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Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl 'wasn't allowed to be a musician' before dad disowned him

Foo Fighters' front man Dave Grohl has revealed how his dad disowned him as he dropped out of school in a bid to make it in the music industry.

While his dad wasn't to know just how successful his son would turn out to be, Dave admitted he told him at the time that playing an instrument doesn't make you a musician.

The 52-year-old has went on to sell more than 30million records and has won five Brit Awards and 11 Grammys.

Speaking about his dad's tough treatment, he wasn't allowed to play music during his school years as he was failing academically.

Talking at London's Savoy Theatre on the first night of his one-man tour to promote his memoir titled The Storyteller: Tales Of Life And Music, he said: "Around the time of my parents’ divorce I discovered music. I learned to play the drums.

"I even tried my hand at being a promoter. I was not allowed to play music because my grades were so bad. My father would say to me, 'Don’t call yourself a musician just because you play an instrument'.

"So I wasn’t allowed to be a musician. We had that painfully awkward conversation about what I was going to do with my life. I didn’t know what to say but I knew this was it. I wrote a runaway note. This began the separation between my father and I."

The hugely successful star continued: "He called me the next morning and said, 'Don’t ever do that again'. And I said, 'I don’t have to'."

Dave went on to become the drummer for punk band Scream. He later joined Nirvana alongside Kurt Cobain.

He candidly revealed how the early years were tough as the bands struggled for money.

"There was no food," he confessed. "There was a gas station across the road that sold three corn dogs for 99 cents. I learnt to budget three corn dogs a day. We were writing songs every day. Kurt was so prolific."

Kurt tragically took his own life in 1994.

Dave explained how he was "totally numb" and "lost" following his bandmate's death. He revealed how he felt he just had to get away and how it was only when he came across a hitchhiker in Ireland wearing a Kurt T-shirt that he decided to give music another go - this time forming Foo Fighters.

He told how he picked 15 of his own personal songs and sent them out to 100 people, explaining he used the name Foo Fighters to make people think it had came from a band, not just an individual.

Photo: WireImage
Source: msn.com
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