Dave Grohl on Transitioning From Drummer to Frontman, Compared Himself to Fellow ’90s Dark Horse

When Dave Grohl embarked on a solo career following the tragic death of his former Nirvana bandmate, Kurt Cobain, the multi-instrumentalist shocked audiences with his frontman skills—and he wasn’t the only 1990s underdog to do so. As Grohl’s transition showed, watching someone go from behind the kit to the front of the stage could be quite a surprise for fans.

Grohl said his transition from Nirvana drummer to Foo Fighters frontman wasn’t all that different from Kim Deal’s transition from Pixies bassist to solo artist.

Dave Grohl Compares His Frontman Transition to Kim Deal

Dave Grohl and Kim Deal have a connection in more ways than one. When the time came to record the Foo Fighters’ sophomore release, The Colour and the Shape, Grohl specifically sought out the help of producer Gil Norton based on his work with the Pixies’ Trompe le Monde. A big fan of the Pixies, Grohl always believed that band could have easily overtaken Nirvana’s place at the forefront of the 1990s alternative movement.

Other than the fact that the Pixies are a decidedly great band, Grohl’s affinity for the Boston-based band makes sense due to the similarities between himself and Kim Deal, the Pixies’ bassist. “I think one of the similarities between me and Kim is that we weren’t the principal songwriters in the band. And the principal songwriters of each respective band were kind of genius, you know?” Grohl told the Montreal Mirror in 1997.

“I thought Kurt was amazing,” Grohl continued. “I thought he was a genius. And I think that Charles [Black Francis] is a genius. So, when you’re in a bad like that, it’s not that you’re being so controlled by the person who’s the songwriter. But you don’t want to pollute the process. I didn’t want to bring songs into Nirvana because they just weren’t as good as the songs Kurt wrote. I think when you make it out of a band like that, and you do an album of your own, people are really shocked. They’ve always just considered you as part of the backing band.”

The Drummer Doesn’t Think It’s Surprising He Sounded Like Nirvana

Of course, when a band member leaves the group—even unexpectedly, as with Nirvana—they risk critics accusing them of ripping off the sound of their previous group. In his 1997 conversation with the Montreal Mirror, Dave Grohl defended the fact that Foo Fighters sounded similar to Nirvana. In fact, he argued, one should expect that, given the grunge band’s musical background.

“One of the reasons I joined Nirvana is because we all shared a love of the same types of music,” Grohl said. “I remember being on the phone with Kurt before I joined the band, and he asked, ‘What kind of music do you listen to?’ I said, ‘Well, I really like Neil Young, and I really like Hüsker Dü, and I love the Beatles, and I love Black Flag and the Knack and Public Enemy. I always go back to Hüsker Dü. They were one of our biggest influences.”

“My reaction to everyone who asked why the first [Foo Fighters] album sounded so much like Nirvana was just that a) the drums probably sound the same because I was the drummer of that band as well and, b) loud guitar pop-rock-punk stuff is not something that Nirvana invented, you know? There’s just nothing new about this kind of music, and it’s the kind of music I really love to play. When I get on stage and bounce around, I want it to be like it was when I was 14 in front of the Hüsker Dü stage, watching them rock out.”

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