Dave Grohl: “There was a dysfunction in Nirvana that a band like Foo Fighters doesn’t have”

Dave Grohl has spoken about the “dysfunction” that he felt existed within Nirvana, adding that it is something that doesn’t exist within Foo Fighters.

Grohl has looked back on his time with both Nirvana and Foo Fighters in a new interview ahead of the release this week of Foos’ new album ‘Medicine At Midnight’.

  • Read more: Dave Grohl tells us about Foo Fighters’ ‘Medicine at Midnight’: “This is our Saturday night party album”

Speaking to The Big Issue, Grohl said that his musical relationship with his Nirvana bandmates Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic “was a match made in heaven”.

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“But personally it was a bit off, to be honest,” he continued. “Of course we loved each other. We were friends. But, you know, there was a dysfunction in Nirvana that a band like Foo Fighters doesn’t have.”

Nirvana
Nirvana (Picture: Paul Bergen/Redferns)

Grohl continued: “Was I close to Kurt, as I am to Taylor Hawkins? No. I did live with Krist and his wife when I first joined the band. I think it lasted a month and then they kicked me out, but we always had this sort of loving connection, and it was made even more so after Kurt died. When I see Krist now, I hug him like family. But back then we were young, and the world was just so strange.

“But that emotional dysfunction in Nirvana was relieved when we put on instruments. If the music hadn’t worked, we wouldn’t have been there together.

“I truly believe that there’s some people you can only communicate with musically. And sometimes that’s an even greater, deeper communication.”







Dave Grohl + Rick Astley play the Club NME relaunch in London
To mark the return of NME's legendary clubnight, Club NME, Dave Grohl turned up as a surprise guest at London's Moth Club and rattled through some songs with none other than Rick Astley! Support set was by the brilliant Saint Leonard and DJs Mark Beaumont and Lisa Wright spun tunes until the small hours. Watch the highlights here.
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Last week producer Steve Albini reflected on offering Nirvana his production services for free ahead of the recording of their album ‘In Utero’ in 1993 – if the band could beat him at a game of pool first.