David Eric Grohl was born on January 14, 1969, in Warren, Ohio, the son of teacher Virginia Jean ("née" Hanlon) and newswriter James Harper Grohl (19382014). In addition to being an award-winning journalist, James had also served as the special assistant to Sen. Robert Taft Jr. and was described as "a talented political observer who possessed the ability to call every major election with uncanny accuracy". Grohl is of German, Irish, and Slovak descent. When he was a child, Grohl's family moved to Springfield, Virginia. When Grohl was seven, his parents divorced, and he subsequently grew up with his mother. At the age of 12, he began learning to play guitar. He grew tired of lessons and instead taught himself, and he eventually began playing in bands with friends. At that age, "I was going in the direction of faster, louder, darker while my sister, Lisa, three years older, was getting seriously into new wave territory. We'd meet in the middle sometimes with Bowie and Siouxsie And The Banshees". At 13, Grohl and his sister spent the summer in Evanston, Illinois, at their cousin Tracy's house. Tracy introduced them to punk rock by taking the pair to shows by a variety of punk bands. His first concert was Naked Raygun at The Cubby Bear in Chicago in 1982 when he was 13 years old. Grohl recalled, "From then on we were totally punk. We went home and bought "Maximumrocknroll" and tried to figure it all out."