Dave Grohl Drops In For A Surprise Appearance At Jazz Show And Plays Nirvana's 'In Bloom' For Only The Second Time Following The Death Of Kurt Cobain

Robbie Fox9/17/2018 5:50 PM

Part of me hated putting “For Only The Second Time Following The Death Of Kurt Cobain” in that headline, because it’s a bit morbid, but I think it’s an important factoid that easily gets across how big of a deal this is for longtime Nirvana/Dave Grohl fans to see.

Dave Grohl doesn’t play Nirvana songs. He has never played a Nirvana song with the Foo Fighters (except “Marigold” – a B-Side on ‘In Utero’ written and sang by Grohl himself). He’s gone on-record saying that he still has trouble even listening to Nirvana to this day because of how personal everything was for him, and how his great memory is almost a curse. In a 2018 interview, he explained, “For me, it’s so personal. I remember everything about those records; I remember the shorts I was wearing when we recorded them or that it snowed that day.”

Grohl got back behind the kit in 2014 and played a few of Nirvana’s biggest hits alongside bassist Krist Novaselic and a rotating cast of lead vocalists as part of the band’s Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony (videos at the bottom of this blog), but other than that, this jazz rendition of “In Bloom” is all we got…and you know what? I’m really cool with that. If he doesn’t feel super comfortable playing these tracks because he’s flooded with memories of Kurt Cobain, I’d never ask him to – but every now and then – it’s nice to see him smiling and having a blast returning to his throne atop the list of the greatest grunge drummers of all time.