For Dave Grohl, the process of healing after Kurt Cobain‘s death doesn’t just affect him and others who surrounded the late Nirvana frontman. Instead, the restoration exists on a generational continuum since Grohl, the Nirvana drummer who now leads Foo Fighters, has to explain the death to his children.
After all, his three kids — the budding musician Violet Grohl, age 15, among them — are now all getting to be the age where they can both appreciate their dad’s former band and comprehend the consequences that ultimately led to Cobain’s death by suicide in 1994.
As excerpted in Metal Hammer on Monday (Sept. 20), Dave mentions how he shares about Cobain’s death with his children in When Nirvana Came to Britain, a new documentary about the relationship between Nirvana and their U.K. fanbase.
“I’m still processing Kurt’s death,” the Foo Fighter said, “because I have to explain it to my kids, who love Nirvana.”
Dave continued, “Because for the longest time, I would try to process it and talk about it with friends and family and things like that, and they would help me, but now I feel like I have to help my kids go through it. It’s a lifetime of healing.”
Last month, a retrospective interview sourced from a 2011 biography of the Foo Fighters bandleader found him admitting how difficult it is for him to listen to Nirvana’s final album, 1993’s In Utero.
Dave said In Utero “captured a moment in time for the band, and it’s definitely an accurate representation of the time, which was dark. It’s a fucking dark album. I don’t like listening to that record.”
He added, “It’s so real, and because it’s such an accurate representation of the band at the time, it brings back other memories. It kinda makes my skin crawl.”
Dave’s other two daughters with his wife, Jordyn Blum, are Harper (now 12) and Ophelia (7). Viewers in the U.K. can watch When Nirvana Came to Britain right now via BBC Two at bbc.co.uk.
Foo Fighters latest, Medicine at Midnight, emerged this year with the singles “Waiting on War,” “No Son of Mine” and “Shame Shame.” In October, the band will be inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame.
