Dave Grohl Says Nandi Bushell Is as Inspiring as a Beatles Record
If you're unfamiliar with Nandi Bushell, Dave Grohl has some advice for you — watch her play the drums. The Foo Fighters frontman has compared watching her perform to listening to any album by legendary acts such as The Beatles.
Grohl and Bushell's ties go back to the summer of 2020 when the youngster challenged him to a drum competition. The rockers went back and forth in a few viral videos before video chatting and planning to write a song together.
A year after their initial interaction, Foo Fighters invited Bushell to play "Everlong" on the drums during their show at the Forum in Los Angeles. Taylor Hawkins stepped aside to allow her to have the spotlight.
In a recent conversation with Rolling Stone, Grohl expressed his admiration for Bushell.
"If you want to see the true meaning of rock 'n' roll, watch Nandi play the drums. That is as inspiring as any Beatles record, any Zeppelin record, any AC/DC record, any Stones record," he said.
"To watch her play the drums and see her passion and belief in this music… If that doesn’t inspire you, I don’t know what will. So, the fact that we got to share a moment with her onstage makes all of this worthwhile. And the funniest thing is, after jamming with Nandi, 'Everlong' went back on the charts."
As of the week ending Sept. 11, "Everlong" reached No. 11 on Billboard's Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart, also hit No. 2 on the Hot Hard Rock Songs chart and landed at No. 17 on the Hot Alternative Songs chart.
Further evidence of Bushell's badassery is that she became the youngest person in history to have a cover story in Modern Drummer Magazine earlier this year. In a video she posted about the story, she shared clips from several rock and metal drummers praising her talent, including Slipknot's Jay Weinberg, Rage Against the Machine's Brad Wilk, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam's Matt Cameron and more.