Dave Grohl plunged into various states of despair listening to early Foo Fighters demos

A fresh hilarious outtake from Foo Fighters’ 2014 HBO documentary mini-series Sonic Highways has emerged online.

Author: Scott ColothanPublished 18th Jul 2017

The six-minute clip sees Dave Grohl sit down with Foo Fighters producer and his friend of 34 years Barrett Jones at Laundry Room Studios to cast their cochleas on early Foo Fighters demos. 

However, as the sounds of a young Grohl emerge from the studio's 8-track, Dave seems to be plunged into an existential crisis at some of his earlier musical experiments.

First up is the Nirvana-Lite ‘Watered It Down’, which ends with an “interesting and weird” repetitive vocal refrain. Preparing Dave before his cringeworthy vocals kick in, Jones says "This is, like, you never finished it... The end would get all silly".

Barrett then unleashes the decidedly heavier ‘Slackers Password’ which features some bizarre spoken word shoutouts over the intro. With nods to Pixies and Nirvana, the track seems to puzzle Dave for much of its duration, although after the playback he nods saying, "I kind of... remember that now?"

What makes the six-minute outtake a joy to watch is Dave’s grimaces and uncomfortable facial expressions as, head in his hands, he absorbs the mid-nineties demos.  


Back in January, a separate outtake from Sonic Highways was unveiled which documented Dave’s reaction to the first song he ever recorded on his own 27 years ago - ‘Gods Look Down’ for his hardcore punk act Scream. 

“I sound like a girl,” he says in the clip to a laughing Jones. “I don’t think my balls had dropped yet.”

Having headlined Glastonbury last month, Foo Fighters play a sold-out show at London’s O2 Arena on Tuesday 19th September as part of the venue’s tenth birthday celebrations. 

Boasting the epic single ‘Run’, Foo Fighters’ ninth studio album ‘Concrete and Gold’ arrives on Friday 15th September four days before The O2 show.