Dave Grohl has had a busy few days, first releasing a cover of Nine Inch Nails’ Piggy with St. Vincent, and then performing on Saturday Night Live with the Foo Fighters, where they unveiled a new song Shame Shame, the lead track from their upcoming studio album, Medicine at Midnight.
Now the drummer, singer and electric guitar player has made his biggest move yet, coming face-to-face (through a computer screen, at least) with Nandi Bushell, the 10-year-old drumming sensation with whom the Foo Fighters frontman has been “battling” for the past few months.
And the two have agreed to lay down their drumsticks (or, more appropriately, pick them back up) and write and record a song together.
The Grohl/Bushnell drama reaches back to August, when the 10-year-old posted a drum cover of the Foo Fighters’ Everlong and invited Grohl to a drum-off.
Grohl took her up on the challenge, posting his own drum performance of the song – the first time he’d played Everlong on the kit since recording it in 1997.
Grohl then invited Bushell to play Them Crooked Vultures’ Dead End Friends, which she handily did. Afterward, he admitted defeat, but warned Bushell, “Buckle up, ‘cuz I have something special in mind…”
The something special was an original song about Bushell, titled The Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll. Not to be outdone, Bushell then responded with her own original jam, Rock and Grohl.
Which brings us to the present, with the two drumming legends finally meeting, via a Zoom call put together by The New York Times.
During the chat, Grohl admits that he hasn’t been behind the kit in a while, and he’s gotten a bit rusty. "I realized I’ll never be as good as you so I just quit playing drums,” he tells Bushell.
“Well, just practice, practice, practice,” she responds.
In addition to writing a song together, Grohl also invited Bushell to join the Foo Fighters onstage the next time the band plays in the UK.
“Meeting Mr. Grohl was one of the best experiences of my life!,” Bushell wrote on YouTube. “Dave Grohl is so awesome, kind and friendly! I can’t believe he wants to write a song with me and asked me to perform on stage with the @Foo Fighters! How EPIC is that!”
