Dave Grohl
Dave Grohl is a popular musician, singer, and songwriter known for his role as Nirvana’s drummer from 1990-94, and the frontman of The Foo Fighters from 1994 to present. In 1994, Nirvana’s lead singer, Kurt Cobain, passed away from suicide after struggling with depression, a heroin addiction, and the pressures of fame. His death marked the abrupt end of Nirvana. Grohl was close with his band mate and was no stranger to depression and loss. He has been honest about his thoughts on the importance of reducing the stigma around seeking help for mental health. He himself has dealt with depression through years of touring and also the loss of a friend. Grohl recalls being in Europe and remembering the first time he really felt depression when, “There was one day where I couldn’t get out of bed. I started to question why we were even there.” Sadly, Grohl recalled this from the band’s last tour in 1994 before its abrupt end in early April when Cobain passed away, which started a, “confusing, lonely time,” for him. After this he was left in a hard place of trying to continue music, which he still loved, while not upsetting fans by trying to “replace” Nirvana. The turning on of a radio or picking up of an instrument made him extremely sad. Diehard Nirvana fans were less than kind over his new music endeavors when he did start, by saying things like, “How dare you be in a band again?” or, “that was a real band and you're not.” Regardless of his hesitations, and the fans, Grohl decided the obvious next step was songwriting. He, “didn't necessarily wanna be the drummer of Nirvana for the rest of [his] life without Nirvana” so he decided to try something completely new and instead of drumming, stood at the front as the lead singer of new music he had written and recorded in his basement. This was a way that he found to combine his love of music and it’s comfort in his life with his need to do something new and completely different. Over the years he has gotten more vocal about the importance of mental health. He is still hesitant to speak about his late friend, but he has stressed that while it took him a while to truly get back into music, it, “was actually the thing that always made [his] life better.”
With the recent death of the Foo Fighters’ drummer Taylor Hawkins, people are looking to Grohl and his bandmatest. Grohl has not made much of an official statement about Hawkins passing, but has been seen crying upon his return to LAX and has previously stated that Hawkins’ last overdose almost led to him getting ready to, “quit music.” When Kurt Cobain passed away, Grohl had said how, “For years I couldn’t even listen to any music, let alone a Nirvana song.” Even now he struggles with listening to Nirvana’s music. Healing from a loss can take a long time and is not the same from person to person. He has come a long way from not being able to listen to any of their music. As of October 2021, Grohl played the drums to the original recording of Smells Like Teen Spirit with Cobain’s vocals.This was not easy, in an interview with Far Out Magazine, Grohl talks about how he coped with one of his, “biggest lows,” of his life by living by the mentality that, “eventually, you come to terms with things… but I don’t know, really. You just have to try to be positive.”
https://people.com/music/inside-foo-fighter-dave-grohl-25-year-bond-with-taylor-hawkins/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKU1HXMZYm4
https://www.nme.com/news/music/foo-fighters-dave-grohl-depression-2141293