Leave it to Dave Grohl to let the shroud of mystique surrounding celebrity gatherings fall for the sake of his audience. The living legend has done it all—a drum face-off with a muppet, a guitar solo with his broken foot—and he recently shared a story while performing at Cannes Lion festival that deserves to go down in rock star lore. Footage of last night’s intimate, invite-only event found its way to YouTube and he spared no details.
Attending the same party as Paul McCartney, Grohl was put on the spot after the Beatles star finished playing a new song on the piano. The problem? He couldn’t find an instrument he felt comfortable handling, and was super high to boot. Taylor Swift, of all people, saved the day, volunteering to keep the good times going and surprising the Foo frontman by covering “Best of You.” A duet between the two musicians soon followed. Here’s what went down in full:
“So, we were at a party and Paul was there. We were hanging out, having fun. There was a piano in the room. Paul gets up and starts playing a song. Amazing… And he’s cool, man. He’s fun to hang out with. So he gets up on the piano, he starts playing the song on the piano. It was in the house, it was in the living room. He’s blowing everyone’s f*cking mind. New song. Wow. New Paul song! Weird.”
“Then he finishes the song, and everybody looks at me and they’re like, [imitates British accent] ‘Go on Dave! Play a song!’ And I’m like, ‘Wellll, I don’t know how to play piano!’ I don’t know know what to do, man. I can’t play the f*cking piano. And then I look around, and Paul McCartney is left-handed. All of the guitars are left-handed… Shit! God, I’m screwed! And also, I maybe smoked a little pot [Laughs]. So I was already challenged enough…”
“All of a sudden, Taylor Swift stands up! She’s like [imitates Swift’s voice] ‘I’ll play a song!’ I’m like, ‘Oh, thank god, Taylor Swift’s here. F*cking Batman when you need him. Wow.’ So she gets on the piano and I think, ‘Okay, I’ll jam with her.’ So I pick up one of Paul’s left-handed basses off the wall. I’m super high. “
She starts playing, I’m just trying to figure out how to play along to what she’s doing. It’s kind of like one of those nightmares where you’re running backwards… She was playing this really beautiful thing on the piano, and I look at my wife like, ‘Wait, I know this f*cking song.’ And she was f*cking playing [Foo Fighter’s song] ‘Best of You’! As if I wasn’t high enough. That shit blew me to outer space, man. So I felt obligated to sit next to her and duet.”
It’s a lengthy recollection that’s more than worth the time. With that said, the talk left Grohl parched. “Let’s hit the bar,” he excitedly says toward the clip’s end. “What are we doing?! Let’s go!”
Head above to watch Grohl share his memory and deliver a heartfelt performance of the Foo Fighter’s 2005 song “Best of You.”
