Phoebe Bridgers Says Dave Grohl ‘Slept Through’ a Studio Session for Boygenius’ Album

Releasing a groundbreaking debut album, touring the world and racking up a whopping six Grammy nominations are just a few of the accomplishments achieved by indie rock group Boygenius in 2023. But as band member Phoebe Bridgers tells it, there was nearly one other crowning achievement for the trio that didn’t quite pan out.

In a new interview with NME published Monday (Dec. 11) — where the outlet named The Record as its album of the year — the band reflected on getting to collaborate with Foo Fighters’ frontman Dave Grohl during their talked-about Halloween set at the Hollywood Bowl.

“I made friends with Dave backstage at a Billie Eilish show,” Bridgers said. “I was texting the boys, being like, ‘I met Dave Grohl, and he exceeds every expectation of how a rock star can be in the world’. I think we, as a group, look for that a lot — like, who is living their life the way that we want to get old and live our lives?”

But Bridgers went on to reveal that working with Grohl ended up being a “full circle moment,” since there were originally plans to have him feature on The Record. “We also have a friend who knows him and toured with Foo Fighters, and there was this missed connection where Dave was actually going to come to the studio and play on [The Record],” she said. “Then he slept through it or whatever, and we didn’t end up meeting.”

It’s not the first time that the group has name-checked Grohl in public. Speaking to Billboard after earning six Grammy nominations earlier this year, the band made a sarcastic vow about their prospects in the rock categories. “I think we’re gonna have to fight Dave Grohl in the parking lot,” Bridgers said, before Lucy Dacus quickly shut her down. “I’ve seen in-person how hard he hits the drums,” Dacus said. “I’m not gonna fight Dave Grohl. His arms are something else.”

Elsewhere in the group’s NME interview, the band spoke about the future of the supergroup, saying that they enjoyed the uncertainty surrounding what comes next. “I like having this band be something that, because it’s more ephemeral or whatever, it’s not concretely tied to one of us or a person we have to live in every day,” Julien Baker said. “It’s something we can revisit when we feel motivated to, or it’s a place we can retreat to.”