Dave Grohl: I was scared to write about Kurt Cobain's death.

23 October 2021, 18:00

"I revealed some things in that story that I've never told my closest friends," admits the musician while talking about the subject of Nirvana in his memoir The Storyteller.

Dave Grohl has admitted that he was "scared" to write about the death of his Nirvana bandmate Kurt Cobain in his new book The Storyteller.

The Foo Fighters frontman revealed that the chapter on Cobain's suicide was left until last because he was intimidated by the subject.

He told the PBS news show Amanpour And Company: “It's one thing to write about getting stitches when you're 12 years old or it's one thing to write about you know, 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."

Dave Grohl: "I Was Scared" to Write About Kurt Cobain | Amanpour and Company

Kurt Cobain took his own life in April 1994, when Grohl was just 25 years old.

"First of all, I knew what people wanted me to write," he went on. "I think that people have a lot of unanswered questions, as do I.

"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. So yeah, it was a tough one to write."

Grohl explained how the legacy of Kurt Cobain actually helped him to come to terms with his own grief and sense of loss in the period following his bandmate's death.

He explained: "After a few months, I decided I would go on this soul-searching trip to find the middle of nowhere, to be away from everyone and everything. So I went to one of my favourite places, the Ring of Kerry in Ireland. It's entirely remote, there's nothing there. It's just country roads and beautiful scenery.

"I was driving down a country road and I saw a hitch hiker in the distance and I thought, maybe I'll pick 'em up. 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 realised, I can't outrun this. I have to go home."

Dave Grohl tells Chris Moyles about his new book

Grohl reflected on his former friend and bandmate and explained why he thought Cobain's music had endured. “I think that his simplicity, and the beautiful, direct language in his lyrics - which I would consider poetry - his specific lens, his perspective on life.

"He was very open to writing about his own pain, which I think millions of people could relate to and connect with... Because it was just him, that was it.”

Dave Grohl's memoir The Storyteller is out now.