Meet the Irish hitchhiker who might be the reason for the Foo Fighters’ existence
Dave Grohl stopped for him in the summer of 1994
The identity of a hitchhiker who spurred Dave Grohl to form a new band in the wake of Kurt Cobain’s death and the end of Nirvana has been revealed.
Grohl had previously told the story in an interview, recounting how devastated he had been and how, in a bid to escape the media circus that had blown up, he traveled to rural Ireland to do some soul-searching.
He was travelling across rural Ireland when he noticed a young hitchhiker on a remote country road.
Stopping to pick the young man up, Grohl saw that the hitcher was wearing a Nirvana T-shirt.
He said in the interview: "It was Kurt's face looking back at me, in the middle of nowhere, and I realised, I can't outrun this, I need to get back home and get back to 'f---ing work. And so I did."
Now the hitchhiker, finally identified as Lorcan Dunne, has told his own version of the story in a video clip posted by his cousin Eoin Tighe.
Eoine wrote: “So my legend of a cousin Lorcan just realised he was kind of important to the creation of Foo Fighters. He saw a video by Dave Grohl talking about why he got back to work after a visit to Ireland. Lorcan was out hitchhiking wearing his nirvana top when Dave stopped.”
In the video, they intersperse Lorcan’s story with snippets from the Dave Grohl interview.
Lorcan explains: “I saw a car there so I thought I’d run up and hitch. When I was hitching, I looked for who was sitting in the passenger seat, but it was David Grohl!”
He added: “I didn’t recognise him firstly, but I saw this look of shock on the guy’s face. I had a Nirvana t-shirt on with Kurt Cobain on it. It was black tie-dye with Kurt where he has mascara on his face. Next thing, the car just tore off away. Nobody believed me.
“Then about two weeks ago, I saw this video of Dave Grohl talking about him being in the Ring of Kerry and touring around the area. And I was like, ‘There you go, that was me!’”
“So you made the Foo Fighters!” one friend shouts to a big cheer.