The Slash song that Dave Grohl didn’t want to sing

But by the time Slash started working on his solo album, the bitter feelings were barely noticeable. His time with Guns N’ Roses was a distant memory, and now that Velvet Revolver was beginning to fall apart, he wanted all of his favorite musicians to come to him, not the other way around.

In addition to artists like Lemmy and Adam Levine collaborating on some tracks, Slash asked Grohl to play drums on “Watch This” and Duff McKagan came in to play bass. Just as Slash was writing to cap the song, Grohl said he could never incorporate vocals into the melody.

Slash had tried to push him but ultimately had to give in to Grohl not wanting to sing. He said: “I didn’t want it to be epic. I wanted it to be three minutes long and it came together very quickly, with a very spontaneous, live-like vibe. Actually, I tried to get Dave to sing it but he didn’t want to sing it so I just said screw it, we’ll put guitars on it. He insisted on not singing. He was like, I just want to play drums and he’s a fucking phenomenal drummer.”

Admittedly, the song works well as an instrumental piece in the context of the rest of the album. Since every single track has a different singer to get used to before changing things up again, a track that’s nothing more than a casual jam session between rock stars is actually a nice way to cleanse the palette before diving into the more daring songs at the end, like “Starlight” with Myles Kennedy.

Additionally, Grohl’s refusal may also be due to him believing he’s better suited as a drummer. The reason the Foo Fighters came together in the first place was the frontman’s silly idea to try out a few songs in a studio. So it’s no surprise that most of his “features” focus on drums, whether he’s collaborating on a record with Queens of the Stone Age or adding an organic feel to a Nine Inch Nails project.

For Grohl, all of these vocal performances were reserved for the rock stars of this world. But the frontman of the Foo Fighters was first and foremost a musician and, given the choice, he will always go back to the performance that made him a star in the first place.

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