How Dave Grohl and the Cult Ended Their Feud
Bad blood between the Cult and Dave Grohl ended when the Foo Fighters frontman approached Ian Astbury at a festival the two bands were playing a few years ago and extended his hand in a showing of good will.
"[He] walked into our dressing room, walked straight up to me and said, “Hi, I’m David Grohl," Astbury told Vanyaland in a new interview with the Cult leader. "It’s really nice to meet you. Because I’m not sure what happened in the past, but hopefully we can put all that behind us, and I just want to say great to meet you."
The friction was first revealed when the Cult were recording their comeback album, 2001's Beyond Good and Evil. One of the songs demoed during the sessions had the working title of "Bring Me the Head of Dave Grohl." Astbury said his irritation stemmed from a comment the Foo Fighters frontman made in a magazine where he said he went to a Cult show on a dare and it made him want to put a gun to his head.
"I think that, at that time, we were not too pleased with that," Astbury laughed. "Especially from an artist like that who we actually admired. I mean, I admired him as an artist. I certainly didn’t feel an adversarial relationship with Dave Grohl. I thought Nirvana were amazing, thought he was an incredible drummer, and perhaps he was just finding his feet in the world post-Nirvana [and] early stages of Foo Fighters, and he just needed to go out and make a statement like that. But he didn’t even know anything about us, didn’t even know where we came from, didn’t know us in any way, shape or form -- why we made the choices, why we made the journey we made. Because we never spoke about them."
It took more than a decade for the two bands' paths to cross, at Portugal's NOS Alive festival in 2017. Both acts played at the top of the bill on the second day. Following his meeting with Astbury, Grohl even gave a shout-out to the Cult during the Foo Fighters' set.
"I shook the man’s hand," Astbury said. "I have no problem with him. He’s an incredible artist. There’s room for everybody. If you don’t like it, don’t listen to it. But don’t put down a fellow artist, ever. I’m sure there’s been times when I’ve said slight things about artists and later have gone away and gone, like, 'Why did I say that? Was I jealous? Was it just a brain fart?'”
The Cult are currently winding down a tour celebrating the 30th anniversary of their 1989 LP, Sonic Temple. They play Mashantucket, N.Y., tomorrow, and wrap up the trek in Boston on Saturday.