David Bowie Rejected a Dave Grohl Collaboration, Saying, "I’m Not Made for These Times"

Photo taken at David Bowie’s 50th birthday celebration concert, by KMazur / Getty Images

Foo Fighters‘ Dave Grohl and Pat Smear recently took a tour of David Bowie’s favorite L.A. haunts in a video recorded for Playboy (via Rolling Stone). In the clip, Grohl reveals he once asked Bowie to sing on a track he was writing for a movie. Bowie’s response: “David, I watched the movie and I got to be honest, it’s not my thing. … I’m not made for these times.” Watch the full video below.

“We played at his 50th birthday party at Madison Square Garden, and that was the last time I saw him,” Grohl says. “About two years ago, I got approached by this movie to do a song for the movie, so I thought, ‘Maybe I’ll have someone else sing. I’ll do the music and then have another vocalist.’ And then I thought, “Maybe I’ll ask and see if David would do it.’ So the next day I get an email and it said, ‘David, I watched the movie and I got to be honest, it’s not my thing.’ He said, ‘I’m not made for these times. So thanks, but I think I’m gonna sit this one out.’”

Grohl says that after thanking Bowie, he quickly received another reply: “Alright, well that’s settled then. Now, fuck off.” Unsure whether he was joking, Grohl messaged back to say he’d see Bowie in 16 years at his next big birthday concert. Grohl recalls, “He immediately sends one back and says, ‘Don’t hold your breath. … No more birthdays, I’ve run out of them.’ But then he wrote, ‘But that was a really fun night, wasn’t it.’”

Bowie’s selective attitude to collaboration has been well documented in recent weeks. Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman Anthony Kiedis revealed Bowie turned down multiple requests to produce their albums. Before that, Coldplay‘s Will Champion admitted they’d sent along a collaboration request, to which Bowie replied, “It’s not a very good song, is it?” Bowie also sent Bono a list of reasons he hadn’t enjoyed Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark, the Broadway musical that Bono and the Edge scored, after going to see it with his daughter.

Grohl, Smear, and Krist Novoselic recently teamed with Beck to cover Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World.” Watch it here.

Read our “Afterword” feature on Bowie.

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