Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl recently joined in for an interview with ABC News, and he was asked to describe his first reaction after he met David Bowie, who is one of Grohl’s biggest musical heroes.
Dave Grohl recalls his first meeting with David Bowie
Grohl eventually got to know The Thin White Duke a little bit better – and even played a cover of “Hallo Spaceboy” on Madison Square Garden in 1997 as part of Bowie’s 50th birthday celebrations. It was the first time that Grohl got to see the legendary musician was marked by intense fanboying on Grohl’s side. He said:
“Oh, my God. Well, you know, I remember the first time I saw David Bowie in person was at a festival in England that he was headlining, we were lower down on the bill. And I stood in the photo pit and looked at him and it was like seeing an alien. You know, it was like seeing a UFO for the first time, like, ‘Oh, my God, it’s real’. That’s, something I’ve never seen before.”
Grohl then revealed how he got the opportunity to record a song with his idol. He also revealed his experience when he saw Bowie in front of the microphone as he began to sing as well:
“And then getting to meet him – all of that feeling coming down to Earth, realizing, ‘Oh, my God, what a gentleman! What a brilliant, sweet, kind, outrageously funny person!’ And then I recorded a song with him. This [was] years ago, and watching him step in front of a microphone and begin to sing and you realize, ‘Wow, that voice – that’s real, that just comes out of his mouth, that iconic voice!'”
The track was a cover of “I’ve Been Waiting For You” from Neil Young’s 1968 solo debut. The cover appeared on Bowie’s 23rd album “Heathen” from 2002, which saw Dave Grohl playing the guitar.