Emotional Connection: The only song Dave Grohl wrote about Kurt Cobain
When Kurt Cobain tragically took his own life in 1994, he left a generation of music lovers in mourning. Some mourned the loss of an all-conquering icon. Others mourned Nirvana’s frontman and their favourite singer no longer being there to serenade their restless souls. For Dave Grohl, he mourned for his friend.
There are countless occurrences of singers and songwriters writing tunes for the people in their lives. For most musicians, the ability to translate emotions into music is precisely why they first turned to art. It allowed them to fully express themselves. However, it gets a lot more emotional when those songs are written for friends who are no longer living. It gets even messier when, like Grohl, you are writing about both a friend and a musical icon.
The two members of Nirvana shared a special relationship that most are unaware of. Much like anyone who has been through seismic life experiences with someone close to them, Grohl and Cobain shared an unbreakable bond, the kind that trumps any familial connections, lays waste to simple high school sweethearts and renders any normal friendship redundant. It’s a bond only broken by the tragic passing of one-half of the relationship.
The immeasurable pain of losing a person in your life that holds such a key space in your mind, body and soul is one of the most painful experiences one can have. It’s sadly an experience that Grohl has suffered on numerous occasions, losing Taylor Hawkins, his friend and drummer of Foo Fighters, in 2022. While Grohl was front and centre during a grieving period, incorporating a tribute concert for Hawkins, he would retreat into his work after Cobain’s death.
Seeing no value in trying to carry on as Nirvana or simply joining another outfit, Grohl would go on to form his own group, using songs written both during his time with Nirvana and shortly after Cobain’s passing. It was something the singer had always encouraged him to do and to go on and write a ream of rock classics. With the Foo Fighters, Grohl has made good on that encouragement, delivering 11 studio records, shaking stadiums across the world and generally illuminating the rock world. But with all those tracks under his belt, Grohl has only ever written one song about his friend Kurt.
In the immediate aftermath of Cobain’s tragic death, Novoselic and Grohl were unwilling to open up to the press and unfurl their personal stories for tabloid fodder. The press had been such a major influence on the depression that Cobain seemed swallowed up by their mere presence, which felt vulgar. However, the media had descended on the remaining bandmates and every other aspect of Cobain’s life like ravenous vultures following the sombre news. They were inundated with requests for comment, interviews and appearances, which left the duo completely distraught.
The idea of the drummer and bassist offering their own personal relationship with Cobain up as fresh meat for media consumption seemed self-destructive at best. More recently, Grohl has shared some of his more poignant moments that connected him to the singer.
In a recent interview, Grohl explained that The Beatles’ song ‘In My Life’ always reminds him of the singer, “It means a lot to me, because it was the song that was played at Kurt Cobain’s memorial,” Grohl explained to Radio Two. “That day, after everyone had said their piece, this next song came over the speakers and everyone got to celebrate Kurt’s love of The Beatles one last time together.
“Still to this day, when I hear it, it touches a place in me that no other song ever will. It’s called ‘In My Life’ and knowing how much of a fan Kurt was of The Beatles, and how much of an influence they were, to everything we’ve done ever done…I’d like to play this one for him.”
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FROM THE VAULT
Emotional Connection: The only song Dave Grohl wrote about Kurt Cobain(Credit: Alamy)
MUSIC » FROM THE VAULT
Emotional Connection: The only song Dave Grohl wrote about Kurt Cobain
Jack Whatley
@JackWhatley89
Sat 23 March 2024 17:00, UK
When Kurt Cobain tragically took his own life in 1994, he left a generation of music lovers in mourning. Some mourned the loss of an all-conquering icon. Others mourned Nirvana’s frontman and their favourite singer no longer being there to serenade their restless souls. For Dave Grohl, he mourned for his friend.
There are countless occurrences of singers and songwriters writing tunes for the people in their lives. For most musicians, the ability to translate emotions into music is precisely why they first turned to art. It allowed them to fully express themselves. However, it gets a lot more emotional when those songs are written for friends who are no longer living. It gets even messier when, like Grohl, you are writing about both a friend and a musical icon.
The two members of Nirvana shared a special relationship that most are unaware of. Much like anyone who has been through seismic life experiences with someone close to them, Grohl and Cobain shared an unbreakable bond, the kind that trumps any familial connections, lays waste to simple high school sweethearts and renders any normal friendship redundant. It’s a bond only broken by the tragic passing of one-half of the relationship.
The immeasurable pain of losing a person in your life that holds such a key space in your mind, body and soul is one of the most painful experiences one can have. It’s sadly an experience that Grohl has suffered on numerous occasions, losing Taylor Hawkins, his friend and drummer of Foo Fighters, in 2022. While Grohl was front and centre during a grieving period, incorporating a tribute concert for Hawkins, he would retreat into his work after Cobain’s death.
