“I’d go back to my mother’s house and sleep in my childhood bed and feel like life is still real”: Dave Grohl on coping with Nirvana’s sudden mainstream success
Sudden, world-conquering success might sound like the dream for any musician – but for 22-year-old Dave Grohl, that reality quickly became overwhelming.
In a new interview, the former Nirvana drummer opens up about anxiety and coping with fame at the height of the band’s explosion. Speaking in a recent chat with Logan Kelly on Logan Sounds Off, the Foo Fighters frontman reflects on just how disorienting Nirvana’s sudden mainstream success was.
READ MORE: “I was afraid of silence, of having to feel”: Dave Grohl admits he used music as a “crutch” after Taylor Hawkins’ death
“We didn’t think that it would be as popular as it became,” Grohl begins. “But I knew that the songs were so good. Kurt [Cobain] wrote amazing songs. His voice was so amazing and as a band we made this crazy noise and so I knew that it was special but I didn’t really think anyone else would understand the way that we did.”
“So when it became hugely popular it kind of freaked us all out. We were not expecting that to happen and it’s a lot to deal with. We were young too. I think I was 22 years old and I didn’t have much life behind me at that point. So yeah, it kind of freaked us all out.”
As the band’s profile grew, so did the pressure and the scale of what they were dealing with.
“It got to the point where I would have anxiety,” the guitarist explains. “The shows were getting bigger and I was nervous about that. Crazy shit was happening – shows were turning into riots.”
To cope, Grohl found himself retreating to something far removed from the chaos of Nirvana at their peak: “Whenever I had that anxiety or felt uncomfortable with it I would just go back to Virginia to my mother’s house and I would sleep in my childhood bedroom and hang out with my buddies from high school and be like ‘okay well life is still real.’ Like there’s still real life here.”
“I think everybody needs that,” he adds. “I think Kurt maybe didn’t have that and being the front person of the band he really did bear the brunt and responsibility of whatever it was. That could be difficult for anybody, especially at a young age. But I’ve always kind of relied on that.”
These days though, Grohl says he’s found a different kind of safety net – one built within his own band.
“It’s funny now as a band since we’ve been together for so long, just as I would lean on or retreat to my family when I was young, I can do that now with our band. We’ve just been together for so long that if I’m losing my fucking mind and the band is really busy and things are crazy, I can sort of step into the band instead of out of it for comfort.”
Elsewhere in the chat, the Foo Fighters leader also reveals his newfound fascination with Quebec rock duo Angine de Poitrine, noting how their music “absolutely blew my fucking mind.”
Watch the full interview below.
The post “I’d go back to my mother’s house and sleep in my childhood bed and feel like life is still real”: Dave Grohl on coping with Nirvana’s sudden mainstream success appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
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