Given she’s only 10 years old, Nandi Bushell has had a remarkable run of encounters with some of the music industry’s biggest figures, from Lenny Kravitz to Tom Morello. Her latest achievement? Having Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl write an entire song about her.
Back in August, Bushell posted a drum cover of the Foo Fighters’ Everlong, inviting Grohl to a drum-off. Grohl swiftly responded with his own drum performance of the song - the first time he’d played it on a drum set since he recorded the hit in 1997.
After inviting Bushell to play Dead End Friends by Them Crooked Vultures, which she duly did, Grohl conceded defeat, but warned, “Buckle up, cuz I have something special in mind…”
That “something special” was, in fact, a specially recorded song written entirely about Bushell, where Grohl hails her as “the best drummer in the world” and “the Queen of Rock ’n’ Roll”.
The Foo Fighters man handles drums, guitars, bass and vocals on the track, accompanied by The Grohlettes, aka Grohl’s daughters Harper, Violet and Ophelia.
Bushell’s going to have to produce something pretty special to compete with that…
This year, Bushell went viral after covering Rage Against the Machine’s Guerrilla Radio on guitar, bass and drums in support of Black Lives Matter, a performance that was hailed by Tom Morello, who went on to gift her his signature Fender Soul Power Stratocaster. Bushell promptly used the guitar for a hard-rocking Audioslave cover.
“It’s not like she just plays the songs well... it’s more than that,” Morello told us. “Her cover of Cochise blew my mind!”