Dave Grohl has revealed that Kurt Cobain not only listened to some of the Foo Fighters frontman’s early demos but actually gave Grohl his blessing to pursue his own material outside of Nirvana.
This new revelation in the friendship of Grohl and Cobain came via the latest episode of the Foos’ HBO doco series Sonic Highways. The recent ep is situated in Seattle, Washington. As you’d expect the subject of Nirvana, the figureheads of the 90s Seattle grunge movement, came up.
In the new ep, via CoS, Grohl recalls Cobain asking to hear demos the Nirvana drummer had been working on while the band was on tour in 1992. “I heard you recorded some stuff with [producer] Barrett [Jones],” said Cobain, according to Grohl.
“I was like, ‘Yeah.’ He was like, ‘Let me hear it.’ I was too afraid to be in the same room as he listened to it.” Among those rough recordings was Alone + Easy Target, which would eventually feature on Foo Fighters debut album in 1995.
“Kurt heard that, and kissed me on the face, as he was in a bath,” said Grohl. “He was so excited.”
Barrett Jones was eventually credited as a co-producer on Foo Fighters with Grohl after the death of Cobain in 1994.
You can image this memory must have helped Grohl in the early days of the Foos, when he was criticised and hounded by media and fans alike in the wake of Nirvana. As we all know the drummer turned frontman took Foo Fighters to the top of the rock world, with the band recently releasing album number eight, Sonic Highways.
Indeed Grohl and Foo Fighters have come a ways since Cobain’s bathroom blessing. You can listen to the demo of Alone + Easy Target below.
UPDATE 01/12/14: A long-lost Dave Grohl solo track from the demos, called Hooker On The Street, has made its way online — details here.
Listen: Dave Grohl – Alone + Easy Target Demo Tape 1992-1993
