Dave Grohl says he still has dreams about being in Nirvana

Foo Fighters frontman and former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl isn’t plagued by dreams that he’s shown up at his old table-waiting gig without his apron. Civilian nightmares can’t touch a guy who’s been in not one but two legendary bands. Instead, Grohl still has dreams about being the drummer in his first big band, Nirvana, despite the fact that the group dissolved in 1994 with the death of Kurt Cobain. “I still dream there’s any empty arena waiting for us to play,” Grohl says.

In an interview with Classic Rock Magazine (yes, ‘90s music is now considered part of the classic rock cannon) Grohl talked about his time with the band that made him a household name, explaining why (despite his role as vocalist with the Foo Fighters) he won’t sing a Nirvana song. More than 25 years later, the memory of his time with the band is still too vivid.

“I wouldn’t feel comfortable singing a song that Kurt sang. I feel perfectly at home playing those songs on the drums and I love playing them with Krist and Pat and another vocalist,” said Grohl, adding, “I still have dreams that we’re in Nirvana, that we’re still a band… But I don’t sit down at home and run through “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by myself. It’s just a reminder that the person who is responsible for those beautiful songs is no longer with us. It’s bittersweet.”

Which isn’t to say that his time as Nirvana’s drummer was time spent in some kind of plaid grunge utopia. Near the end of their wildly successful, groundbreaking run, "things got complicated and much darker," said Grohl.

RELATED: Dave Grohl made a special song in response to this young girl's drum-off challenge

[video_embed id='2038381']RELATED: Dave Grohl made a special song in response to this young girl's drum-off challenge[/video_embed]

"A lot of it had to do with drugs, a lot of it had to do with finally getting to a place that felt completely foreign and not entirely healthy. And over time that proved to be hard to escape from," he explained. “So yes, there were a lot of really beautiful moments and a lot of really devastating moments. It ran the gamut."

The early days of Nirvana, however, are what Grohl remembers most fondly — those times before the sold-out stadium shows and the chart-topping singles and the pressures that followed. “When I first joined the band it was so much fun,” he recalled. “I lived on the couch in Kurt’s living room, we rehearsed in a barn, we set up our gear and played those songs and people bounced around and got hot and sweaty. I really loved the connection and the appreciation that Nirvana’s audience had with the band.”

Now a veteran lead singer legend himself, Grohl is getting to relive his early days in rock by watching the progress of his musically inclined teenage daughter, Violet — who sang Nirvana’s “Heart-Shaped Box” backed by the band at a benefit early last year. Says Grohl: “She was born with perfect pitch and a soulful voice and a musical memory that is photographic. She has all the tools she needs,” he told the magazine, adding. “Part of the thing about becoming a musician is the drive that gives you the desire to do it. In that sense I may be her biggest handicap. Like, she’s got to be my f#*$ing daughter? So I try to stay away.”

BEFORE YOU GO: The internet has fallen in love with this drumming duck

[video_embed id='2116872']BEFORE YOU GO: The internet has fallen in love with this drumming duck[/video_embed]