Dave Grohl Reflects on His Role in Nirvana and the Final Days of the Band

this is a miracle that you've been in to successful bands Nirvana and Foo Fighters it's a miracle you know that yeah it's a very difficult business how do you meet Kurt Cobain informed Nirvana with him although you were the sixth drummer in the band yeah I was I came later why would they go through five other drummers before they came to find you they were a funny band you know I think they they hadn't they hadn't really found the right drummer yet and you know the way Kurt wrote songs he wrote these really really simple songs and he's a great lyricist his objective was really like make the song as catchy and memorable and simple as possible did he allow you to any feedback in the writing process I mean who you are a great wouldn't even talk about it we would just go in the room and he'd start playing something and we just play along and then it would become a song we wouldn't say like that chorus needs to be twice as long and you wouldn't question him so he was the leader of that band the idea was not even to talk about music to keep it as pure as possible did it frustrate you that Kurt Cobain had that much I mean here you are you're a bit of a control freak you have all of these songs inside of you describing you how did you function in that band that's great but but it's almost like being George Harrison George Harrison had great songs the Beatles made him only have one song on an album Kurt wouldn't let you get the average but he was in a band with Lennon and McCartney and I was in a band with Kurt so it's that famous joke like what's the last thing the drummer said before got kicked out it's all I think we should play Yeah right you know it doesn't you can't and I was perfectly happy because I was just I was like disco drumming I was just gonna do - do do - I wasn't but but did you have all these great songs in your head that you had written I mean did you ever say to Kurt listen I've got great song now you would not do that you never let him hear anything you've ever heard salmon he liked a couple of there were two that he really liked he wanted to do but he was afraid to ask me if he could change the lyrics do you think if Kurt hadn't died you'd still be in Nirvana and never have written any of your songs that you wrote for Foo Fighters and never have gone out and done it in a way his death liberated you in a weird sense where I mean I know that I would still be recording and writing stuff of my own everybody in this band goes out and does side projects right now so when they come back to this it's the Foo Fighters and then weren't doing that when you were in nirvana you weren't doing sorry yes but I just wasn't letting anyone hear it when he killed himself were you immediately in a depression or did you see it that you work that and did you say to yourself that's it it's the end of my career I'm never gonna go anywhere yep did you sit meet with Chris with the the other guy in Nirvana and say should we form a band together I always thought it was no because that would have been weird yeah YouTube guys with some new things man way too heavy we've never talked about that ever it's been 20 years we still haven't talked about it so when Kurt dies what what's your game plan or you don't have one you start to drift yeah I just you know I mean who tells you you're lead singers gone I mean who how do you find that out I think maybe it was on the news or something weird I don't know I don't remember you you didn't get a call you just heard I think it was it happened and then it just all happened like can that phone's off the hook and people are calling this and that yeah and what do you do that day you just go into shock I mean do you came together everybody went over to Chris Nova sells his house and you know hung out hung out because you were there comforting one another yep it was just such a weird time and we were kids you know I was like 25 years old or something like that yeah so it was just it was strange and nobody I couldn't even to music I couldn't listen to Nirvana I couldn't listen I'd look turn on the radio and I'd hear like oh my eyes are crying oh this is terrible just sitting down at a drumset reminded me of of reminded me of Nirvana and it was just sad so was it all good with Kurt I mean well you got weird towards the end so did that make you feel even weirder about his death were you sort of estranged yeah I mean everybody sort of was I think at that point it had sort of split off and it just got really weird and I didn't know that yeah well I mean I don't know if anybody really does but it had gotten to the point where he wasn't talking to you well they were just you know I don't I don't do drugs right I haven't done drugs since I was a kid right 20 years all the things and I stopped and so you know there were drugs around there was like the people who did the drugs and then there people that didn't do the drugs and I didn't do the drugs and so I was just out of that world you know and if you're in it you're in it if you're not you're out so in the last couple of months you hadn't even been in touch with Kurt no no we had right and but it but were you close to breaking up the band anyway do you think you guys would have broken up because Kurt was going his own way I think at that point it was important that we'd take a break I think everybody felt that way it was like time to take a break

Channel: The Howard Stern Show

Views: 3,989,856

Keywords: The Howard Stern Show, Howard Stern, Robin Quivers, Fred Norris, Gary Dell'Abate, Baba Booey, SiriusXM, HSS, htvod, Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Kurt Cobain, Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Grunge Rock Music, Interview, Radio, Rock Music

Id: gsSXS6g8OMk

Length: 4min 51sec (291 seconds)

Published: Sat May 18 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Tecwyn]

This seems really uncomfortable. I don't know much about this interviewer, but he seemed to really already have his view of the events, which went against Dave's experience. Was nice to hear that he simply enjoyed his time there. They wanted to make it seem more that he couldn't speak, but from what Dave said, they enjoyed just playing music, and no one really spoke out-loud about it.

[u/Coozhound]

He must get sick of this question.

[u/oh_lord]

Kind of boggles my brain how awkward Howard Stern's interviews still are to this day. Not even his line of questioning, just his setup in general. He sits there at his desk, a mile away from the person, hiding behind his mic and monitors. They sit on a couch, wearing headphones with mics pressed against their face. His co-interviewer is in another corner of the room. It's all so disconnected and uncomfortable.

[u/Hiroaki]

For all the people bashing Stern on his technique, you might be interested in an interview done of him on Fresh Air recently in which he bashes himself for exactly that. Says he'd never shut up and was a terrible listener, just like you see here.

[u/coolrivers]

Feels like they are trying to bait him into saying he wasn't happy in nirvana

[u/[deleted]]

Its funny reading comments about people who dont listen or know Stern. His in your face leading style is what gets his guests to disclose the most information possible about private and sensitive subjects. Thats his goal and hes remarkable at that.

[u/PunjabiIdiot]

How is this a horrible interview? I never heard Dave talk like this so Howard did his job.

So many of you are saying "Just let him talk" but guess what? People have let him talk for years and he hasn't said shit because no one wants to just let things out that they have kept inside for years. Howard brought it out to the surface.

[u/[deleted]]

Jesus howard was so straight forward and head on with those questions... Dave handled it pretty well though. Not much you hear him talking about it.

[u/[deleted]]

God Howard is a horrible interviewer, doesn't follow up with questions to important responses. He's like a squirrel with a machine gun.