In August, a little powerhouse of a girl named Nandi Bushell decided to take on one of the biggest players in the music industry: former Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl. Nandi posted a video to her YouTube channel of herself playing a cover of “Everlong,” and challenged the legendary musician to a drum battle. She’s not exactly an unknown. Nandi has attracted a lot of attention online and has made some waves in the music world. A young British musician, she’s definitely going places and has some pretty high profile fans, including Metallica’s Kirk Hammet.
Hammett uploaded one of Nandi’s videos to his Instagram account. In the video, she’s playing “Enter Sandman,” where she plays the guitar and also the drums. As for her drum battle with Grohl, he went to the official Foo Fighters Twitter account to accept her challenge, saying that it had been a long time since he had played the songs. In fact, he had to borrow his daughter’s drum set to participate in the challenge, and he signed his tweet with “Your friend in rock, Dave,” certainly delighting the little rocker challenger. He drummed out a long piece of “Everlong” and then he did something unexpected.
He moved on to a piece called “Dead End Friends” by a group called Them Crooked Vultures and challenged Nandi to learn it, saying to her that the ball was in her court. He had tons of compliments for the energetic young artist and told her that he’s watched all of her videos and she’s covered his songs perfectly. Here’s Nandi’s cover of “Everlong” below.
Nandi said that it’s her big dream to one day jam with Grohl and the Foo Fighters. We have a feeling that they’ll make this dream come true for this talented little firecracker of a girl.
BEST DAY EVER!!! Meeting #davegrohl was one of the most incredible experiences of my life! I can’t believe Dave asked me to write a song with him, join him and the @foofighters on stage AND he is still working on his comeback!!! #EPIC!!! @nytimesmusic pic.twitter.com/szlKXn6U6D
— Nandi Bushell (@Nandi_Bushell) November 9, 2020
Grohl conceded the drum battle on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” where he said that Nandi is a “force of nature.” In fact, Grohl wrote a song about the little girl. Check it out below.
I cant believe Mr. Grohl wrote a song about me!?! This is so so so #EPIC!! I think its the best song EVER, in the WORLD, EVER!!! Thank you so much Dave. You have raised the stakes to all instruments! I accept your next challenge! Thank you to the whole Grohl family! @foofighters pic.twitter.com/rWgTBwEtyb
— Nandi Bushell (@Nandi_Bushell) September 14, 2020
Watch the video of his concession below.
