A TIL Reddit post has gained popularity in the last couple of days titled: “TIL that the Nirvana drummer / Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl once filled in for a sick drummer of the band Cage The Elephant. He had one day to learn the songs after only hearing them a few times and played them perfectly.”
The article it linked to from Guitar World stated, “Cage The Elephant’s guitarist Lincoln Parrish told Spin that Grohl volunteered his services as soon as he heard about Champion’s condition.
“Dave somehow heard what had happened and called our tour manager. He said, ‘Hey, so do you think the guys would go for it?’ Our manager was like, ‘Um, yeah!!!””
Fans left several comments on the Reddit page, and Cage the Elephant drummer Jared Champion chimed in himself commenting, “Yep he did. My appendix blew. Now we’re best friends!” He then conversed with Reddit commenters.
RUSH513 commented:
imagine being the original drummer for CtE and the day you finally come back from being sick
“wait…. you guys got to play…. with fucking dave grohl!?!?!?”
Jared responded in three posts:
I’m the one who asked our TM if dave could fill in for me when I was drugged up on the operating table after the doc said I couldn’t go back on tour for 2 weeks. They got to play with him, but me and Dave are really close and good friends because of it! Awesome dude!! Watch that video! https://youtu.be/13fX8K0UrAU
I was the one who recommended that he fill in.
They article is wrong. Lincoln lied. I asked our TM to see if dave would fill in and he said yes. We’re best friends now.
WatcherOTWall commented:
To be fair, most professional rock drummers could probably do this. Not trying to end up on one of those r/iamverybadass subs or whatever, I’m not a drummer but I listen to a sickening amount of rock music. Most drummers can play along to whatever and pull it off. Bill Kreutzmann from the Grateful Dead would say half of the time he didn’t even know what song he was playing.
Jared responded:
offnr commented:
“Played them perfectly”
Ok now, no this is not true
Jared responded:
Correct. He sucked my drum parts up. But he’s still a great dude and a dear friend to me because of this.
AKAM80theWolff commented:
Most decent drummers with a bit of skill could do this. Cage The Elephant has pretty standard drumming.
Jared responded:
Hey now, our songs rhythms do not a irately represent my skill. FYI.
AKAM80theWolff commented:
Totally. I appreciate your style! Just saying, it would be a little more impressive if Grohl did this on a tour with Tool, or something more technical and progressive.
Jared responded:
I absolutely agree with you. I wasn’t taking offense to it either. Just clearing the air haha
baumbach19 commented:
Pretty unlikely he played them “perfectly”….more likely he played them close enough that nobody really noticed during a live show.
Jared responded:
He didn’t. He sucked up my parts. I won’t tell him that tho.
cardinalsig commented:
Fuck the haters Jared! You kick ass bro! Next time you’re in Louisville let’s catch a Cards game!
Jared responded:
It’s all good. There’s not 1 band, musician, actor, performer that pleases everyone. I don’t mind it. Lovers or haters are all uniquely human in their personal tastes. Makes for great debates.
The_BazzaliskMelophobia commented:
So the question is – is Dave a god or is Jared easily replaceable?
Jared responded:
Not replaceable. No one else on earth, great drummer or not, can deal with these fools in my band on the daily. I love them like brothers. They are my brothers, but god damn they’re idiots sometimes. There’s so much more to being in a band than being good at your instrument or just playing music for that matter.
