Dave Grohl and David Bowie in 1997; KMazur/WireImageDave Grohl has shared the latest installment of his ongoing “Dave’s True Stories” series, this time about his relationship with the late, great David Bowie.
The tale begins with the Foo Fighters frontman receiving an email from Bowie, which read, “Well, that’s settled. Now f*** off.”
Before getting into the circumstances that produced that email, Grohl looks back at his own personal love for and history with Bowie’s music, including covering “The Man Who Sold the World” with Nirvanaon MTV Unplugged and performing with the Foos at Bowie’s 50th birthday party in 1997.
Eventually, Grohl takes us to the year 2013, when Bowie had just released new music after a nearly decade-long hiatus. Around that same time, Grohl received a pitch to write a song for a movie. He had an instrumental rattling around, and decided to ask Bowie if he’d be interested in singing on it for the film.
After a few weeks of waiting, Grohl received an email back from Bowie declining the song put added that he’d “love to collaborate on something else someday.”
Disappointed but heartened just to receive an email back from David Bowie, Grohl sent back a note thanking him for listening to the track and wishing him well. Not a minute later, he received an email back from Bowie, telling him to “f*** off.”
Unsure whether Bowie was kidding or not, Grohl tried to joke with him, and eventually realized he hadn’t actually offended the Thin White Duke.
“I could finally breathe knowing that David Bowie did not actually wish for me to “f*** off,” Grohl writes. “Or maybe he did, but in the nicest way possible, and even that was an honor.”
That exchange was the last Grohl had with Bowie, who died January 2016.
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