Do you know who Nandi Bushell is? Don’t feel bad - neither did I until yesterday. Apparently, last year Nandi and Dave Grohl (and if you don’t know, he’s the singer for Foo Fighters and was also the drummer for Nirvana) engaged in an online duel that started when she played “Everlong” - one of the band’s biggest hits and difficult to play on the drums - and challenged Grohl to do the same. Grohl, who doesn’t play drums with Foo Fighters (he did play the drum part on the original recording, but has not since) accepted the challenge. They shared posts back and forth with more drum challenges, and wrote each other an original song. At the end of the online feud, Grohl declared Nandi the victor, but declared one more surprise for his “arch-nemesis.”
That surprise was bringing Nandi on stage at the LA Forum to perform with the band in front of a sold out crowd. Pretty cool, right? It gets better. Did I mention that Nandi is 11? If you want to watch, there are two videos below - the first is a fan video that includes Grohl’s description of the feud, and the second is video recorded by Nandi’s father from just off stage - his is cool because you can hear his squeals (no other way to describe them) of absolute joy at watching his daughter on stage.
Watching the video filled with me with joy - and if I’m being honest, so filled with joy that some leaked out of me. Joy because an iconic rock star not only participated in an online feud with an 11 year old fan, but brought her on stage to play with the band. Joy because it was so amazingly cool to watch a fan get to play with her favorite band. Joy because an 11 year old girl exists who plays rock’n’roll drums about as well as the man who played drums for Nirvana. Joy because it is yet another example of how music can bring together people who otherwise would have no business even knowing the other person existed.
So I’m hoping that you watch at least one of the videos, even if you’re not a fan of Foo Fighters or rock’n’roll in general. Heck, you could probably watch the videos with the sound off and still feel a little of the joy I felt. But then you wouldn’t hear Nandi’s dad squealing with joy or the fans at the Forum chanting “Nandi! Nandi!” or the sound of Nandi’s drumming. Watch the videos and have a little bit of joy.
Fan Video:
Dad Video: