Dave Grohl and the hitchhiker who helped him form the Foo Fighters
In 2021, on the occasion of the publication of his autobiography “The storyteller: tales of life and music“, Dave Grohl had a public conversation with “New Yorker” journalist Kelefa Sanneh. During the chatwitnessed by a video of which an excerpt is available here, the Foo Fighters frontman addressed several issues, concerning Kurt Cobain, the birth of his group and gratitude. In that situation, Grohl also talked about a chance encounter with an Irish hitchhiker which pushed him to return to music after Kurt’s death in 1994 and the subsequent end of Nirvana, leading him to create his solo project, which soon became a real band.
Almost three years after that interview, Dave Grohl’s video and story are came to the attention of Lorcan Dunnewhich is therefore identified in the man met in Ireland by the musician.
During the chat with Kelefa Sanneh, when asked if he “ever doubted yourself and wondered if this was really the thing you wanted to do,” Grohl explained:
“After Kurt died and Nirvana broke up, I did some soul searching and decided to disappear, to the most remote place on earth to get away from it all and figure it out. So I went to the Ring of Kerry, which I’d been to before, because it’s beautiful. You really feel like you’re at the end of the world, like there’s nothing there, just so fucking peaceful and beautiful. One day I was driving around in my rental car, and on a country road I saw this guy hitchhiking. I thought, ‘Well, I’ll give him a lift.’ As I got closer, I saw this guy wearing a Kurt Cobain T-shirt. There was Kurt’s face looking at me in the middle of nowhere. And I realized, ‘Oh, I can’t escape this.’ That made me realize I had to go home and get back to work. And so I did. I went back and started recording these songs on my own and with the intention of living on. That’s what I had to do. do to survive. And it helped me a lot.”
The video recently featured what is believed to have been identified as the man Grohl met, named Lorcan Dunne. This guy’s cousin shared a thread on X/Twitter explaining that he believes Dunne is the hitchhiker the Foo Fighters frontman was talking about in the interview.
Lorcan Dunne then posted a video to tell the story from his point of view:
“I was on holiday with some friends on the Beara Peninsula and we decided to hitchhike to go swimming. When I saw a car nearby, I ran towards it to ask for a lift. As I was waving, I looked at who was in it and saw Dave Grohl. I didn’t recognise him straight away, but I did notice the look of shock on this guy’s face when he saw I was wearing a Nirvana T-shirt with Kurt Cobain on it. It was a black T-shirt with a picture of Kurt, the one with the heavy eye make-up. Before I could see the shock in the driver’s eyes, the car sped off. I turned to the others with me and said, ‘That was Dave Grohl’. But no one believed me!”
At this time, Dave Grohl has not yet commented on Lorcan Dunne’s comments or said he has reached out to him.
