Dave Grohl Recalls Teenage Mushroom Trip at His Mom’s Christmas Party

Dave Grohl shared one of his favorite Christmas stories while speaking with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, recalling one holiday party during his teenage years when he took magic mushrooms at his mom’s house.

"At my house. I don't know when this tradition started. It started maybe when I was like 13 years old or 14 years old. I grew up in a house that was really small and every Christmas night people just knew to come over to the Grohl's little house,” the Foo Fighters frontman began. “We would all just sit around and listen to music and drink and stuff like that. By the time I was like 14 or 15, now I'm in a punk rock band, my punk rock friends are coming over. Then my mom's teacher friends are coming over and then my sister…”

“So this one year, God I shouldn't be telling this story. This one year, I think I was like 15 or something like that. My friend gave me mushrooms for Christmas, right? I'd never taken them before. So I thought, 'Okay, I probably shouldn't take them at this party because all of my mother's friends are coming over.' Right? They're teachers at the school that I go to, I know these people. I'd known for a long time. So my friend gives me all these mushrooms. I think, 'I'll take a little bit before the party.' Did. I was out of my fucking mind. Right? So much so, one of the teachers from the school pulled me into the bathroom at one point and was like, ‘Are you doing cocaine?’ I was like, ‘No, no!’”

Grohl concluded, “So then after everyone left I stayed up and tried to learn that Zeppelin song, ‘Bron-Y-Aur,’ that acoustic thing until like six o'clock in the morning. I never figured it out. I thought I figured it out, but I didn't really figure it out." [via BraveWords]

Dave just finished the final night of his Hanukkah jam series, performing songs from Jewish artists like Bob Dylan, Beastie Boys, the Velvet Underground and more alongside producer Greg Kurstin. Watch all eight performances here.