Skip to main content

Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl is making headlines after admitting to fathering a child outside of his marriage. It’s not the first time that the rocker’s wandering eye has gotten him into trouble. More than two decades ago, Grohl reportedly cheated on his then-girlfriend Louise Post with actor Winona Ryder. 

Dave Grohl dated Louise Post in the late ‘90s

Louise Post playing guitar during a Veruca Salt concert
Louise Post of Veruca Salt performs at Shoreline Amphitheatre on June 6, 1997 in Mountain View, California | Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images

In the late 1990s, Grohl started dating Post, a singer and guitarist with the Chicago-based alt-rock band Veruca Salt. Post even provided backing vocals on the Foo Fighters song “Everlong,” from the band’s 1997 second studio album, The Color and The Shape. 

In 2021, Post took to Instagram to share an isolated drums + vocals mix of the song, which is about her and Grohl’s relationship. 

“I sang these back-ups over the phone at 2am after being woken up from a deep sleep in Chicago by DG who was tracking the vocals for ‘Everlong’ in LA. He wanted me to sing the doo-doo’s,” she recalled in the post. “He wanted me to sing the doo-doo’s, which were inspired by [Veruca Salt’s] song ‘Shimmer Like A Girl’. While I was at it, I wrote a harmony for the chorus and sang that too.”

“The whispered section of this song was originally the dream I was having when the phone rang,” she added. “It was a dream about us. [Grohl] later removed it and replaced with his own whispers, one which was a love letter to me.”

Did Dave Grohl cheat with Winona Ryder?

Dave Grohl singing into a microphone
Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters perform during the Tibetan Freedom Concert at the Polo Fields in Golden Gate Park on June 16, 1996 | Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images
Related

Dave Grohl Called His Wife His ‘Future Ex-Wife’ on the 1st Day They Met

Despite collaborating on one of Foo Fighters’ best-known songs, Grohl and Post’s romance didn’t last. During a 1997 concert in Australia, Post accused the former Nirvana drummer of cheating on her with Ryder, according to The Music. 

For his part, Grohl has been cagey about his relationship with Ryder. During a 2002 appearance on The Howard Stern Show (via YouTube), the shock jock bluntly asked him if he’d had sex with the Girl, Interrupted star. 

“I don’t know what happened there,” Grohl replied. “She’s a really nice person. She’s really sweet,” adding that they dated for “not long at all.”

Nor has Ryder said much about her time with Grohl. However, she did apparently confirm the relationship to her Stranger Things co-star Finn Wolfhard, who told GQ that he would text with her about various iconic ‘90s stars. 

“She dated Dave Grohl and MCA from Beastie Boys, and all these people,” Wolfhard said. “I could literally ask her what it was like knowing Kurt Cobain, and she just tells me everything.”

Louise Post once said talking about Dave Grohl ‘pisses’ her off

Post has also stayed relatively tight-lipped about what exactly led to the end of her and Grohl’s relationship. But the personal drama might have hastened Veruca Salt’s breakup. 

“We did have a big fight on stage in Melbourne,” Post told The Music when discussing her falling out with bandmate Nina Gordon. (The two have since reconciled.) “I just found out my boyfriend at the time was cheating on me, so I was just publicly falling apart all over Australian stages.”

The end of Post’s relationship with Grohl may have also inspired some songs on Veruca Salt’s next album, Resolver. 

“People definitely read things into my songs,” she told the Sydney Morning Herald in 2003. “In interviews, any mention of [Grohl] pisses me off. It was a private relationship, but it got so much publicity. I didn’t mean for it to happen. I’m friends with him now.”

For more on the entertainment world and exclusive interviews, subscribe to Showbiz Cheat Sheet’s YouTube channel.

Best in Entertainment