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Dave Grohl's strange, hilarious tale of jamming Led Zeppelin with Prince in an empty arena

"I never saw him again. I had a school fundraiser!"

prince, dave grohl, foo fighters, concerts, rock stars

Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl jammed with the legendary Prince—but under unusual circumstances.

Photo credit: Scott Penner via Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0, cropped (left) / Craig Carper via Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic, cropped (right)
Ryan Reed
By Ryan ReedJul 04, 2025
Ryan Reed
Ryan Reed is a contributing writer for GOOD residing in Knoxville, Tennessee. He has contributed to Rolling Stone, Relix, Revolver, SPIN and The New York Times.
See Full Bio

Like many musicians who came of age in the 1980s, Foo Fighters bandleader Dave Grohl grew up a Prince fan—dazzled by The Purple One’s shapeshifting songwriting and proficiency on multiple instruments. So Grohl was blown away when he received an offer to jam with this all-time legend—an encounter that resulted in them cranking out Led Zeppelin in an empty arena.

The story dates back to the spring of 2011, when Prince staged a 21-night residency at The Forum in Los Angeles. Grohl was naturally psyched about the experience, so he gathered some friends and braved the traffic to attend one of the shows. "We get in this big party bus, like 20 people, so by the time we pull up to The Forum, I’m hammered," he told the Recording Academy / Grammys. "We get to the Forum and go up to the little VIP club thing, and our security guy…who also worked with Prince, comes up and says, 'Hey, he knows you're here. He’s going to call you up to jam.’ I was like, 'No, no, no. I’ve had one too many already. I’m not going up there with Prince like this. Anybody else in the world, I would jump up on stage and make a mess. But Prince? No way."

  - YouTube  www.youtube.com  

After the concert, Grohl was told Prince wanted to meet, so he opened a curtain to find both Prince and percussionist Sheila E. "I’m just like [mimes mind being blown]," he said. "My '80s brain exploded." Prince and Grohl coordinated a good time to jam on the following Friday, and management passed along Grohl’s phone number directly to Prince. "I sat with that phone in my hand for a week, on vibrate—sleeping with it near my head, the whole thing—waiting for him to call, and he never called," Grohl recalled. He eventually showed up to The Forum, then empty, when Prince emerged ("all of a sudden, just like that SNL skit with Maya Rudolph") to ask, "You wanna jam?"

The Foo Fighter took his place behind the drums as Prince’s band joined in, with The Artist on bass. Prince gave Grohl some serious props, telling him he had a "heavy foot"—which prompted a stylistic shift. "Then he picks up a guitar and starts playing 'Whole Lotta Love' by Led Zeppelin," Grohl said. "And it was awesome. It sounded so good. It was amazing. We do that for like eight minutes, and I'm like, 'Oh, god, this is the best band I've ever been in in my life." Prince invited him to come back the following week and recreate the magic, but it wasn’t to be: "I never saw him again! I had a school fundraiser. The end." (Grohl’s story was featured in an all-star tribute special, Let’s Go Crazy: The GRAMMY Salute To Prince, which aired on CBS in 2020—four years after the musician’s death.)

  - YouTube  www.youtube.com  

This cinematic jam was clearly a career highlight for Grohl, but this wasn’t the only time they spent in each other’s orbit—creatively, at least. Back in 2003, Foo Fighters released a cover of Prince’s 1984 song "Darling Nikki" as the B-side of their single "Have It All." (Despite not being an official single, it wound up hitting No. 15 on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart.) As of this writing, the band has played it live 18 times over the years, including at the Grammy tribute event.

Prince even returned the favor, braving the rain at the 2007 Super Bowl halftime show to play Foo Fighters’ "Best of You"—complete with a killer, Jimi Hendrix-styled guitar solo. "Why the hell would he play one of our songs when he's got a million hits?" asked a puzzled Grohl during an interview with Howard Stern. "His version was so much better than ours, it made me want to never play that song!"

 

  - YouTube  www.youtube.com  

dave grohlprincemusiciansrock historyrock starsconcertsfoo fighterscollaborationled zeppelinmusic

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