Dave Grohl Says Kurt Cobain Considered Replacing Him in Nirvana

Dave Grohl and Kurt Cobain shared a strong bond during their Nirvana years, but things turned shaky toward the end of the band's run.

Cobain's drug habit was worsening each day and adding to the strain. He was also reportedly considering replacing Grohl with another drummer for Nirvana, Grohl said, as he revisited those 1990s grunge-era days during an interview with Vulture.

He said he overhead Cobain speaking with bassist Krist Novoselic about finding another drummer.

They were on the road to Los Angeles to start rehearsals for the "In Utero" tour, which was the band's third and final album, released in 1993 when he heard their conversation.

"I was sitting a few rows ahead of Kurt and Krist. I could hear Kurt saying, 'I think we need a drummer that's more rudimental, along the lines of Dan Peters,' who was the guy they almost hired when I joined the band," Grohl said.

Cobain and Novoselic initially approached Peters to drum for them when they were first starting Nirvana, but he was already playing for the Seattle band Mudhoney. Next in line was Grohl, who got the gig.

"I was really upset because I thought things were OK," Grohl continued. "I talked to Krist, and I said, 'Is that really what you guys want to do? Because if that's what you want, maybe just let me know, and we can call it a day.' I eventually talked to Kurt about it, and he said, 'No. That's not what we want to do.'"

He added, "I just felt like, 'It's up to you guys what kind of drummer you really want,' and they decided I should stay."

Nirvana broke up after the death of Cobain, who died by a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1994. During that final year, Grohl admitted he would wake up each morning not sure "what was going to happen next." The rise to fame, he said, was "traumatic" and it impacted all of them.

"I can't speak for Kurt, and I don't usually because he's not around to speak for himself," he said. "Each of us dealt with it in different ways, but ultimately that's a hard thing to navigate."

Grohl had been writing and making music since he was a teen, but after Cobain's death, he told CNN recently that he wanted to give it all up. This is because music was "always about life and joy and celebrating that" but when his bandmate died, it came to represent the opposite.

"It broke my heart," Grohl said. "I couldn't listen to the radio. I put the instruments away. I didn’t know if I would play again."

Grohl found his way back to music though after taking a "soul-searching" trip, which helped him realize that music is "what is going to save my life now." He went on to form the Foo Fighters, which has dominated the charts over the years.

Looking back to Cobain's death, Grohl told Vulture that it taught him to appreciate life.

"It was then I realized no matter how good or bad a day, I wanted to be alive to experience it," he said. "That becomes your divining rod. I just want to get to tomorrow. I just want to f**king make it one more day."