Why William Goldsmith hates Dave Grohl: “They dragged me through the coals”
Dave Grohl might be well known as the most affable man in rock music, but he is not impervious to criticism. Unlike many famous rock stars who leave a trail of destruction in their wake and create many enemies in doing so, there is only one man – that we know of – who has anything particularly negative to say about the Foo Fighters leader’s personality. This is the band’s original drummer, William Goldsmith.
In 1994, Goldsmith and bassist Nate Mendel were invited to join Grohl’s post-Nirvana project in a note left during one of the final shows by their original group, emo legends Sunny Day Real Estate. After a tour with Minutemen’s Mike Watt and Eddie Vedder’s side project, Hovercraft, their debut album was released, which Grohl wrote and recorded solo following the demise of Nirvana and the tragic suicide of frontman Kurt Cobain.
The album was a massive success, and the group’s star rose quickly. Yet, according to Goldsmith, as they became more prominent, so did their leader’s desire to achieve global dominance. This became creatively stifling, with him decreasingly enjoying the increasingly large venues they were playing. He also became fed up playing the same parts on songs he didn’t write. Furthermore, the pain of carpal tunnel syndrome, a nightmare for any active musician, started to rear its head.
Following a spring tour in 1996, Foo Fighters entered the studio with Gil Norton to record their highly anticipated second album. It was a fraught experience for Goldsmith, who was particularly irked by Grohl’s perfectionism. He claims he had to do 96 takes for one song and 13 hours worth of recordings for another and that, overall, he felt that his work wasn’t good enough for Grohl or anyone involved.
When the recording sessions were nearly finished, Foo Fighters took a well-earned break. Since then, Grohl has maintained that Goldsmith’s drumming had good aspects, but they were not up to his standards. Therefore, when the band regrouped in Los Angeles in February 1997, they re-recorded the album with Grohl on drums. However, suggesting that the frontman isn’t just the pleasant everyman he is known as, he didn’t tell Goldsmith that he was doing so. It took Nate Mendel to inform his old friend about the overdubs.
Furious at the betrayal and having the knife stuck in further by Grohl suggesting that he be relegated to the group’s touring drummer, Goldsmith knew it was time to leave. He was replaced by Taylor Hawkins, who became an integral part of the band until his death in 2022. What’s more, the album The Colour and the Shape has gone down as Foo Fighters’ masterpiece.
When speaking to The Daily Mail in 2017, Goldsmith recounted his plight while recording the hit 1997 album and outlined how much he hates Dave Grohl, saying he wishes he never met him. “That feeling might change if we actually sat down and talked,” Goldsmith said. “But that hasn’t happened yet.”
Despite asserting how much he gave to the project, the drummer used a dubious and offensive term to outline how Grohl’s betrayal made him feel” “creatively raped”.
He continued: “They basically dragged me through the coals. It was brutal.” Likening Grohl to a teenage bully, he added: “He was a bit like the kid who is popular but is mean and everyone likes them”.
Listen to The Colour and The Shape below.
