Nandi Bushell is back to dazzle us all.
The young drumming phenom has a new video out where she’s doing her best impression of the late Rush drummer Neil Peart as she bangs away at her kit. It’s the same kind of wildly impressive display of skill Bushell’s fans have grown used to seeing, but here it’s set to “Tom Sawyer” and Peart’s — a legend among legends — seemingly superhuman talents.
For those who need a refresher, Bushell’s viral fame soared to new heights in 2020 as a fully remote pandemic-era saga unfolded between her and Foo Fighters frontman (and Nirvana drummer/founding member) Dave Grohl. The then-10-year-old, a professed Foo Fighters fan who dreamed of one day jamming with the band, issued a challenge for Grohl: Play the Foo Fighters hit “Everlong” better than I just did.
Grohl responded! He recorded a little video of his own — which he said was his first time playing “Everlong” on drums since it was recorded in 1997 — and showered Bushell with praise. He also kept the duel going, launching into the song “Dead End Friends” from Grohl’s Dead Crooked Vultures side project with Josh Homme from Queens of the Stone Age and John Paul Jones from Led Zeppelin.
The duel continued into the following month, with another round of the two drummers putting on an impressive display of their talents. Grohl even wrote his young fan a theme song calling her the “best drummer in the world.” It a terrifically cute and wholesome moment in an otherwise dreadful pandemic.
The story had a perfect postscript one year later, too. In Aug. 2021, Grohl and Bushell met in person for the first time at a Foo Fighters concert in Los Angeles. They played together on stage — naturally it was “Everlong” — and another round of impossibly adorable moments ensued.
Bushell has kept very busy since then, as you can see if you spend even a few moments on her YouTube page. She’s hung out with Jack Black, Tom Morello, and Greta Thunberg, she’s showcased her skills as a multi-instrumentalist, and she was gifted a custom drum kit by Lenny Kravitz and Nate Smith. And through it all, she’s created some truly wonderful music. We love to see it.
