It was a family affair on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Tuesday night (Apr. 27) when Dave Grohl hit the stage with his daughter Violet to perform their cover of X’s 1980 anthem “Nausea” live on TV for the first time. Joined by Grohl’s former Nirvana bandmate Krist Novoselic, as well as former Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo and producer Greg Kurstin, the group ripped through the credit sequence song from Grohl’s get-in-the-van touring documentary, What Drives Us, which will premiere on the Coda Collection on Amazon Prime Video on Friday (Apr. 30).
Set up in a rehearsal space, the band laid down a sludgy undercurrent for the flame-haired 15-year-old to surf on top of, as she brought the right balance of boredom and contempt to the song from the pioneering L.A. punk band’s 1980 debut, Los Angeles. A smiling, mustachioed Novoselic looked like he was having a blast getting into the pocket with legendary hard-hitting drummer Lombardo as Kurstin added tasteful organ accents and Grohl joined Violet on the song’s droning chorus, “Nausea/ Bloody red eyes go to/ Nausea/ Bloody red eyes go to sleep.”
Grohl also sat down with Kimmel to talk about the doc, which has Grohl interviewing X singer Exene Cervenka, as well as Metallica’s Lars Ulrich, St. Vincent, Red Hot Chili Peppers’, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler, Flea, Ringo Starr, U2’s The Edge and many more about their experiences touring before they made it big.
“The advantage that I have when interviewing musicians is I speak the same language,” Grohl said, joking about the two hours he spent with Tyler, only 15 minutes of which he could understand. “What I found in talking to all these musicians is that it all really does all come from the same place. When you’re a kid and you fall in love with rock ‘n’ roll, you can’t live without it, and then eventually you throw everything away — leave your life behind, jump in a stinky old van with your friends and just go share it with the world, with no guarantee that it will ever pay off.”
Among the anecdotes he shared with The Edge recalling U2 playing a cover of Peter Frampton’s “Show Me The Way” at their first concert, as well as explaining why he packed the Foo Fighters into a crummy old van even though he’d already been in a little world-conquering band called Nirvana. “We felt more comfortable doing it this way because that’s the way we had always done it,” he said. “When you begin with something like an old van and your friends it lays this foundation for everything that comes next. And it makes you appreciate all of the rewards that come after that.”
What else will you learn in the film? The Beatles farted in their van, too, according to Ringo.
One of the reasons Grohl said he decided to make the doc was that, pre-pandemic, the Foos had planned to recreate their first tour for a 25th anniversary outing — playing the same cities, but not the same venues — and pulling up to their gigs in the red van.
Watch the performance and the interview below.