Dave Grohl calls Kurt Cobain the “greatest songwriter of our generation”
Speaking to Apple Music’s Medicine at Midnight Radio recently, Dave Grohl has reflected on his time in Nirvana, the bands untimely spilt, and the loss of his later friend Kurt Cobain. “It is one of my life’s greatest heartbreaks,” says Grohl, “That Kurt isn’t still here to write more amazing songs.”
Grohl regaled tales of the band’s meteoric rise stardom in the early 1990s as the Seattle grunge scene swept the world, but obviously, it was a rise with a lamentable end. It was this tragic end, that Grohl emotionally focussed on during the interview.
“Of course, it was an incredibly challenging experience and ultimately one of the greatest heartbreaks of my life that Nirvana isn’t still here today making music,” he said.
“Whether it would be called Nirvana or something else. It is one of my life’s greatest heartbreaks that Kurt isn’t still here to write more amazing songs because it’s pretty clear that he was blessed with a gift. I think it’s safe to say that he was the greatest songwriter of our generation. I’m very proud to say that I got to be his drummer and play those songs every night.”
It is a statement that many rock fans would second, particularly kids growing up in the ‘90s for whom Cobain’s songs resonated on a spiritual level. The band seemed to encapsulate youth culture and when their tragic end was a great loss to many. From their debut studio album Bleach in 1989, up until Kurt Cobain’s death in 1994, the band enthralled fans with their riveting grunge sound.
Speaking about how this loss impacted the band members themselves, Pat Smear, a touring guitarist with the band told Howard Stern, “Every once in a while, me and Krist and Dave get together and we do play as if we’re Nirvana,” Smear replied. “So I don’t have to miss it — we do it. If we’re in the same town together, or whatever, we’ll get together and jam.”
On a much more celebratory note, Grohl also confirmed in the interview that the last time Smear, Grohl and former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic were in the same room together was at his home, where the Foo Fighters recorded their new album.
You can catch the latest Foo Fighters single, below.
