11-year-old who challenged Dave Grohl to drum battle finally performs with Foo Fighters

In more proof that Foo Fighters singer Dave Grohl is a class act, an 11-year-old girl who challenged the rock star to a drum battle last year has finally had the chance to perform with the band on stage.

Nandi Bushell, from Ipswich, posted a cover of “Everlong” by the US band to YouTube in August 2020, in which she decided to call out the former Nirvana drummer.

“Mr Grohl I would love to have a drum battle with you,” she wrote in the video’s description.

Responding to the challenge, Grohl said he had received “at least 100 texts from people all over the world” about Nandi’s video.

“I’ve seen all your videos ... You’re an incredible drummer. I’m really flattered that you picked some of my songs to do for your videos, and you’ve done them all perfectly,” he said.

He went on to task Bushell with covering “Dead End Friends” by Them Crooked Vultures – for which Grohl was the band’s drummer – adding, “the ball is in your court”.

For Bushell, it was challenge: accepted.

Just days after posting that video, she released her take on the chosen song, in an upload which now has more than 3 million views on the social media platform.

“So we went back and forth with this drum battle and it got to the point where… sometimes you just have to concede defeat,” Grohl told The Late Show’s Stephen Colbert in November.

Earlier that same month, the pair finally met on a Zoom call, in which Grohl invited Bushell to play with his band once restrictions had eased.

He said: “I have a question: when the Foo Fighters finally come back to the UK, do you think that you would get up on stage and jam with us?”

“Yes, definitely,” Bushell replied.

Now, it’s finally happened, with the youngster uploading a video on Friday showing her rocking out duringFoo Fighters’ performance The Forum in Los Angeles. She was invited on stage to play “Everlong” with the group, of course.

“It happened! It was EPIC! Thank you so much @foofighters! I had the best night ever jamming with you @TheForum! Thank you so much Mr Grohl and Taylor [Hawkins],” she tweeted.

Twitter fans heaped praise on the young drummer, with users describing it as a “wonderful” performance:

Keep on rocking, Nandi.