Watch Dave Grohl Perform ‘Marigold’ For the First Time Again

Nirvana and the Foo Fighters are two of Dave Grohl‘s most well-known bands. Although these two are different entities, Grohl was bombarded with questions and inquiries about Nirvana and whether his songs were related to former bandmate Kurt Cobain. It was the exact thing that happened when the Foos did their first tour as a group.

The band’s bassist, Nate Mendel explained this in the documentary Foo Fighters: Back and Forth. He recalled:

“You can imagine what they were. ‘Is this song about Kurt? ’ Take any song from the record. ‘Is that song about Kurt Cobain?’”

Because the band’s debut had not yet been released at that time plus the fact that audiences were split evenly between two iconic Washington bands Nirvana and Sunny Day Real Estate, they weren’t sure what to think of the Foo Fighters. In other cases, fans of Foo would often go straight to the one song by Grohl they were familiar with. Pat Smear said:

“They didn’t know any of the songs because the record hadn’t come out yet.

“There was a song called ‘Marigold’ by Nirvana that Dave had written and sang on, and it was the only thing that they knew to yell out when we were playing. So you’d just hear ‘Marigold!’”

The song “Marigold” first debuted on the album Pocketwatch by Grohl, who went by the stage name Late! in 1992. Later, Nirvana would re-record it without Cobain. It was the only official Nirvana song Grohl ever sang lead on, and by the time he was on tour with Foo Fighters, it was the only song most Nirvana fans had ever heard from Grohl.

Grohl was last seen performing “Marigold” at a covert club performance at Paladino’s in Los Angeles in 2006, not until recently. Grohl revived the song for his virtual performance at the Letters for Santa benefit concert. Watch his latest performance of “Marigold” here.