Dave Grohl has admitted to “ripping off” some of disco’s great drummers for his parts on Nirvana‘s legendary ‘Nevermind’.
As part of an interview with Pharrell Williams on Grohl’s new Paramount+ series From Cradle to Stage, Grohl spoke of his admiration for disco drummers from The Gap Band, Cameo, Chic and more.
“I can’t read music. I couldn’t then, and I still can’t now,” Grohl told Pharrell. “All I wanted to do was be in a line of drummers all playing drums.
“Stop saying that I’m a good drummer because I’m the most basic fucking drummer,” he added when complimented by the N.E.R.D. frontman. “If you listen to ‘Nevermind’, the Nirvana record, I pulled so much stuff from The Gap Band and Cameo and Tony Thompson [Chic] on every one of those songs. It’s all disco, that’s all it is. Nobody makes the connection.”
Grohl then went on to say that he even told Chic drummer Thompson about the level of his inspiration. “He came to my house for a barbecue with somebody,” the Foo Fighters frontman remembered. “I was like, ‘Man, I just want to thank you because I owe you so much I’ve been ripping you off my whole life.’ He goes, ‘I know.'”
See the clip below:
Super dope. Respect to artists that give their inspirations a shout. Pharrell is really big on that so it's dope that he got the exclusive. lol pic.twitter.com/3N3POZ9Sg2
— Factions2BetaTester (@CR00K__Gaming) June 30, 2021
From Cradle to Stage is Grohl’s new show with his mother Virginia, where the two learn about the relationships of six other musicians and their respective mothers.
The musician-and-mother guests set to appear on the series are Imagine Dragons‘ Dan Reynolds and Christine Reynolds, Pharrell and Dr. Carolyn Williams, Miranda and Bev Lambert, Brandi and Teresa Carlile, Rage Against The Machine‘s Tom Morello and Mary Morello, plus Rush‘s Geddy Lee and Mary Weinrib.
Elsewhere, Foo Fighters recently played a huge show at Madison Square Garden in New York, the first full-capacity arena show in the city since the start of the pandemic.
The performance was to an entirely vaccinated crowd, which led to some fans opposed to the vaccine to renounce their fandom of the group.
Shortly beforehand, the band were back in California, playing an intimate warm-up show for their return to arenas. Also performed only to vaccinated people, it led to protests outside the show from anti-vaxxers including child star Ricky Schroder.
The band are also set to play another arena show in Los Angeles this month, taking to The Forum.
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