My Hero (Foo Fighters song)

"My Hero"
Single by Foo Fighters
from the album The Colour and the Shape
Released	January 19, 1998
Format	CD
Recorded	1997 at Grandmaster Recorders in Hollywood, CA
Genre	Alternative rock, post-grunge
Length	4:20
Label	Roswell, Capitol
Writer(s)	Dave Grohl, Nate Mendel and Pat Smear
Producer(s)	Gil Norton
Foo Fighters singles chronology
"Everlong" (1997) "My Hero" (1998) "Walking After You" (1998)
Alternate cover Japanese CD

"My Hero" is the third single from the Foo Fighters' second album The Colour and the Shape. It was released as a single in 1998.

Although the song was first released on the The Colour and the Shape album in 1997, it had been played live as early as 1995.

According to Dave Grohl, the song is dedicated to ordinary, everyday heroes, as he himself never had musical or sports heroes growing up as a child. During Foo Fighters' appearance on VH1 Storytellers in 2009, Dave Grohl explained that the song was written while watching 1980s movies like Valley Girl. Grohl also stated that the song was written about Pete Stahl and Chip Donaldson, without even knowing it.

The music video was directed by Dave Grohl. It features a man running into a burning building to rescue a woman's baby, another woman's dog, and finally a picture frame of the first woman. The eyes of both the baby and the dog are blocked out to show they represent people in need everywhere. The camera follows the man throughout the video, with his face never being shown. It is presented in a continuous "long take" format, although actual transitional cuts are disguised by smoke. During shots inside the building, the band is seen performing the song, seemingly unconcerned about the chaos around them. It is the only Foo Fighters video to feature guitarist Franz Stahl, who replaced Pat Smear (Stahl did not appear in the video for the next and last single from the album, 1998's "Walking After You", as it featured only Grohl).

The song was featured in the movie Varsity Blues during the climatic scene of the final football game. The scene was later parodied in the 2001 film Not Another Teen Movie. The song also appeared in the 2010 films Somewhere and The Other Guys when part of the song was heard during the scene where Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Samuel L. Jackson jump to their death.

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Wikipedia