What Prince Actually Considered Foo Fighters

Prince wasn’t an enormous fan of different artists performing his songs. “Overlaying the music implies that your model doesn’t exist anymore,” he stated in 2011.

Maybe one exception to this was Foo Fighters. In 2003, the band reached out to Prince, asking permission for a U.S. launch of its cowl of “Darling Nikki,” which had been launched as a B-side to their Australian single “Have It All.” The 1984 music was additionally included within the Foos’ set lists.

Prince, who died in 2016, firmly denied the request.

When requested by Leisure Weekly if he appreciated the Foos’ model of the music, Prince replied, “No! I do not like anybody overlaying my work. Write your individual tunes!”

Hearken to Foo Fighters’ Cowl of ‘Darling Nikki’

However in accordance with a brand new essay penned by Prince’s former assistant, Ruth Violette Arzate, this wasn’t an correct illustration of how the late legend actually felt.

“Firstly, don’t consider every little thing you learn,” Arzate recalled Prince saying to her on the time. “That assertion was taken out of context. Secondly, that band embodied the music in the best way it was meant to be performed. They’re so good they might do an entire album of my rock songs.”

Prince would go on to include the Foo Fighters music “Better of You” into his legendary Tremendous Bowl halftime efficiency in 2007, a transfer the band members thought could have been retaliatory.

“The thought went by my head that possibly he was doing it as a type of ‘fuck you’ to us,” drummer Taylor Hawkins instructed MTV in 2007.  “Both approach, it was fairly wonderful to have a man like Prince overlaying considered one of our songs — and really doing it higher than we did.”

Not lengthy after the efficiency, Arzate acquired a music-licensing request: The Foos needed to play “Darling Nikki” at MTV’s VMAs. Prince agreed on the final minute – the evening earlier than the present. Afterward, Arzate requested him what he thought. “They did a great job,” he stated. “I do like the best way Dave [Grohl] retains the integrity of the music in his efficiency.”

Watch Foo Fighters and CeeLo Inexperienced Carry out ‘Darling Nikki’ on the VMAs in 2007

The next yr, Prince lastly met Foo Fighters at a present, after which he once more complimented the band’s sincerity in its craft. “Your entire band was glorious,” Prince instructed Arzate. “You understand how a lot I love excellence. They have been uncooked and edgy of their enjoying. I wager they rehearse quite a bit. You don’t sound like that until you’ve rehearsed until the dust falls off and the shine comes by.”

In 2011 Grohl would jam with Prince, and though their efficiency wasn’t recorded or documented, it was, Grohl later recalled, a “dream fulfilled.”