Getty Image / Leigh Vogel
The world tragically lost Kurt Cobain back in April of 1994 and Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl was reeling with the loss of one of his closest friends and bandmates.
Like many before and after him, Grohl took a trip to clear his head and sought the Emerald Isle as the destination for his respite and while on that trip, in some tiny remote down on the Kerry Ring, he passed by a young man wearing a Nirvana t-shirt and it was in that moment that Dave Grohl knew his path in life would always be music and he went on to found The Foo Fighters and win 15 Grammy Awards and be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame back in 2021 in the band’s first year of eligibility.
Here’s where this story gets wild. The random Irish guy wearing the Nirvana shirt, Lorcan Dunne, saw Dave Grohl pulling up in a car. Lorcan Dunne recognized it was Grohl but the car took off before anyone else saw who it was and for decades this guy has been going around telling people he saw Dave Grohl and nobody believed him.
Simultaneously, Dave Grohl has been telling a story of how he took this trip after the death of Kurt Cobain and wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with his life but saw this random guy in a far corner of Ireland wearing a Nirvana shirt and that led him to found The Foo Fighters. Flash forward to this past week, and Lorcan Dunne’s cousin showed him a video of Dave Grohl telling this story and it finally clicked that HE IS THE REASON DAVE GROHL FOUNDED THE FOO FIGHTERS.
Lorcan Dunne’s cousin, Eoin Tighe, shared a picture of Lorcan wearing his Nirvana shirt that day and they even made a video of Dave Grohl telling his story about going to the Ring of Kerry after Kurt Cobain passed away:
Here’s that ‘hitchhiker kid’ wearing the Nirvana t-shirt back in 1994, the reason that Dave Grohl went on to found The Foo Fighters:
So my cousin has just realised he was kind of important in the creation of the Foo Fighters. Fair play Lorcan! @Fiachmusic lorcan is now confirmed as a complete legend eh? The kid who made dave grohl get back to work #davegrohl #foofighters https://t.co/21Naq9WmEo pic.twitter.com/0kOgweyOUU
— Eoin Tighe (@eointighe) August 15, 2024
Imagine being this guy and for decades telling people you saw Dave Grohl while wearing your Nirvana t-shirt in the Ring of Kerry in Ireland’s County Kerry. For years, nobody believed you. As the the decades wore on, a few people might’ve started to believe him. This was over 30 years ago, after all.
But then you have this ‘aha’ moment where suddenly you find a story of Dave Grohl saying there was a kid at this spot wearing a Nirvana shirt and that was the reason he went on to found The Foo Fighters and suddenly after decades of people not believing you that you saw Dave Grohl you learn that you are actually THE REASON that The Foo Fighters even exist.
This is easily the wildest story in the music industry of August. It is also one of the greatest stories I’ve ever heard from Dave Grohl who is a masterful storyteller. It’s hard not to feel a sense of poetry about the world when you realize how all of this came together.