Dave Grohl recalled the moment early in his career when he was unexpectedly chosen to perform with Iggy Pop.
Long before his success with Nirvana or the Foo Fighters, Grohl played in the Washington, D.C. punk band Scream. “I was a professional musician making $7 a day, fuckin’ rolling around in some rust bucket with six other stinky dudes,” he explained during a conversation with Howard Stern. “It was fuckin’ great, dude.”
During one tour stop, the band happened to be early for their gig. While killing time, Grohl was suddenly approached with an amazing opportunity.
“We had six hours before we were gonna play,” Grohl recalled. “So I’m just sitting there waiting and this guy comes up to the window (knocks). ‘Who’s the drummer?’”
Initially, his reaction was hesitant. “I’m like, ‘Oh fuck. What did I do?’” Instead of starting trouble, the man gave Grohl an offer: “He said, ‘Do you want to play drums with Iggy Pop?’”
Grohl was already a great admirer of Pop by this point in his life, having carefully studied the punk icon’s work. Naturally, the chance to play with such a legend was a no-brainer.
“I walked in there and there was Iggy with a guitar,” Grohl recalled. “He was performing, but he didn’t have a band. And he said, ‘Do you know my music?’ I said, ‘Absolutely.’ I sat down and he started playing ‘1969’ or ‘I Wanna Be Your Dog’ and it was like, it sounded amazing. It was just the two of us.”
The duo ran through a couple more songs before Pop turned to Grohl and said, ‘Okay, we’re on at six o’clock.’”
“I was like, ‘Oh, you want to do this in front of people,’” the drummer responded.
“And for that one night, that, to me, that was the first time I ever felt like making it,” Grohl confessed. “And if it was the last time, I would have been fuckin’ good. Because not only was I jamming with Iggy, but record company people, they thought we were his band. So they were coming up like, ‘Could we get you anything?’ And I realized like, ‘Oh my god. I could have anything I fuckin’ want right now!’ And two hours later, it was over. I was back in the fuckin’ van with my stinky friends in the fuckin’ sleeping bag.”
Watch Dave Grohl Recall the Night He Played With Iggy Pop
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