Call me a ‘nepo baby’ all you want. It’s ‘whatever’ to me

Violet Grohl has shrugged off claims of her being a ‘nepo baby’, saying: “It’s ‘whatever’ to me.”

The singer-songwriter, daughter of Foo Fighters‘ Dave Grohl, addressed the discourse while speaking about her upcoming debut album, ‘Be Sweet To Me’ – out May 29 via Auroura Records/Republic/Island.

“I’m beyond grateful for the life that I was born into,” she told The Forty-Five. “It’s such a privilege to be able to be around musicians and in a space that nurtures my interest and allows me to grow and to make a record.”

Violet went on to acknowledge that “obviously, doors are open for me because of my last name”. She added: “It’s not something I’m ever going to hide behind or say, ‘No, I worked so hard for this! You guys shouldn’t say that! That hurts my feelings’.

“I don’t care – I really don’t. I’ve heard that since I was 13 years old. So call me a nepo baby all you want. It’s ‘whatever’ to me. I just hope that eventually people will give me a shot.”

The artist, who was recently added to the line-up for Reading & Leeds 2026, then urged naysayers to “come see me live”. She said: “Come listen to my music and then you can decide for yourself if I’m worthy of this career or not. This is my passion, this is my thing – and it’s all I want to do.”

Elsewhere in the conversation, Violet recalled performing with the surviving members of Nirvana – Dave, Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear – at the Fire Aid benefit concert in LA last year.

Violet looked back on when she first realised she wanted a music career, saying: “It was around the time I started singing backing vocals for my Dad. It was such a crazy experience.”

She also spoke about how she had been “following Billie Eilish since the beginning”, adding: “Watching her open up this path for female musicians in this alternative pop space that’s still beautiful, it was just so incredible to me.”

Violet began hitting the road with Foo Fighters in 2018, providing backing vocals at numerous gigs. She performed with them at the tribute concerts held for late Foos drummer Taylor Hawkins in 2022, too, and featured on the band’s 2023 song ‘Show Me How’. Violet appeared with Foo Fighters at that year’s Glastonbury to perform the track.

She released a cover version of ‘Nausea’, originally by Los Angeles punks X, alongside her father Dave in 2021.

The Foos frontman credited his daughters for introducing him to Eilish in 2019. Then, in 2022, Dave said Violet and her generation would “create the next revolution”.

Later in the new interview, Violet discussed deciding that she wanted to focus on “alternative rock music” for her own project, after teaming up with producer Justin Raisen (Kim Gordon, Charli XCX, Sky Ferreira).

“That’s what felt right to me at that time of my life,” she said. “And we just had this weird telepathic thing.”

Dave previously expressed his desire to appear on Violet’s first album. Earlier this year, he revealed that he had “no idea” that his daughter had signed a record deal until she told him at dinner.

“She made this album with a producer named Justin Raisen, and she did it on her own,” he explained. “She met the producer, and they would go to the studio every day and she would send me songs when she was finished. But I had absolutely nothing to do with this record at all.”

He added: “So, I’m totally uninvolved. I’m the dad who wants to be there and know everything. And she’s just totally doing her own thing. It’s amazing.”

Violet signed a major record deal at the start of this year, and shared the songs ‘Thum’ and ‘Applefish’. In March, she released the single ‘595’, which was “inspired by a vintage t-shirt advertising a phone sex line”.

The singer is yet to announce any UK headline dates in support of the forthcoming ‘Be Sweet To Me’.