In a new interview with “Amanpour And Company”, Dave Grohl said that the chapter about NIRVANA frontman Kurt Cobain‘s 1994 suicide in his newly released memoir “The Storyteller: Tales Of Life And Music” was the most difficult part of the book to write. Asked why he chose to write that chapter last, Grohl said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “‘Cause I was scared to write it. It’s one thing to write about getting stitches when you’re 12 years old or it’s one thing to write about taking your kids to the daddy-daughter dance, it’s another thing to write about something that you’ve barely spoken about with people close to you. I mean, I revealed some things in that story that I’ve never told my closest friends. I was scared to write it.
“First of all, I knew what people wanted me to write,” he continued. “I think that people have a lot of unanswered questions — as do I. So I decided to write in a much broader emotional sense — the process of loss or grief and mourning, and how that’s determined and how it differs from person to person. Yeah, it was a tough one to write.”
Dave also recalled how a chance encounter in Ireland gave him the motivation to restart his life and form the FOO FIGHTERS in the months following Cobain‘s death.
“After Kurt died and NIRVANA was over, our worlds were just turned upside down,” he said. “I don’t know if anyone knew how to continue or what to do next. I personally didn’t have any interest in music. I put my instruments away. It was hard for me to listen to the radio, which was very unlike me. And after a few months, I decided I would go on this kind of soul-searching trip in the middle of nowhere. I just wanted to be away from everyone and everything. So I went to one of my favorite places — the Ring Of Kerry in Ireland, where I’d been before. And it’s entirely remote; there’s nothing there. It’s just country roads and beautiful scenery. And I was there driving down a country road and I saw a hitchhiker in the distance and I thought, ‘Well, maybe I’ll pick him up.’ And as I got closer and closer, I noticed that he had a Kurt Cobain t-shirt on. So even in the middle of nowhere, I had Kurt sort of looking back at me. And that’s when I realized, ‘I can’t outrun this. I have to go home. I have to get the instruments back in my lap and I have to keep playing music because it saved my life my entire life, and I think that it might do it again.’ And I went home and started the FOO FIGHTERS.”
“The Storyteller – Tales Of Life And Music” was released on October 5 via Dey Street Books and Simon & Schuster. In the book, Grohl shares what it was like growing up as a kid with big dreams in Springfield, Virginia, and how he lived out those dreams making music on the world stage. The book features anecdotes about David Bowie, Joan Jett, Iggy Pop and Paul McCartney, as well as stories about the time he played drums for Tom Petty, went swing dancing with AC/DC, and performed at the White House.
Regarding how he chose what to include in “The Storyteller”, Grohl said in a recent trailer for the book: “I could write an entire book about the band SCREAM. I could write an entire book about my time in NIRVANA. The idea was to choose the stories that best described what it’s like to be behind the curtain and on the inside of the music, from the drum stool looking out. To play music, have this beautiful family, travel the world, meet people from all walks of life, I never take any of this for granted, believe me.”
