Dave Grohl has admitted it “broke [his] heart” having to listen to Nirvana for the first time in the months after Kurt Cobain died.
Dave Grohl has admitted it “broke [his] heart” listening to Nirvana for the first time months after Kurt Cobain died.
The Smells Like Teen Spirit hitmaker took his own life in April 1994 and his former bandmate has recalled how tough the rest of the group found it when they had to get back in the studio to work on mixing Nirviana’s MTV Unplugged in New York album.
Speaking on If These Walls Could Rock, a documentary seires about how the Sunset Marquis hotel in West Hollywood has been a part of rock and roll history, the Foo Fighters frontman said: “I think the first time I stayed at the Sunset Marquis was when Nirvana came down to mix the Unplugged record.
“We hadn’t listened to any Nirvana since Kurt’s passing.
“Listening to our friend every day that had passed away, oh God, it broke my heart,” he admitted. “I remember we were in the middle of mixing a song one day [producer] Scott Litt stopped the tape and said, ‘Do you want to be doing this right now?’ and I said, ‘Nope.’ ”
After the session ended for the day, Dave returned to the Sunset Marquis where a surprising sight helped lift his mood.
He recalled: “I remember being really down and looking out the blinds. I recognized the Spin Doctors because the drummer had this glorious beard, really long hair and a nice, hairy chest, too.
“And the singer was walking around with a 35-millimeter camera, taking pictures of like, cracks in the sidewalk. That kind of cheered me up.”
The 57-year-old rocker revealed earlier this year how he decided to keep making music after Kurt’s death because he witnessed a sign from the “universe”.
During an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Dave explained: “When Nirvana ended, I wasn’t sure what to do. I didn’t know if I wanted to continue playing music. It made me sad to think of playing in another band and losing Nirvana, losing Kurt was a really dark, emotional experience.”
Searching for clarity, Dave rented a car and drove around the Ring of Kerry in Ireland, and it was there that he received the sign he needed.
He said: “All I wanted to do was disappear. As I was driving down this country road I see a hitchhiker and he had a Kurt Cobain T-shirt on. To me, I thought, this is the universe telling me, ‘You have to continue. You have to move on. You have to go forward.'”
The encounter convinced him to press on with his musical career.
He said: “Music has always been the love of my life. It’s helped me through some of my most difficult moments and when I saw the kid with the Kurt Cobain t-shirt, I thought, ‘Okay. I need to keep going.’ I have so much reverence and respect for the past but I need to have a future.”
Dave Grohl recalls heartbreak of first time listening to Nirvana after Kurt Cobain’s death
