After Nirvana disbanded, Dave Grohl was lost.
During an interview for the Foo Fighters documentary Grohl talked about how his depression led him to the Foos saying
“I didn’t want to play music. I didn’t want to play the drums. Then I said, I’m gonna get out of this funk that I’ve been in for the past few months. I decided to take my favorite songs that I wrote and record them.”
In the middle of the sessions, Grohl got a call to play with one of his idols.
Grohl mentioned a strange phone call saying
“This voice on the phone saying that Tom Petty wants me to play drums with him. I’m like what’s he calling me for? He couldn’t find a good drummer. It was the first gig that I played since Nirvana had ended.”
While Grohl played like a champ, he mentioned there being some technical difficulties. When talking to the crew, Petty handled the stage hand in the best way according to Grohl saying,
“The stage director begged Tom to move the cymbal and he said ‘Fine. But it’s gonna fuck it all up. As we played the first song, there was a squeal of feedback. The poor guy slinked up there and Tom said in his Southern drawl ‘What did I just tell you? Now put it back.’
Even though Grohl loved the experience was offered a gig, keyboardist Benmont Tench encouraged Grohl to go out on his own saying,
“He played me this little cassette he’d been working on. It was the first Foo Fighters record. I was like ‘Shit Dave, you should do that.’ He had too much energy and too much talent to just be the drummer for our band.”
Despite Foos’ success, Grohl talked about getting nervous about rejecting Petty’s offer to go full time saying,
“I just remember putting the phone down after calling Tom and just thinking. Okay, we’ll see what happens.”
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