What’s going on my fellow rock n’ rollers. Don’t forget to hit the bell notification icon to be notified every time i put out a
new video on my channel. Today I wanted to talk about a feud involving foo fighters frontman
dave grohl and their original drummer William Goldsmith. Why did Goldsmith leave the band
and how did the band’s current drummer Taylor Hawkins get involved in the beef? Stay tuned
to find out. William Goldsmith would serve as Foo Fighters
original drummer starting in 1995 and playing with the group until 1997. Goldsmith was previously
a member of the alternative rock band Sunny Day Real Estate alongside the Foo Fighters
bassist Nate Mendel. Sunny Day Real Estate was on the verge of breaking in the mid 90's
up just as Dave Grohl was looking to put together a band to tour on Foo Fighters debut album
in which Grohl played all the instruments with the exception of one guitar part. Impressed
with Sunny Day Real Estates rhythm section, Grohl approached the pair and gave them a
copy of Foo Fighters debut record. From that point on the trio along with former Nirvana
and The Germs guitarist Pat Smear started to tour together over the next years. The
tour though, was a challenge for Goldsmith who admitted in the 2011 documentary Back
and Fourth that he was a little nervous playing in front of a crowd and resorted to drinking
and drugs to deal with the pressure. The band’s tour would prove to be a success as they would
play bigger and bigger venues as time went on, paving the way for their hugely successful
sophomore album The Colour and the Shape. The recording of the album was difficult for
the band as it was the first time the quartet were in a studio setting. Famed Pixies producer
Gil Norton pushed the band to perfect their parts and both Goldsmith and Mendel struggled
as Norton at one point referred to them as the rhythmnless section. The songs on the
record were written primarily during soundchecks during their 1.5 year long tour with bassist
Nate Mendel telling an interviewer how Grohl was the creative force saying "the germ of
every song is Dave's," with the frontman providing a riff and a basic song structure. The band
would then jam and each member would contribute to some aspect of the song. And due to Grohl’s
drumming background he would reveal in the same Back and Forth documentary that when
he’s writing a song he already has an idea of what the drummer should be playing, so
Goldsmith would be under extra scrutiny during the writing and recording of the album. And the sessions proved to be expensive and
time consuming as Grohl was unhappy with the quality of the music initially. The band decided
to take break over the Christmas holidays and reconvene in the new year. The band minus
Goldsmith reconvened in Los Angeles in February of 1997 to re-record the entire album with
Grohl re-recording all of the drum parts with the exception of two songs including ‘Doll”
and “Up in Arms.” Grohl and producer Norton didn’t feel as if the drumming was up to
snuff and Goldsmith who was in Seattle at the time, even contacted the band to see if
he should fly down to LA, but Grohl told him was busy doing overdubs. Mendel would tell
Goldsmith the truth of what was actually happening and that Dave was re-recording most of his
drum parts. Angered and upset, Goldsmith left the band by the end of 1997 even though Grohl
wanted him to tour with the group.. Upon hearing the final versions of the drum tracks on The
sophomore record Goldsmith would tell the Daily Mail in 2017 The versions Dave did were
very similar. I am not saying I am an amazing drummer – the work that I did was not bad'
he'd say He'd also talk about him leaving the band
saying 'The way things were handled, and what was
done to me, I do think that staying in that band would have made me feel like my soul
was destroyed and I would have likely ended up dead,' he'd explained. In the same interview Goldsmith would claim that
he wished he had never met Grohl, saying: 'That feeling might change if we actually
sat down and talked. But that hasn't happened yet.' In the same interview Goldsmith revealed
that he became a verbal punching bag for the Foo’s frontman and that he felt creatively
raped. and compared Grohl to a schoolyard bully. The drummer gave his beliefs for how Nirvana’s dynamics influenced Grohl’s leadership style
in the Foo’s explaining 'The impression I had got from people who
were flies on the wall when Nirvana was recording was that Kurt had been very definite on what
he wanted and Dave had to do it. 'I think his inability to allow people to
collaborate with him after that, came from Kurt having things a certain way and him reacting
to his frustrations.' It was that inability to work with Grohl that
resulted in Goldmsith claiming he never got credit for his work, so he was screwed out
of royalties. He would reveal tell the Daily Mail:
'I get paid around 0.01 per cent in royalties, so every six months I get like $1,100 if I
am lucky,' Goldsmith’s relationship with his former
bandmate Nate Mendel would also be fractured, but the two would reunite years later in 2002
when they played together in a band called The Fire Theft and again reunited in 2010
when Sunny day Real Estate reformed. The drummer would claim that he last time
he saw Grohl was in 2002 at a festival they were both playing at he would recall to the
Guardian 'Dave saw me and said, "that Fire Theft record
you did was good." 'We had both had black hearts tattooed on
our little fingers at the same time. : 'I have been given the impression he feels
bad about the way things went. 'If he feels bad about how things went then
why hasn't he tried to get a hold of me? 'All he would have to do is sit down and talk
it out with me. The following year Goldsmith blamed Dave Grohl
once again for blocking the release of Sunny Day Real Estates unfinished 5th album, which
was recorded at Dave Grohl’s Studio 606. Goldsmith would claim Grohl wasn’t supportive
of Mendel’s involvement in the planned LP as well as his work in Fire Theft. But nate
Mendel responded via Foo Fighters representatives denying the allegations claiming the pair
hadn’t spoken in 7 years. Goldsmith would clarify his remarks claiming his Sunny Day
Real Estate bandmates didn’t receive proper engineering support and it wasn’t directly
Grohl’s fault. Almost a year and a half after the interview
with the Guardian current Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins would defend Dave Grohl saying
I really wasn’t comfortable playing drums in Foo Fighters really until we got into ‘One
By One’,” he said, looking back on when he first joined the band. “‘All My Life’
was the first track, because Dave [Grohl] played half the tracks on ‘There Is Nothing
Left To Lose’. “I was struggling, because I had never been
in the studio before. The studio is a completely different thing than live dude, it couldn’t
be any more different. The microscope is on. The first drummer for the Foo Fighters buckled
under the pressure, and still blames Dave for that. It’s like no dude, and Dave never
fired him by the way. Just so we’re all clear, Dave never fired him. He quit. He keeps going on these blog adventures. Dave never fired him, Dave never wanted to
fire him" Hawkins would say. In 2019 it came out that Goldsmith hit some
tough financial times and was on the verge of selling his own drum kit but a kickstarter
campaign was able to help out. That does it for today's video guys thanks for watching. Be sure to hit the like button and subscribe. If you guys have suggestions for future topics
let me know in the comments section below! Take care.
