The band that almost made Nate Mendel leave Foo Fighters
Being a part of Foo Fighters seems like one of the best gigs any rock fan could ask for. While Dave Grohl may be responsible for most of their signature tunes, each member feels like part of the family whenever they play live or go into the studio, often making for the greatest rock and roll shows of the modern age. Even though Nate Mendel may be one of the few constants in the Foo Fighters’ development, one band almost spelt the demise of the rock legends.
Forming the group out of the ashes of Nirvana, Grohl had initially created the first Foo Fighters album as a one-man band affair, only drafting in the rest of the group when needing people to tour behind the album. While Pat Smear of Nirvana and the Germs signed on immediately, Grohl would find his rhythm section when seeing Mendel and William Goldsmith playing in the emo rock act Sunny Day Real Estate.
Although the group would be slogging it out on the road and see the first major shows of their career off the success of tracks like ‘I’ll Stick Around’, things weren’t as smooth sailing going into the album The Colour and the Shape. Being dubbed ‘the rhythmless section’ by their producer, Mendel and Goldsmith would be lambasted for their abilities, leading to Grohl overdubbing all of Goldsmith’s drum parts himself.
While that in-studio betrayal led to Goldsmith quitting the band, the fallout of the album spelt the end of the original lineup, with Smear leaving at the start of the tour and being replaced by Franz Stahl, all while Taylor Hawkins became a fixture behind the drumkit. Once it became clear that the band’s time with Stahl wouldn’t work out, Mendel nearly walked out on the band when he got a call from an old friend.
According to Mendel in the documentary Back and Forth, he had the opportunity to join his old band again, saying, “Sunny Day Real Estate had gotten back together, and I had sort of a high school crush feeling towards that project”. After calling Grohl and telling him that he was going to leave the band, Grohl had finally had enough, hanging up the phone and forcing Mendel to call everyone to tell them he was leaving.
Once Mendel started calling around to some friends, he realised that he would be making the biggest mistake of his life by leaving, eventually calling Grohl back to tell him he didn’t really want to quit. Then again, Grohl was already halfway through drinking away his feelings when he called.
After hanging up on Mendel, Grohl recalled being extremely hungover when he got the call, explaining, “Me and my friend Jimmy went out to [a bar], got fucking shitfaced, trashed my rental car, fucking threw rocks at it all night. I was stumbling back home to the bedroom that I grew up in, and my mom’s waking me up at seven in the morning going, ‘David, Nate’s on the phone’”.
Even though the band were still in pieces following Stahl’s departure, their decision to cut the next album as a trio led to them making There is Nothing Left to Lose, featuring some of the biggest hits of their career like ‘Learn To Fly’. There may have been more dark days ahead for Foo Fighters, but no matter how many setbacks they faced, that brotherhood bond would never fade away.
