Grohl is in a nostalgic mood, perhaps, because it was 20 years ago to the month that his band recorded Nevermind, in that studio up the road. Only this morning Grohl had finalised a deal to buy the old analogue mixing desk on which the album was made. "Everybody wanted it," he says, drumming his fingers excitedly, "but the owner wanted me to have it. I went to pick it up this morning and almost started bawling." He plans to transfer it to Foo Fighters' own studio, in Northridge, California.

He tells another story. Novoselic was in California recently to play a couple of songs with Foo Fighters, a one-off gig. Grohl, Novoselic and Pat Smears (a current Foo and former guitarist with Nirvana) did a run-through of the set list. After that, they found themselves alone, with time to kill.

"Krist is on bass. Pat's on guitar. I'm on drums," says Grohl (and ridiculously, at this point, my heart starts to thump). "Krist says, 'You wanna run through some oldies?' Me and Pat look at each other. I mean, that's something I've never considered before. I was, like [queasily], 'OK.'"

Which song did you…?

"Krist says, 'Fuck it, let's do "Smells Like Teen Spirit".' And Pat starts playing, and we kick into it. I haven't played that drum beat in 17 years."

How did it feel?

"It was crazy. It was like… a ghost. It was heavy."

Grohl wants to tell a joke – his instinct is to defuse any heaviness – and I want to ask a question. "Our studio manager was the only guy there," says Grohl, going first, "and when we'd finished he was like, 'Hey, you should record that.'" Then I ask my question. Did anybody sing?

"Nobody sang," says Grohl.

Fuck Dave Grohl.

I can't stand him or his piece of crap band.

If Kurt lived on and made music maybe rock wouldn't be in such a sorry state.

RKJCNE said:

Fuck Dave Grohl.

I can't stand him or his piece of crap band.

If Kurt lived on and made music maybe rock wouldn't be in such a sorry state.

Why do you dislike him so strongly? He seems to be quite a nice person, and his music is good, too.

KoolEaze said:

RKJCNE said:

Fuck Dave Grohl.

I can't stand him or his piece of crap band.

If Kurt lived on and made music maybe rock wouldn't be in such a sorry state.

Why do you dislike him so strongly? He seems to be quite a nice person, and his music is good, too.

Well first of all I think everything the Foo Fighters have ever done sound like a horrible Husker Du cover band.

Second my best friend who went to a FF show being that she is was their biggest fan. She won backstage passes from a radio show and got to meet everybody but Dave because he went to a bar.

Third, his attitude towards Courtney Love.

Me too. I still can't believe that Marvel killed him in some crappy crossover.

[img:$uid]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kApto83SZK4/S9kYIpMGBpI/AAAAAAAAIrI/5XtEP86sp-8/s1600/Nightcrawler.jpg[/img:$uid]

I'm still not over his death.

rialb said:

Me too. I still can't believe that Marvel killed him in some crappy crossover.

[img:$uid]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kApto83SZK4/S9kYIpMGBpI/AAAAAAAAIrI/5XtEP86sp-8/s1600/Nightcrawler.jpg[/img:$uid]

I'm not too fond of furries & anything elf like, but I did like Nightcrawler. Why did he die?

RKJCNE said:

Fuck Dave Grohl.

I can't stand him or his piece of crap band.

If Kurt lived on and made music maybe rock wouldn't be in such a sorry state.

Totally agree - I don't dislike Grohl, but I am not a Foo Fighters fan. Their stuff is very middling, dull and MOR to me. And I agree, he has an attitude problem with Courtney as well.

But, as such a big Nirvana fan, I enjoy anecdotes such as this - more so for the participation of Kris and Pat.