Seeing no value in trying to carry on as Nirvana or simply joining another outfit, Grohl would go on to form his own group, using songs written both during his time with Nirvana and shortly after Cobain’s passing. It was something the singer had always encouraged him to do and to go on and write a ream of rock classics. With the Foo Fighters, Grohl has made good on that encouragement, delivering 11 studio records, shaking stadiums across the world and generally illuminating the rock world. But with all those tracks under his belt, Grohl has only ever written one song about his friend Kurt.
In the immediate aftermath of Cobain’s tragic death, Novoselic and Grohl were unwilling to open up to the press and unfurl their personal stories for tabloid fodder. The press had been such a major influence on the depression that Cobain seemed swallowed up by their mere presence, which felt vulgar. However, the media had descended on the remaining bandmates and every other aspect of Cobain’s life like ravenous vultures following the sombre news. They were inundated with requests for comment, interviews and appearances, which left the duo completely distraught.
The idea of the drummer and bassist offering their own personal relationship with Cobain up as fresh meat for media consumption seemed self-destructive at best. More recently, Grohl has shared some of his more poignant moments that connected him to the singer.
In a recent interview, Grohl explained that The Beatles’ song ‘In My Life’ always reminds him of the singer, “It means a lot to me, because it was the song that was played at Kurt Cobain’s memorial,” Grohl explained to Radio Two. “That day, after everyone had said their piece, this next song came over the speakers and everyone got to celebrate Kurt’s love of The Beatles one last time together.
“Still to this day, when I hear it, it touches a place in me that no other song ever will. It’s called ‘In My Life’ and knowing how much of a fan Kurt was of The Beatles, and how much of an influence they were, to everything we’ve done ever done…I’d like to play this one for him.”
Kurt Cobain – Nirvana
(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
His privacy on the matter also meant that while Grohl has always written directly from the heart, he has tended to keep his and Cobain’s relationship off the record. There is one song, though, that Grohl wrote for the singer, and it might not be the one you’re thinking of. Many people have pointed to 1997’s ‘My Hero’ from Foo Fighters’ album The Colour and the Shape as being penned for Cobain, but that idea was quashed in 2008.
Republican John McCain used the song as part of his campaign without Grohl’s permission, and he revealed the song was actually an ode to the “common man”. The Foo Fighters man said at the time: “The saddest thing about this is that ‘My Hero’ was written as a celebration of the common man and his extraordinary potential. To have it appropriated without our knowledge and used in a manner that perverts the original sentiment of the lyric just tarnishes the song.”
Instead, it was a song from later in the Foo Fighters’ journey that paid homage to Kurt Cobain. It’s a track that features on the 2005 album In Your Honor but was actually written by Grohl in 1990. ‘Friend of a Friend’ is the song the newly-Nirvana man wrote while staying in Cobain’s apartment after having moved to Seattle to join the band in what must have been some of the most exciting moments of his young life.
The heartbreaking track is a description of his first take of the frontman and bassist Krist Novoselic. The first impressions of two important men in Grohl’s life paint quite a dark picture of the band’s early days. The acoustic track, which was picked up some 15 years later and released by Grohl, offers an incredibly reflective performance.
CUTTING ROOM FLOOR
FROM THE VAULT
Emotional Connection: The only song Dave Grohl wrote about Kurt Cobain(Credit: Alamy)
MUSIC » FROM THE VAULT
Emotional Connection: The only song Dave Grohl wrote about Kurt Cobain
Jack Whatley
@JackWhatley89
Sat 23 March 2024 17:00, UK
When Kurt Cobain tragically took his own life in 1994, he left a generation of music lovers in mourning. Some mourned the loss of an all-conquering icon. Others mourned Nirvana’s frontman and their favourite singer no longer being there to serenade their restless souls. For Dave Grohl, he mourned for his friend.
There are countless occurrences of singers and songwriters writing tunes for the people in their lives. For most musicians, the ability to translate emotions into music is precisely why they first turned to art. It allowed them to fully express themselves. However, it gets a lot more emotional when those songs are written for friends who are no longer living. It gets even messier when, like Grohl, you are writing about both a friend and a musical icon.
The two members of Nirvana shared a special relationship that most are unaware of. Much like anyone who has been through seismic life experiences with someone close to them, Grohl and Cobain shared an unbreakable bond, the kind that trumps any familial connections, lays waste to simple high school sweethearts and renders any normal friendship redundant. It’s a bond only broken by the tragic passing of one-half of the relationship.
