Dave Grohl "didn’t expect" Foo Fighters to "pick up where Nirvana left off".
The 50-year-old rocker has admitted he was against joining another band as drummer after the death of late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain – who took his own life in 1994, aged just 27 – as he didn’t want to be reminded of the grunge band and also didn’t see himself becoming a frontman either.
He told The Guardian newspaper: "I never imagined I would be the singer of a band.
"After Nirvana ended, I didn’t wanna play music.
"I sure as f*** didn’t wanna go be someone’s drummer.
"I knew that it would remind me of Nirvana. I’m very proud. Nirvana changed my life for ever but there were times when I wanted to escape it."
The ‘Learn to Fly’ hitmaker – who also drummed in Queens of the Stone Age between 2001 and 2002 – admitted that it was painful even listening to music let alone playing it, until one day he found being in the studio reinvigorating.
He continued: "Just picking up an instrument or turning on a radio made me so sad.
"Then I realised that doing the thing I’d always done – go to a basement, record by myself – might restart my heart."
Grohl also recalled being kissed by Kurt when he showed him Foo Fighters’ track ‘Alone + Easy Target’, which he wrote in 1992 after Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ tour, and admitted it was the first time he’d ever really felt "validated" by his bandmates.
He recalled: "He [Kurt] was having a bubble bath.
"I went back in and he kissed me! That might have been the only time I ever felt validated by the band."
On not expecting Foo Fighters to be as big as the ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ hitmakers, Grohl added: "I didn’t imagine I was gonna pick up where Nirvana left off.
"I didn’t imagine myself to be Freddie Mercury.
"I made 100 cassettes and handed them to friends.
"I called it Foo Fighters because I didn’t want people to think I was trying to be Tom Petty."
Dave Grohl didn’t expect Foo Fighters to be as big as Nirvana
