How Dave Grohl Became a Member of Nirvana

In the fall of 1990, Nirvana were one of the fastest-rising young rock bands in the Northwest — but they were still waiting for the drummer that would transform them into the group that bassist Krist Novoselic would later describe as "a beast that walked the earth."

That drummer was Dave Grohl — at 21, already a grizzled veteran of the Washington, D.C., rock scene whose résumé boasted a stint with the punk band Scream. As Drum Magazine later noted, it was at a Scream gig in San Francisco where Cobain — in attendance at the behest of Melvins frontman Buzz Osborne, who knew and liked both bands — first saw Grohl in action.

"I was standing with Kurt and Chris [who had not yet adopted the Croatian spelling of his name, Krist]," recalled sound engineer Craig Montgomery. "Kurt said