A gift for Nirvana and Foo Fighters fans is easier to get right when it shows the join between the two bands rather than treating them as two separate purchases. This print is one continuous route: Bleach in 1989 at one end, Your Favorite Toy in 2026 at the other, sixteen studio albums with every credited musician drawn as a line. Every name and number below is lifted straight from the album-by-album grid of credits I worked through while drawing this one.
That grid is a spreadsheet with an album across the top, a musician down the side and one cell per credit. It is slow work, and nothing below is rounded up or guessed.
Nirvana and Foo Fighters Discography Tube Map Art Print
Two catalogues on one continuous route, with Dave Grohl carrying the line from Nevermind through to the most recent Foo Fighters record.
Explore This Art PrintWhy One Route Makes a Better Gift for Nirvana and Foo Fighters Fans Than Two Prints
I also sell a standalone Foo Fighters discography map, which begins at the 1995 debut and stays with that band. The print here is the combined Nirvana into Foo Fighters route, so Bleach, Nevermind and In Utero share a sheet with Sonic Highways and But Here We Are.
Buy the combined map for someone who arrived at Foo Fighters through Nirvana, and the Foo Fighters map for someone who came the other way round. That is honestly the whole decision.
The 1995 Foo Fighters Album Has Exactly Two Musicians on It
Dave Grohl is credited with vocals, guitars, bass guitar and drums. The only other name in that column is Greg Dulli of the Afghan Whigs, credited with additional guitar on "X-Static". Two names, and that is the entire cast.
Neither Pat Smear nor Nate Mendel holds a credit until The Colour and the Shape in 1997, which jumps to eight. On the print, 1995 is the narrowest point on the sheet: one thick line with a single short spur off it.
For a fan who already knows that story, the A1 at 594 x 841mm is worth the extra, because the pinch in the middle of the route reads from across a room.
Only Three Names Cross From the Nirvana Columns Into the Foo Fighters Ones
Grohl is the obvious one. Pat Smear is the second, credited on In Utero in 1993 for rhythm guitar and backing vocals on live tracks. The third is Krist Novoselic, and his crossing is the one nobody expects.
Novoselic plays bass on Bleach, Nevermind and In Utero, credited as "Chris Novoselic" on the first two. He then has no credit at all until Wasting Light in 2011, where he plays bass and accordion on "I Should Have Known". Eighteen years sit between his third line and his fourth.
Everyone else stops at the border. Chad Channing, Dale Crover, Kirk Canning, Kera Schaley and Lori Goldston have Nirvana credits and no Foo Fighters credits at all.
The Musician Count Per Album, From Two in 1995 to Twenty-Six in 2014
The counts below are the credited musicians I drew for each column, with one credit from each.
| Album | Year | Musicians | One credit from that column |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bleach | 1989 | 4 | Dale Crover, drums on three tracks only |
| Nevermind | 1991 | 5 | Kirk Canning, cello on "Something in the Way" |
| In Utero | 1993 | 6 | Pat Smear's first credit anywhere on the map |
| Foo Fighters | 1995 | 2 | Greg Dulli, additional guitar on "X-Static" |
| The Colour and the Shape | 1997 | 8 | Louise Post, uncredited backing vocals on "Everlong" |
| There Is Nothing Left to Lose | 1999 | 3 | Taylor Hawkins' first album credit |
| One by One | 2002 | 6 | Brian May, guitar on "Tired of You" |
| In Your Honor | 2005 | 12 | John Paul Jones, piano on "Miracle" and mandolin on "Another Round" |
| Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace | 2007 | 12 | Oliver Allgood, lute on "Long Road to Ruin" |
| Wasting Light | 2011 | 12 | Krist Novoselic, bass and accordion on "I Should Have Known" |
| Sonic Highways | 2014 | 26 | Joe Walsh, lead guitar on "Outside" |
| Concrete and Gold | 2017 | 19 | Paul McCartney, drums on track nine |
| Medicine at Midnight | 2021 | 17 | Omar Hakim, percussion |
| Hail Satin, as the Dee Gees | 2021 | 11 | Violet Grohl, background vocals |
| But Here We Are | 2023 | 6 | Rami Jaffee, keyboards |
| Your Favorite Toy | 2026 | 7 | Ilan Rubin, drums |
There Is Nothing Left to Lose in 1999 is down to three people: Grohl, Nate Mendel and Taylor Hawkins. Fifteen years later Sonic Highways carries twenty-six.
