Dave Grohl is certainly one of the more likable fellas in the music industry. His sunny disposition did not, however, do him any favors when trying to lock in a collab with a legendary rock star. In fact, the iconic singer told him to “f***off.”
Grohl recalled the story during a video project with Foo Fighters bandmate Pat Smear. The pair teamed up with Playboy to document their tour of the late David Bowie’s favorite spots in Los Angeles. At one point, Grohl brought up the hilarious story of how he tried to work with Bowie on a song, but failed.
We played at his 50th birthday party at Madison Square Garden, and that was the last time I saw him,” Grohl said, via Rolling Stone. “About two years ago, I got approached by this movie to do a song for the movie, so I thought, ‘Maybe I’ll have someone else sing. I’ll do the music and then have another vocalist.’”
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Grohl thought to himself, “Maybe I’ll ask and see if David would do it,” so he reached out. “The next day,” Grohl recalled, “I get an email, and it said, ‘David, I watched the movie, and I got to be honest, it’s not my thing.’ He said, ‘I’m not made for these times. So thanks, but I think I’m gonna sit this one out.’”
The Nirvana drummer says he thanked Bowie for considering it, and then received another quick reply: “Alright, well that’s settled then. Now, f*** off.”
Surprised and somewhat confused, Grohl tried to smooth things over by responding with a quip about Bowie having another big birthday celebration. “He immediately sends one back,” Grohl remembered, “and says, ‘Don’t hold your breath. … No more birthdays, I’ve run out of them.’”
Bowie didn’t leave it at that, though. Grohl said the rocker ended his message with, “But that was a really fun night, wasn’t it.”
Dave Grohl accidentally offended David Bowie not once, but twice
Interestingly, that was not the pair’s only awkward interaction. In an April 2026 Dish podcast interview, Grohl shared that he once accidentally insulted Bowie after seeing the “Ziggy Stardust” singer perform live.
“I told him, when I met him in the studio,” Grohl recalled, “I said, ‘I just saw you. Like, it was such a trip to see you like in human form, right there, right in front of me.’” Bowie responded by asking Grohl, “What did you think? What did you feel?”
This question stopped Grohl right in his tracks. “I’m like, ‘Oh f***,’” Grohl remembered. “So the first thing to come out of my mouth, like an idiot, I said, ‘Well, the first thing I noticed was all of your imperfections.’”
Ultimately, Grohl said he was able to “backpeddle” out of it, adding, “I don’t know how I got out of that one.”
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