{"id":648859,"date":"2026-06-20T11:48:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T11:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/648859\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T11:48:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T11:48:12","slug":"the-2000-foo-fighters-song-dave-grohl-never-wanted-to-sing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/648859\/","title":{"rendered":"The 2000 Foo Fighters song Dave Grohl never wanted to sing"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dave<\/p>\n

Credit: Raph Pour-Hashemi<\/p>\n

Sat 20 June 2026 10:00, UK <\/p>\n

Dave Grohl<\/a> has always been one of the last people fans would think of as being a diva. <\/p>\n

Ever since leaving Nirvana and forming Foo Fighters, he is one of the few people who still manages to go above and beyond for his fans at every opportunity, even if it means someone carrying him back out onstage after he breaks his leg in the middle of the show. That being said, that doesn\u2019t mean he couldn\u2019t get testy every once in a while when he was dealing with a song that he didn\u2019t enjoy.<\/p>\n

Then again, there aren\u2019t many Foo Fighters songs that don\u2019t go through the Grohl Quality Inspection whenever they\u2019re in the studio. He\u2019s the one who started the band, and even if every member has a say in what the arrangements should be, Grohl is the one who makes the final call on whether a guitar part isn\u2019t working or if what they\u2019re playing is not capturing what he\u2019s hearing in his head.<\/p>\n

That level of creative control has been one of the defining features of Foo Fighters throughout their career. While Grohl has always encouraged collaboration from his bandmates, he has never been afraid to trust his instincts when it comes to protecting the identity of the songs.<\/p>\n

While Grohl eventually transformed himself into one of the greatest songwriters of the modern age, it was going to take a while for him to feel comfortable in the role of frontman. One of the biggest thrills about being a drummer in a band like Nirvana was the fact that Grohl could bang the shit out of his drums and then walk away completely anonymous compared to what Kurt Cobain was dealing with, so now that he was at the front, he only had a guitar to hide behind.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d go into the control room, and I\u2019d keep singing it over and over again and Dave\u2019s like, \u2018You sing it! You fucking asshole.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taylor Hawkins<\/p>\n

The transition from drummer to frontman was far from straightforward. Grohl had spent years supporting someone else\u2019s vision in Nirvana, but Foo Fighters required him to become the focal point, shouldering the pressure of songwriting, singing and leading an entire band.<\/p>\n

But Grohl was far from the only wild man onstage whenever they performed. With all due respect to what Chris Shiflett and Nate Mendel did in the 2000s, no one could take their eyes off the interplay between Grohl and Taylor Hawkins. Drummers are always joined at the hip, and until his untimely passing in 2022, Hawkins was as close to a blood brother that Grohl ever had on this Earth.<\/p>\n

Further reading: From The Vault<\/p>\n

Although the term \u2018burnout\u2019 doesn\u2019t belong in Grohl\u2019s vocabulary that often, he did admit to feeling completely spent when working on the band\u2019s cover of Pink Floyd\u2019s \u2018Have A Cigar\u2019. Their penchant for rock and roll covers was always fairly strong, but compared to their take on a tune like Wings\u2019 \u2018Band on the Run<\/a>\u2019, hearing Hawkins take the lead vocal was the only way for them to make the song work.<\/p>\n

According to Hawkins, the choice to get him behind the microphone came out of frustration when Grohl said he didn\u2019t like singing the track, saying<\/a>, \u201cWe did that for just a goof. It was funny. We started playing it first. We were going to cover it and we just started playing it first, and we just played it like they play it like a swamp rock version. I\u2019d go into the control room, and I\u2019d keep singing it over and over again and Dave\u2019s like, \u2018You sing it! You fucking asshole, I don\u2019t want to learn the fucking lyrics.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Even if Grohl didn\u2019t like singing the track, getting Hawkins behind it is actually appropriate, considering Pink Floyd\u2019s original. David Gilmour and Roger Waters already handed vocal duties over to Roy Harper on Wish You Were Here, so hearing Hawkins\u2019s throaty rasp coming in on this version is like the nasty version of paying tribute to their heroes.<\/p>\n

If anything, the fact that the band made a goof sound this impressive is a feat in and of itself. The entire premise behind their later albums like, In Your Honour, was to release something epic, and even though the cover was relegated to becoming a B-side, it did at least show that they had ambitions beyond being a typical rock and roll outfit.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although \u2018Have A Cigar\u2019 began as a light-hearted experiment, it ultimately highlighted one of Foo Fighters\u2019 greatest strengths: their willingness to follow ideas wherever they might lead. What started as a joke between friends became a memorable reinterpretation of a classic track, showcasing both Hawkins\u2019 underrated vocal abilities and the band\u2019s enduring love of the artists who inspired them.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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