For several fruitful years, Dave Grohl was the drummer of Nirvana, joining the band in 1990 when they were recruiting a new drummer. However, in 1994, lead singer Kurt Cobain died, closing the chapter for Grohl as a member of Nirvana.
He was grief-stricken and unsure what to do with himself next, so he decided to take some time away from everyone and his surroundings by embarking on a trip to a rural part of Ireland. Yet, while on his travels, he saw a young man wearing a shirt with Cobain’s face on it – a testament to Nirvana’s widespread success and fame.
It was this encounter that Grohl cites as a turning point. “After Kurt died and the band was over, I did a bunch of soul-searching, and I decided, ‘Okay, I’m going to disappear, and I’m gonna go to the most remote place on earth. I’m just gonna get away from everything,’” he explained.
Grohl picked The Ring of Kerry as his destination, which he believes makes you feel as though “you’re just at the end of the earth,” calling it “so fucking serene” and “so beautiful.” During one of his drives around the peaceful area, Grohl spotted a “hitchhiker kid” and contemplated helping him out.
Yet, as he got closer, he noticed Cobain’s face on his shirt. “It was Kurt’s face looking back at me in the middle of nowhere, and I realised, ‘I can’t outrun this, so I need to get home and fucking get back to work.”
When Grohl got back home, he started working on new music, which he would release under a new band name – Foo Fighters. Since then, the band have become one of rock’s biggest names, making 11 studio albums and touring the world.
Now, a man has come forward and revealed that he was the hitchhiker. Eoin Tighe posted a video on Twitter of his cousin, Lorcan Dunne, who believes he was the guy Grohl saw. He recalled the moment, remembering seeing a man with a shocked expression inside the car, who quickly “just tore off away.” It took a few minutes for Dunne to realise it was definitely Grohl since he was down a country road in rural Ireland.
However, after seeing an interview clip of Grohl recalling the event, he knew that he had to have been talking about him. Tighe captioned the video:
“So my legend of a cousin Lorcan just realised he was kind of important to the creation of @foofighters. He saw a video by Dave Grohl talking about why he got back to work after a visit to Ireland. Lorcan was out hitchhiking wearing his nirvana top when Dave stopped.”
