"I would never say that to anyone. Isn't that awful?" What did Dave Grohl really say to David Bowie during their first meeting?] - Guitar | Technique

Dave Grohl has recalled the moment he put his foot in it and managed to inadvertently insult David Bowie.

The lead Foo Fighter was appearing on the podcast Dish From Waitrose (yes, a food podcast. Evidently, that’s where global rock stars promote their new albums these days) alongside Nick Grimshaw and chef Angela Hartnett, when conversation turned great gigs. Grohl mentioned that one of the best he’d ever seen was Bowie at a festival back in the 1990s.

“I had just seen him perform at a, like a V Festival – or something like that,” Grohl explained. “It was like Prodigy, David Bowie and we happened to be on the bill. I was standing in the photo pit and he was right there, he was right above me singing. It was otherworldly. I mean, it was like a religious experience. I was just like, ‘He’s an angel, this is amazing’.”

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David Bowie – I’ve Been Waiting For You – YouTube

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— David Bowie – I’ve Been Waiting For You

A short while afterwards Grohl met Bowie in person. This must have been around 2001 when he was invited to play guitar on a cover of the Neil Young song I’ve Been Waiting For You that ended up on Bowie’s Heathen album. “I told him when I met him in the studio, I said, ‘I just saw you, like, it was such a trip to see you in human form right there, right in front of me.’ And he says, ‘What did you think? What did you feel?’ And I’m like, ‘Oh f***.’”

He recalled: “So, the first thing to come out of my mouth, like an idiot, I said, ‘Well, the first thing I noticed was all of your imperfections’. I backpedalled so fast. I don’t know how I got out of that one. But I was like, what did I just … I would never say that to anybody. Isn’t that horrible?”

Grohl didn’t say how Bowie reacted to his faux pas, but evidently, he didn’t send the Foo Fighter on his way. Instead, Grohl got to see how the great man worked in the studio and was suitably impressed: “I swear to God, he’s one take — his voice, it’s the voice, there’s no effect. It’s just exactly like this. You get chills. You’re like, ‘Oh my God, that’s the most reassuring, beautiful thing, this is real’.”