(Credits: Raph Pour-Hashemi)
Sun 14 December 2025 20:00, UK
Dave Grohl has a vast array of songs under his belt. It’d be foolish to attempt to count them all, what with his ability to play most instruments, too. He’s a versatile musician, more than capable of replicating any tune he so wishes… But even the greats have their limits.
If you go to a Foo Fighters show, you know to expect the classics: the soaring ‘Everlong’, the gut-punching ‘My Hero’, the yearn-tastic ‘Best of You’. But it’s not too far from reason to expect a cover; online sources say they’ve covered the likes of Queen and David Bowie almost 200 times, and Pink Floyd over 100 times. It’s an easy way to keep a set fresh and exciting while moulding a sound into a brand.
Almost all bands begin as cover bands if you think about it. The easiest way to form a musical concoction is to replicate a tried and tested recipe, to throw it all at the wall and see what sticks. It’s harmless, too; pick a song everyone in the band knows, and away you go.
In the case of Dave Grohl, there would be no better band to pick than Nirvana. No doubt his bandmates knew of his past, four years sweating behind the drum kit while rock was reborn before paving the way for the Foo Fighters sound, only out of necessity and tragedy. But for Grohl, this is entirely off limits.
“I wouldn’t feel comfortable singing a song that Kurt sang,” he admitted in an interview in 2021. He added, “I feel perfectly at home playing those songs on the drums. And I love playing them with Krist and Pat and another vocalist.”
A lesser man might’ve grabbed at the opportunity to capitalise on the lasting connection fans have forged with the iconic band. It’d be easier to go on stage and play songs you knew would get a raucous reaction; time in the practice rooms would be a breeze, whistling merrily through songs already written. It’s a one-way ticket to placid happiness on both ends of the line.
But was placidity ever a goal of Grohl’s? You can make a lot of money from nostalgia. You can make even more money from grief. But Grohl never once wanted to taint his old friend’s legacy, while navigating the startling absence his loss had in the early drummer’s personal life, too. Sharing those mind-melting moments with someone, crashing on their couch just in case an instrumental flourish appeared in the bleary-eyed infancy of sleep, is not something you can run from.
He’s been honest about that, too: “I still have dreams that we’re in Nirvana, that we’re still a band,” he confessed. “I still dream there’s an empty arena waiting for us to play. But I don’t sit down at home and run through ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ by myself. It’s just a reminder that the person who is responsible for those beautiful songs is no longer with us. It’s bittersweet.”
It’s bittersweet for us, the audience, too. No doubt, even half a Nirvana song resurrected by the drummer himself would make history. But Cobain is special, parcelled like a prayer in his own space and time. It’s the only way it could’ve been.
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