Foo Fighters: Back and Forth

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We must adjust to changing times...

...execute the office of President

of the United States...

I challenge a new generation

of young Americans...

My biggest fantasy when I was a kid

was that I would go to see

my favorite band play,

and someone would come out and say,

"Sorry, the band can't play tonight,

their drummer broke his f***in' leg.

"Unless there's someone

that knows all the songs... "

Then, of course, I would jump up

and be the greatest drummer in the world.

I fantasized about that.

With Nirvana, the process

of making the music

was so entirely simple and pure and real.

Kurt was a great lyricist,

he had a beautiful voice,

and he wrote really simple songs.

There were things I learned about songwriting

from being in a band with Kurt

that I don't think anyone else

could have taught me.

That record, Nevermind, came out

almost a year to the day

after I had joined the band.

This song is called Smells Like Teen Spirit.

Before Dave had joined the band,

there was a message on my

answering machine from Kurt, saying,

"Butch! We have the best drummer in the

world! He's the greatest drummer in the world.

"I'm not kidding you. He's awesome, dude!"

And he hung up.

About a week later we were in LA

and I walked into a rehearsal space with him.

And Dave walked up - skinny, long hair...

"Hey, man, I'm Dave. Nice to meet you. "

He was just full of energy.

I was like, "Let's play.

Play me some songs, you guys. "

And they played Teen Spirit.

Dave did the...

...and it just floored me.

Of course, everybody was telling the band

that they thought we were great,

but I don't think the three of us ever believed

a word of anything anyone was telling us.

We never thought we were gonna sell

a million records.

None of us had any idea that it was gonna

completely change my life and their lives.

But I knew that they sounded really tight

and pretty focused,

and that they had written

some amazingly powerful songs.

We knew something was happening

because the atmosphere of the gigs

just changed.

They went from being cool, hipster,

underground people in a club

to, like...

jocks were coming to the show.

That was the first thing, like,

"Oh my God, there's jocks here,"

you know?

"That's kind of strange.

They like our music?

"You used to kick my f***ing ass

for listening to this music. "

I was a really big fan of Nirvana,

like everybody else,

and I happened to be reading

an interview with Kurt

where he had mentioned,

Nirvana was always meant to be a four-piece,

a two-guitar band.

It was never meant to be a three-piece.

I thought, "Oh, well that's my in. "

Pat is from this legendary punk rock band

called the Germs

that we all grew up listening to.

There was no one more badass

than the Germs.

Germs didn't give a f***.

So Pat shows up in Seattle,

and all of us were just like,

"Oh my God, hey, it's Pat Smear

from the Germs.

"He's alive?"

So now Nirvana is hitting the big halls,

with guitarist Pat Smear

helping to make the loud louder.

The day before the first rehearsal

I saw my picture on MTV News, saying,

"Nirvana has a new guitar player, Pat Smear. "

I was like, "My God, it's real! There it is!"

I don't think Kurt wanted to be

a huge f***in' rock star.

And I don't think he could handle

how complicated it had all become.

No one was very happy with the tour,

or the band.

So Kurt decided he wants a break,

even though we're on this tour

you can't get out of,

because you're a big band

and you get sued.

We had, like, a week and a half off

in between two legs of the tour.

I decided to fly home.

And Kurt went to Rome, where he was

meeting Courtney Love, his wife.

Hi, I'm Tabitha Soren, with MTV News.

Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain

was hospitalized in a coma in Rome, Italy

on Friday morning...

I turn on the TV, and Kurt was being

wheeled away in an ambulance in Rome.

I went to the hospital with him, and I didn't

know what to do, because I thought,

"Do I say, this is Kurt Cobain,

take care of him right away, VIP,"

or do I say, "This is just some guy,

don't call the press"?

I finally went with, "This is Kurt Cobain, VIP.

Do something about it. "

Nirvana spokespeople reported

encouraging signs,

saying they've been told Kurt Cobain

was responding to his name,

opening his eyes,

and squeezing his wife's hand.

When he came home,

I remember talking to him on the phone,

and saying, "Hey man,

I don't want you to die, OK?"

And he was very apologetic,

"No, I'm sorry, it was a big mistake.

"I took these pills, I was drinking

this champagne and I was in Rome...

"It was, just a...

just made a mistake. "

It was really sad. I had a message

from Kurt, but I wasn't home.

And so whatever help he needed from me,

I couldn't help him.

And that was the last time

I ever talked to him or saw him.

When I found out that he had killed himself...

I was kind of numb.

I knew that it...

He was gone,

but I didn't know how to feel.

Kurt Cobain, a sweet and gifted man,

dead at the age of 27.

To Courtney Love,

one-year-old Frances Bean Cobain,

Dave Grohl, Kris Novoselic and Pat Smear,

our deepest sympathies.

Everybody knew Kurt was in a bad way,

but that's something

you never expect to happen.

When someone is that down and out

you still can't comprehend that they're

actually gonna commit suicide.

It was terrible.

After Kurt died, I didn't wanna play music.

I didn't wanna play the drums.

When Kurt died,

it wasn't just that my friend died.

It was my whole life kinda died around it

and with him, you know?

And I quit the music business.

At some point, I was finally motivated.

"I'm gonna get myself out of this funk

I've been in for the last eight months. "

Or whatever it was, you know?

I decided that I was gonna take

my favorite songs

that I'd written over the last four or five years

that no one had heard...

and I was going to record them...

...at a 24-track studio

down the street from my house.

And it was really exciting,

because I was doing it totally by myself.

I didn't know why I was doing it.

I just wanted to do something, you know?

So I booked a week at the studio,

and at the end of the week, I had a cassette,

and it sounded good.

And I started thinking,

"I won't put my name on it.

"People will imagine it's just a band.

"They won't know it's the guy from Nirvana. "

In the middle of that session,

I get a call at the studio

that Tom Petty wants me to come

play drums for him on Saturday Night Live.

I just thought,

"Oh my God, he's a hero of mine. "

And I had the opportunity to join the band

if I wanted to join the band.

I really had to kind of choose.

Was I going to play drums with Tom Petty,

or was I gonna start over from scratch

and be the lead singer

and guitar player of a band,

do something I'd never done before,

that I was terrified doing?

Believe me, it was not easy to tell Tom Petty

that I wasn't going to be his drummer.

It was not an easy decision to make.

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