At this point in his career, Dave Grohl can do whatever the hell he wants. The Foo Fighters frontman and former Nirvana guitarist has such a sterling rock and roll legacy, both as a talented musician and a solid dude who supports the hell out of cool bands, that he could smear bacon grease on his ass onstage and fans would shell out serious money to watch. But once upon a time, Dave was just a young drummer looking to make his name in the rock world — which is why, according to a new interview, he nearly joined space-faring pervert metal act GWAR before landing his infamous gig in Nirvana.
Speaking to Rolling Stone to promote his upcoming book ‘The Storyteller,’ Dave reveals that shortly after his Washington, D.C. band Scream broke up, he was offered the gig in GWAR — and that given the band’s notoriety at the time, he almost took it.
“GWAR were looking for a drummer, and I talked to their guitar player Dewey about it,” remembered Dave. “And he’s, like, ‘It’s great, and you get to design your own costume.’ As drummer, you don’t want something that covers your face fully. You want your arms to be free. So I was, like, ‘Cool.’ So I started kind of drawing this thing. At the time GWAR was a band that would draw like 700 people, right? Which is huge.”
In the end, Dave turned down the gig for the same reason most of us would: he couldn’t take all those alien cumshots every night and look at himself in the mirror in the morning.
“The more I thought about it, [the more I thought], ‘Am I really gonna invite my uncle to see me play when there’s like fake blood and cum shooting all over the place?”
We can’t help but feel that Dave doesn’t regret the decision. Hear more of Dave’s stories below:
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Words by Chris Krovatin
