Dave Grohl Gets Real About His Friendship With David Letterman

Dave Grohl is a rock icon with 16 Grammy Awards, but it seems like his friends are pretty legendary as well. The artist appeared on an episode of "Hot Ones" and gave a little insight into his friendship with the longest-running late-night talk show host in American television, David Letterman.

Foo Fighters — with Grohl as the frontman — made their television debut on the "Late Show with David Letterman" in 1995, per Slate. Promoting their sophomore album "The Colour and the Shape" in 1997, they performed the massive hit "Everlong" — a song they would play on the show multiple times throughout Letterman's run. Before their 2000 performance, the host introduced them by saying, "Ladies and gentleman, my favorite band playing my favorite song, Foo Fighters." The song was not on the album they were promoting, but they happily played it for Letterman, as he just returned from emergency quintuple bypass surgery. "Because of my condition coming back to the show after the heart surgery, the song has always meant something incredibly personal and intimate and important to me and to my family," the host shared to his audience in 2011 after the broadcast.

"I think we mean a lot to each other," Grohl told Entertainment Weekly in 2015. "We gave him a guitar once as a thank you, and he got really emotional with us. It clearly meant a lot to him. He's just genuinely a warm, sweet person." Now, Grohl is getting candid about the relationship with some extreme hot sauce inspiration.

Foo Fighters were the final music act on the "Late Show with David Letterman" in 2015 to celebrate the host's retirement. Dave Grohl and his bandmates were dressed for the occasion in tuxedos and performed — you guessed it — "Everlong." "One of the reasons I love Letterman is because his show was so musical," Grohl explained after sampling a hot sauce with a 49,000 Scoville level on "Hot Ones." The musician continued, "He always had really cutting-edge music acts on the show, and ... to be honest, he just seemed like a wicked smartass, and those are the people I f**king hang out with."

"I want my best friend to be smarter and funnier ... than anyone ... I spent my whole life watching him," he shared, explaining that he always felt like Letterman was his friend in some way. "He's a Dave, dude," Grohl laughed, saying the "Daves" need to stick together.

In 2017, Grohl paid tribute to his friend by giving a guest host monologue on "Jimmy Kimmel Live." As it was the big Halloween show, he was dressed perfectly as David Letterman. At the top of his monologue, he followed Letterman's career moves and announced his own retirement from late-night television. Nearly 30 years of friendship has gifted fans with plenty of hilarious and heartfelt moments between the two.