How a hitchhiker changed Dave Grohl’s life forever
Even from early on, Dave Grohl lived a storied life. From being a teenage drumming prodigy in the hardcore punk outfit Scream to conquering the world with Nirvana, by the time he was 22, Grohl had achieved things that are unobtainable to most musicians. Since then, he’s fronted Foo Fighters while also playing in a supergroup with Led Zeppelin legend John Paul Jones and Queens of the Stone Age leader Josh Homme.
Of course, the most famous and consequential chapter of Grohl’s career was in Nirvana. He proved to be the missing link for the band’s founders, Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic. With Dave Grohl in tow, they refined their formula and broke out in 1991 with their second studio album, Nevermind.
The definitive grunge masterpiece, Nevermind set the genre on a different path, re-energising the movement in a flash. Featuring classics such as ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ and ‘In Bloom’, not since The Beatles had a rock band pierced the mainstream so greatly, and with it came considerable commercial success, but also an extreme level of fame seldom seen for a non-pop group.
Following Nevermind, Nirvana released the hotly anticipated follow-up, the much darker In Utero, in 1993, which was also a significant hit. However, not long after, things would take a tragic turn for the trio in April 1994, when Cobain took his own life after struggling with heroin addiction, mental health issues, and the various stresses inherent to being a generation’s ultimate icon.
Both Grohl and Novoselic were broken after the death of Cobain and the end of Nirvana. As is well documented, Grohl almost quit music and took an extended time away as he dealt with the mass of emotions that came with losing his friend. He would eventually return and write the first Foo Fighters record and open himself up to a fruitful career, but for a time, it looked as though he was to step away from music for good.
That was until Grohl came across a hitchhiker in Ireland. This twist of fate occurred when Grohl was soul-searching and turned out to change his life forever. He revealed the anecdote when appearing on The Graham Norton Show in 2021.
After the host put it to Grohl that after Cobain died, he was “giving up” and “tried to escape”, the Foo Fighters leader said: “I did. I wasn’t sure what to do with my life. I couldn’t even listen to music. I didn’t want to turn on the radio. I put my instruments away. I didn’t… It hurt too much to listen to music, so I thought, ‘I’m going to go to one of my favourite places in the world,’ one of the most remote areas I could find. Just to go out and, like, soul search and find myself. So I went to the Ring of Kerry.”
Met by the Irish host with excitement that he chose one of the country’s most scenic areas, “It’s absolutely beautiful”, Grohl replied. Although he did caveat his point by saying that “of course”, it wasn’t nice weather.
At one point during his trip, Grohl was driving down a country road, and it was there that he encountered a hitchhiker who would change his life for the better. He recalled: “So I’m driving down this country road, am I’m, like, trying to figure out my life and trying to move on, and I see a hitchhiker, and he’s in a parka, and it’s kind of maybe raining a little and as I’m pulling up to him I think, ‘I’m gonna pick this kid up. He’s got a far way to go.’ And I got closer and closer, and I saw he had a Kurt Cobain T-shirt on, and I thought, ‘Even in the most remote area I could possibly find, I can’t outrun this thing.’ And I thought, ‘OK. I’m gonna go home, and I’m gonna start over.’ And I started the Foo Fighters.’
Watch the clip below.
