Dave Grohl Says ‘We Hugged And Cried’ As He Tells The Story Of How Pat Smear Retured To Foo Fighters

Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl talked about his feelings about the departure and return of guitarist Pat Smear during a recent appearance on Zane Lowe.

As you might remember, Pat Smear decided to leave the band in 1997 because of the exhaustion following the tough schedule. However, he returned to the band in 2005, and in total, he recorded five albums with the band.

In the conversation, Dave mentioned the time when Pat talked about his departure and admitted that it was really tough for him because they just released the second album together.

Furthermore, Dave revealed that he really begged Pat on his knees and asked him to stay. According to Dave’s statement, they hugged and cried when Pat returned to the band in 2005.

Zane Lowe asked:

“When Pat decided to leave, just what kind of hole that left for you? Not just your friend, but just the energy, and charisma on stage.”

Dave Grohl replied:

“That was a tough one – that was really tough. And it was really early on, it was before the second record even came out that he decided he didn’t want to do it anymore.

When we started the band, we didn’t really have a plan, we just knew that we wanted to play. And we played as many shows as we could, we put thousands of miles on our van, it was a solid year and a half of just constant touring. And it really took a lot out of us.

As much as it inspired us, I think that we had sort of waded in so deep we realized this is not just doing gigs on the weekend, this is something else. And that was something Pat had never really experienced, even when Pat joined Nirvana.”

He continued:

“By the time he joined Nirvana, we were on a tour where we were on buses and doing three shows a week to save Kurt’s voice and things like that. So we dove in headfirst with the Foos, and I think at the end of it, it seemed like, ‘OK, we’re doing this again, this is serious.’

He basically said, ‘I’m just not really into it anymore.’ And to be perfectly honest, I was on my knees, literally on my knees, begging him to stay. I cried, I begged him to stay because I didn’t know if I could do it without him.

And he very kindly said, ‘I’m just not into it, dude. Like you can’t make someone love you, you can’t change someone’s mind.’ And so I realized that. But the beginning of this band represented something more than music to me.”

Dave Grohl added:

“It was a continuation of life after losing everything, and I thought I can’t stop here, I have to keep going, I started this band to keep going, and now I have to keep going.

And when he left the band, there was a void there, there was a big hole that we couldn’t necessarily fill, but we just kept going. And then years later we reunited, and we hugged, and cried, and said, ‘That was stupid, let’s go!’ And that was a long time ago.”

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