52 has not lost his adolescent sense of humor, also took on directing duties for the video. The video is reminiscent of a classic SNL bit from 1984, featuring Martin Short and Harry Shearer as a pair of male synchronized swimmers with dreams of Olympic gold. SNL has also poked fun at swimming pep talks before in an episode hosted by Michael Phelps. In that skit, Michael Phelps dances in a locker room with Coach Will Forte as Coach Forte’s “motivational” song plays.
The video also has a reference to the classic sports film “Caddyshack”, only this time I don’t think that certain something in the pool is a candy bar. As a word of warning for viewers, the video features projectile vomiting and scatological humor.
The Foo Fighters have been nominated for 23 MTV Video Music Awards and won three during their nearly three decades as a group. Their wins came for “Big Me” (Best Group Video in 1996), “Walk” (Best Rock Video in 2011), and a “Global Icon” award in 2021.