Dave Grohl: “If It Weren’t For Nirvana, Foo Fighters Wouldn’t Be In The Same Position That We’re In Now”
Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl has reflected on his past in Nirvana – and how the backlash he initially received for starting a new band spurred him on.
Twenty-five years after the band's beginnings, Dave Grohl has been reflecting on the moment he started up Foo Fighters in 1995, and how he initially felt hate from Nirvana fans who weren't impressed that he had launched a new band after Kurt Cobain's passing the year prior.
“They were like, ‘How dare you be in a band again? Your music is fucking shit and that was a real band and you’re not,’” the frontman tells Mojo.
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But Dave – who drummed for Nirvana, as well as providing backing vocals for the legendary trio, from 1990 to 1994 – says that he actually found the backlash empowering, rather than discouraging.
“It’s like, ‘You really think that’s gonna stop me?’” he continues. “It only makes me wanna fucking do it more, y’know. So, you can keep it coming if you want but I don’t give a fuck.”
The rock legend admits he's always appreciated how Nirvana's success meant that there would already be an entire audience who were ready to pay attention to his next musical moves.
“I’ve never been afraid to say that if it weren’t for Nirvana, the Foo Fighters wouldn’t be in the same position that we’re in now,” he continued. “We had an advantage right out of the gate that there was an interest in the band because of that. I mean, it’s obvious.”
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In an interview discussing the most important gigs of his life with Kerrang!, Dave recalled his first show with the Foo Fighters at Reading Festival in 1995 – and how he couldn't believe his band were already so high on the bill considering their self-titled debut hadn't been out long.
“We’d played a show at King’s College in London, then came back to do Reading Festival, which was kind of our first proper gig in England,” he remembered. “They had us headlining the side stage, and I felt weird about that. I felt like, ‘Nobody’s even fucking seen us!’ I think the record had been out for maybe a month or something, not long. But I didn’t feel deserving of headlining the tent, because we were a new band. I really thought of us as a new band; I didn’t think of it as some fucking sideshow shit, we were a band and I wanted to do it right. Our first tours we did in America we got the van and the trailer and we did it the way you should do it.”
Foo Fighters recently announced that they were postponing dates on their U.S. Van Tour 2020 due to coronavirus. However, in much happier news, their upcoming 10th album is finished – and unlike anything they've ever done before…