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In 2015, Dave Grohl, bored with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony, smoked weed with Miley Cyrus and Joan Jett before he was set to join Ringo Starr onstage. Starr received an award at the end of the ceremony and brought some of his musician friends up to perform “With a Little Help From My Friends.” Grohl said that he had gotten so high with Cyrus and Jett that he could barely function.

Ringo Starr wears a jacket with stars on it. Dave Grohl plays the guitar.
Ringo Starr and Dave Grohl | Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic; Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Global Citizen VAX LIVE

Dave Grohl looks up to Ringo Starr

Grohl said that when he was growing up, his introduction to rock music was The Beatles. He has said that Starr is instantly recognizable as a drummer and is one of the greatest drummers of all time.

“Define the best drummer in the world,” Grohl said in a tribute video for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. “Is it someone who’s technically proficient, or is it someone that sits in the song with their own feel? Ringo was the king of feel.”

He noted that Starr was a “bada**” for being able to get people dancing with even his simplest drum beats. 

Dave Grohl once joined Ringo Starr onstage not long after smoking with Joan Jett and Miley Cyrus

Starr and Grohl eventually formed a friendship, and in 2015, he prepared to perform “With a Little Help From My Friends” with him. The Hall of Fame ceremony was long, though, and Grohl headed upstairs to kill time.

“I just remember being there and going upstairs … the ceremonies can be painfully long,” Grohl told Rolling Stone in 2021. “Fortunately, Joan Jett’s performance was at the top of the show. We performed and after a few hours, I went up to the dressing room to drink and wound up smoking a joint with Joan and Miley Cyrus. [Laughs.]”

Grohl said he rarely did this and suddenly found himself astonishingly high.

“I came back downstairs … and I rarely smoke weed,” he explained, noting, “I remember looking over, staring at Jerry Lee Lewis and just being…I don’t even have the words to describe it. I was tripping f***in’ balls. And then at the end of the show, Ringo got an award. A producer was running around looking for me to sing the finale of ‘With a Little Help From My Friends.’ He ran up to me and was like, ‘Dave! Dave! You’ve gotta be onstage in the next two minutes! We’re doing the big finale!’”

Grohl said he couldn’t imagine having to take the stage in that state. Still, he did it, joining Jett, Cyrus, Paul McCartney, and many more musicians in the song.

The Beatles drummer once took photos for a Foo Fighters album

Grohl and Starr’s friendship also snagged the former Beatles drummer a job as a photographer for the Foo Fighters album Sonic Highways. He later joked that he didn’t think Grohl had properly appreciated the photos. 

“What are you talking about?” Grohl asked in a joint interview with Rolling Stone. “We used ’em on the record!”

Starr said he had wanted more appreciation for his work.

“I wanted more praise and love,” he said. 

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