The former Nirvana member struggled to write about his bandmate's tragic passing as it was something that he barely discussed even with his closest ones.

• Oct 22, 2021

AceShowbiz - Dave Grohl struggled to relive Nirvana bandmate Kurt Cobain's suicide while writing his new book because it's the most difficult thing he has ever experienced.

The Foo Fighters star left the chapter of "The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music", which is about Cobain's death until last, and admits he was scared to write it.

"It's one thing to write about getting stitches when you're 12 years old or it's one thing to write about taking your kids to the daddy-daughter dance, it's another thing to write about something that you've barely spoken about with people close to you," he tells Amanpour & Company. "I revealed some things in that story that I've never told my closest friends."

"I knew what people wanted me to write. I think that people have a lot of unanswered questions - as do I. So I decided to write in a much broader emotional sense - the process of loss or grief and mourning, and how that's determined and how it differs from person to person. Yeah, it was a tough one to write."

Grohl also revealed a chance encounter with a Nirvana fan in Ireland after Cobain's death gave him the courage to unpack all his musical equipment and start the Foo Fighters.

"After Kurt died and Nirvana was over, our worlds were just turned upside down," he said. "I don't know if anyone knew how to continue or what to do next. I personally didn't have any interest in music. I put my instruments away. It was hard for me to listen to the radio, which was very unlike me."

"After a few months, I decided I would go on this kind of soul-searching trip in the middle of nowhere. I just wanted to be away from everyone and everything. So I went to one of my favourite places - the Ring Of Kerry in Ireland, where I'd been before. And it's entirely remote; there's nothing there. It's just country roads and beautiful scenery. And I was there driving down a country road and I saw a hitchhiker in the distance and I thought, 'Well, maybe I'll pick him up.' And as I got closer and closer, I noticed that he had a Kurt Cobain T-shirt on."

"So even in the middle of nowhere, I had Kurt sort of looking back at me. And that's when I realised, 'I can't outrun this. I have to go home. I have to get the instruments back in my lap and I have to keep playing music because it saved my life my entire life, and I think that it might do it again.' I went home and started the Foo Fighters."