AceShowbiz - Rocker Dave Grohl refuses to accept he is a "good drummer" because he's been lifting beats from disco legends ever since Nirvana's classic album "Nevermind".

The former Nirvana musician, who now fronts the Foo Fighters, has long been praised for his skills behind the drum kit, but Grohl insists he doesn't deserve any of the credit because he has always borrowed from icons of the disco genre - but fans have never noticed.

In a recent chat with superproducer Pharrell Williams on the rocker's latest TV series "From Cradle to Stage", he explained how he first picked up the sticks during his youth. "I wanted to be a drumline kid. But I can't read music. I couldn't then, still can't now," he shared. "All I wanted to do was be in a line of drummers all playing drums."

"I was decent, (but) I wasn't your level," Pharrell told Grohl, prompting the "Best of You" hitmaker to push back, "Stop saying that I'm a good drummer because I'm the most basic f**king drummer."

He continued to a shocked Pharrell, "If you listen to Nevermind, the Nirvana record, I pulled so much stuff from The Gap Band and Cameo and Tony Thompson (from Chic) on every one of those songs.

"It's all disco! That's all it is. Nobody makes the connection."

Realising the drum beat did sound familiar on Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit", a shocked Pharrell replied, "That's straight-up Gap Band!"

And Grohl insists he hasn't been trying to hide the fact that he was heavily inspired by disco music.

"I told Tony Thompson that," he recalled. "He came to my house for a barbecue with somebody and I was like, 'Man, I just want to thank you because I owe you so much, I've been ripping you off my whole life,' and he goes, 'I know!' "