Valentine’s Day Message

Little Drummer Girl

On this Valentine’s Day, we often find the feeling of this special day in relationships between people so different you’d never imagine a relationship ever forming.

This is one of those stories you often receive in emails with the admonition:

      ​Must watch!

Many of those can make your day. We hope this one helps to send a Valentine’s message to you from all of us at RFS..

Ten-year-old Nandi Bushell hails from Ipswich, England—half a world away from her idol, Dave Grohl, world-famous drummer for the band Nirvana and the one he founded, Foo Fighters.

Sold-out concerts, hit records, and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame—these make Dave’s resume shine. Nandi plays in her basement.

If you haven’t noticed, kids these days think Rock & Roll belongs only to those Old Boomers, a generation whose time has come. But don’t tell that to little Nandi. Rock & Roll is her life.

The pandemic cooped her up. But she worked and worked at her drumming craft and began to post videos of herself and her drum on YouTube. One day she recorded her “cover” of Dave Grohl’s biggest hit, a song called Everlong, first released in 1997, long before Nandi was born.

As the video began, she twirled her stick, stared straight into the camera, and issued her challenge:

      ​“Dave Grohl, I challenge you to a drum off!”

Asked why she challenged an icon, Nandi’s logic was refreshingly simple:

      “He’s a drummer, he thrashes the kit really hard, which I like, so why not? My dream is to one day jam with Dave Grohl.”

When the video started to go viral, Dave Grohl’s phone blew up with texts.

      “You’ve been called out by a 10-year old, Dave. What are you going to do about it?”

Most famous Hollywood types would smile, pat themselves on the back, and go on with their glimmering lives.

But not Dave. He went about recording his own video, where he said:

      “Nandi, I’ve gotten at least 100 texts from people all around the world saying, ‘This girl is challenging you to a drum-off.’

      ​You’re an incredible drummer! I’m really flattered that you’ve picked some of my songs to do for your videos, and you’ve done them all            perfectly. So today, I’m going to give you something you may never have heard before. This is my response to your challenge—so now          the ball is in your court!”

​Nandi watched the video, listened to Grohl’s song—and two days later, recorded her own rendition of it, saying:

      ​“Dave Grohl, that was epic! It’s an honor to battle you!”

A friendship then blossomed. Dave and Nandi started meeting on Zoom. He then told her he was writing a new song just for her:

      ​“She’s got the power / She’s got the sound / Nandi on the drums makes the world go round!”

Not to be outdone, Nandi wrote her own song, titled “Rock and Grohl”:

      ​“Rock n’ roll’s my love / Rock n’ roll’s my soul / Rock n’ Grohl will help me change the world!”

Whatever kind of music you listen to, it’s impossible not to smile when you see these two very different people—with kindred souls—come together over the instrument they love. Their videos have now been watched by millions of people, and the two have made plans for Nandi to realize her dream and play with the Foo Fighters onstage as soon as the pandemic is over.

According to Grohl:

      ​“There’s something about seeing the joy and energy of a kid in love with an instrument, She’s a force of nature. But [she’ll have to play]           at the end of [our concert] because she’s going to steal the show!”

A force of nature, indeed.

Here’s the Little Drummer Girl. Watch and enjoy. So far, 3,901,493 people already have.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRvHI8tgx8A

Have a wonderful Valentine’s Day.

With best wishes,

Research Financial Strategies

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Investment advice offered through Research Financial Strategies, a registered investment advisor.