Pat Smear Vanishes for Three Albums and Reappears in 2007
Smear holds credits on In Utero in 1993 and The Colour and the Shape in 1997, then nothing on There Is Nothing Left to Lose, One by One or In Your Honor. He returns on Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace in 2007 with rhythm guitar on "Let It Die", and has been on every album since.
A gap like that is what a serious fan finds first.
Rami Jaffee Arrived as a Guest in 2005 and Has Not Missed a Record Since
Jaffee first appears on In Your Honor, credited with keyboards on six named tracks including "Still" and "Cold Day in the Sun". He then holds a credit on all nine releases through to Your Favorite Toy in 2026, where he plays piano, keyboards and theremin on "Spit Shine".
Nine consecutive albums is one longer than Pat Smear's current unbroken run. The keyboard player hired as a guest has the longer line, which is the sort of thing only the grid tells you.
Brian May, John Paul Jones and Paul McCartney Are All on Foo Fighters Albums
Brian May plays guitar on "Tired of You" on One by One in 2002. In Your Honor in 2005 has John Paul Jones on piano and mandolin, Norah Jones singing and playing piano on "Virginia Moon", and Josh Homme on rhythm guitar on "Razor".
Sonic Highways is the crowded one, and it is why the A1 exists. Joe Walsh, Gary Clark Jr., Zac Brown, Rick Nielsen and Ben Gibbard all appear, alongside six horn players on "In the Clear" and Tony Visconti arranging strings on "I Am a River".
For a casual fan, this section is the whole gift: an unexpected name within a minute of hanging it.
Butch Vig Is on This Map Once, and Not for Producing Nevermind
My rule for these maps is that producing a record does not earn you a line, playing on it does. Butch Vig produced Nevermind in 1991, holds no instrument credit on it, and so appears nowhere near the 1991 column.
His one appearance on the whole print comes twenty years later, on Wasting Light in 2011, for percussion on "Back & Forth". Steve Albini, who recorded In Utero, holds no playing credit in my grid and has no line anywhere.
The rule cuts the other way too. Nick Raskulinecz produced In Your Honor and played double bass on "On the Mend", so he is drawn in. Greg Kurstin earns his line on Concrete and Gold for piano, synthesiser and vibraphone.
Kurt Cobain's Three Columns, and Taylor Hawkins' Last One
Kurt Cobain has three album credits: Bleach, Nevermind and In Utero. He is credited as "Kurdt Kobain" on the first two, and on In Utero for guitar, vocals, art direction, design and photography. He died in 1994, and the next column along is the 1995 debut with two people on it.
Taylor Hawkins first appears in 1999 and holds a credit on every release up to Hail Satin in 2021. He died in 2022, and But Here We Are in 2023 is the first Foo Fighters album since 1997 without his name on it.
Ilan Rubin is credited with drums on Your Favorite Toy in 2026, and Harper Grohl sings backing vocals on the title track.
Doubts Worth Settling Before You Order
Does it cover Nirvana albums or only Foo Fighters ones? Both. Bleach, Nevermind and In Utero are the first three columns, and the route runs straight on into the Foo Fighters records without a break.
Is Hail Satin on there? Yes. The July 2021 Bee Gees covers record is drawn as the Dee Gees with eleven musicians, sitting beside Medicine at Midnight from February of the same year.
Does Krist Novoselic appear on any Foo Fighters record? He does, exactly once. Novoselic plays bass and accordion on "I Should Have Known" on Wasting Light in 2011, which is eighteen years after his last Nirvana credit and his only line on the Foo Fighters side of the sheet.
Ordering This One Instead of the Foo Fighters Print
The Nirvana into Foo Fighters discography map is a Giclée print on 230gsm textured matte fine art paper, archival and acid-free. It comes in A2 and A1, from £42, unframed or in a black wood frame.
If the standalone Foo Fighters print is already framed and hanging, this combined route adds the three Nirvana columns in front of it. The Foo Fighters map on its own is still the better buy for someone who only knows that band.
From the same stretch of the 1990s there is the Red Hot Chili Peppers map, the Radiohead map and the R.E.M. map. Everything else sits in the Music Wall Art Prints collection.
