To some people this isn’t new, but to me its a total TIL moment. Yes, today I learned that Pat Smear from the Foo Fighters, Nirvana, and The Germs, was also an dancer and extra in the video for Prince’s mega-hit Raspberry Beret. Smear, who’s first band The Germs, only lasted until 1980, spent most of the 80′s bumming around doing movie and video extra gigs when 13 years later he got a call from Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain who was wanting a touring guitarist to join the band, and he wanted Pat. Pat obviously jumped at the chance and played his first gig with Nirvana on SNL in 1993. He toured with them for the next 6 months. During that time he and Dave Grohl became great friends, and when Grohl wanted a band to back his new band Foo Fighters, Pat was in again.

But between his time in The Germs and Nirvana, he found himself with the opportunity to be a dancer and extra in a video for Prince! I don’t know anyone who would say no to hanging out with Prince for the day, and Pat said yes. In an interview he gave Pat said he was walking out of the audition because the extras had to learn a specific dance. Pat can’t dance, so he was leaving thinking he didn’t get the gig, when one of the Purple One’s people stopped him and said Prince liked his look, and wanted him to sit next to the drum kit for the video. You can read more from the interviewer here.

I learned this from a tweet from Todd Dammit Kerns, bass player for Slash’s backing band The Conspirators. Check it out.

And of course you can jam along to one of the greatest songs from the 80′s and see Pat in the background right here.

©2022 Cox Media Group