The immeasurable pain of losing a person in your life that holds such a key space in your mind, body and soul is one of the most painful experiences one can have. It’s sadly an experience that Grohl has suffered on numerous occasions, losing Taylor Hawkins, his friend and drummer of Foo Fighters, in 2022. While Grohl was front and centre during a grieving period, incorporating a tribute concert for Hawkins, he would retreat into his work after Cobain’s death.
Seeing no value in trying to carry on as Nirvana or simply joining another outfit, Grohl would go on to form his own group, using songs written both during his time with Nirvana and shortly after Cobain’s passing. It was something the singer had always encouraged him to do and to go on and write a ream of rock classics. With the Foo Fighters, Grohl has made good on that encouragement, delivering 11 studio records, shaking stadiums across the world and generally illuminating the rock world. But with all those tracks under his belt, Grohl has only ever written one song about his friend Kurt.
In the immediate aftermath of Cobain’s tragic death, Novoselic and Grohl were unwilling to open up to the press and unfurl their personal stories for tabloid fodder. The press had been such a major influence on the depression that Cobain seemed swallowed up by their mere presence, which felt vulgar. However, the media had descended on the remaining bandmates and every other aspect of Cobain’s life like ravenous vultures following the sombre news. They were inundated with requests for comment, interviews and appearances, which left the duo completely distraught.
The idea of the drummer and bassist offering their own personal relationship with Cobain up as fresh meat for media consumption seemed self-destructive at best. More recently, Grohl has shared some of his more poignant moments that connected him to the singer.
In a recent interview, Grohl explained that The Beatles’ song ‘In My Life’ always reminds him of the singer, “It means a lot to me, because it was the song that was played at Kurt Cobain’s memorial,” Grohl explained to Radio Two. “That day, after everyone had said their piece, this next song came over the speakers and everyone got to celebrate Kurt’s love of The Beatles one last time together.
“Still to this day, when I hear it, it touches a place in me that no other song ever will. It’s called ‘In My Life’ and knowing how much of a fan Kurt was of The Beatles, and how much of an influence they were, to everything we’ve done ever done…I’d like to play this one for him.”
Kurt Cobain – Nirvana
(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
His privacy on the matter also meant that while Grohl has always written directly from the heart, he has tended to keep his and Cobain’s relationship off the record. There is one song, though, that Grohl wrote for the singer, and it might not be the one you’re thinking of. Many people have pointed to 1997’s ‘My Hero’ from Foo Fighters’ album The Colour and the Shape as being penned for Cobain, but that idea was quashed in 2008.
Republican John McCain used the song as part of his campaign without Grohl’s permission, and he revealed the song was actually an ode to the “common man”. The Foo Fighters man said at the time: “The saddest thing about this is that ‘My Hero’ was written as a celebration of the common man and his extraordinary potential. To have it appropriated without our knowledge and used in a manner that perverts the original sentiment of the lyric just tarnishes the song.”
Instead, it was a song from later in the Foo Fighters’ journey that paid homage to Kurt Cobain. It’s a track that features on the 2005 album In Your Honor but was actually written by Grohl in 1990. ‘Friend of a Friend’ is the song the newly-Nirvana man wrote while staying in Cobain’s apartment after having moved to Seattle to join the band in what must have been some of the most exciting moments of his young life.
The heartbreaking track is a description of his first take of the frontman and bassist Krist Novoselic. The first impressions of two important men in Grohl’s life paint quite a dark picture of the band’s early days. The acoustic track, which was picked up some 15 years later and released by Grohl, offers an incredibly reflective performance.
The track shows off a dramatic foresight that nobody could have expected, as well as offering a vignette of a growing band, “He plays an old guitar/ With a coin found by the phone/ It was his friend’s guitar/ That he played”. It’s a hint at the unique verbiage that would push Grohl’s own band into the spotlight.
There is also foreshadowing of Cobain’s addiction issues rendered within the lyrics: “He thinks he drinks too much/ ‘Cause when he tells his two best friends/ ‘I think I drink too much’/ No-one speaks”. The visceral lyrics suggest why the song has rarely been played live and only featured under Grohl’s name in 2005. The stark reflection of someone nobody was ever truly able to control or confront feels all the more poignant with the macabre hindsight.
Grohl told Q Magazine about the track: “I’d just moved in with Kurt. I didn’t know anybody. I had a drum set packed in one box and flew up there. I would stay up till the sun came up and sleep all day. Olympia, Washington, is fucking depressing enough and I was living with this person that I didn’t know. But he had a four-track so I wrote songs: ‘Marigold’ and ‘Friend Of A Friend’. It was an observation of Kurt and Krist and I.”
The Foo Fighters man was also asked if he had ever played the song to Kurt, he replied: “No. I don’t think I did. Probably not.”
Below, listen to the only song Dave Grohl wrote about Kurt Cobain.
