A new book This Is A Call: The Life and Times of Dave Grohl by Paul Brannigan reveals that drummer Dave Grohl briefly quit Nirvana after overhearing Kurt Cobain bad mouth him on a flight. From NY Daily News:
Brannigan writes that in Autumn 1993, tensions within Nirvana had essentially split the band into two alienated camps, with Grohl and bassist Krist Novoselic in one, Cobain and wife Courtney Love in theother.
According to the author, the “sickness at the heart of Nirvana” became too much for Grohl to bear during a flight with the band from Seattle to Los Angeles.
On the plane, Grohl tells Brannigan “Kurt was kinda f—ed up. And I heard him talking about how s—-y a drummer I was.”
In actuality, Brannigan says, Grohl is a “magnificent” drummer whose arrival turned Nirvana into a powerful, professional rock band.”
At flight’s end, Grohl learned from Novoselic that Cobain wanted him to “play more like” Mudhoney drummer Dan Peters, who’d briefly occupied Nirvana’s throne prior to Grohl.
This was the last straw for Grohl, who called Nirvana’s tour manager Alex McLeod and told him he wanted “out” of the band.
“I just want to f—ing play music. I don’t want to have to deal with any of this craziness,” Grohl says he told MacLeod.
Fortunately, MacLeod calmed the drummer down and Grohl decided to stay.
