The Pretty Reckless frontwoman collaborated with Dave Grohl and Pat Smear and opens up about keeping Soundgarden’s legacy alive.
The Pretty Reckless, fronted by former Maxim cover model Taylor Momsen, temporarily became a supergroup courtesy of guest appearances from Dave Grohl and Pat Smear. The rock legends first played together publicly as members of Nirvana—Grohl as the drummer, Smear as a second touring guitarist—before reuniting in Foo Fighters.
As honorary members of the Pretty Reckless, Grohl and Smear helped reinterpret “About You.” The anthemic breakup song is a deeper cut from 2026’s Dear God, the riffy New York-based outfit’s acclaimed fifth album, which spawned the Billboard Mainstream Rock Airplay chart-topping single “For I Am Death.”
The Foo Fighter’s contributions to “About You (Bonus Version)” are immediately apparent, as Grohl’s machine-gun snare fill grabs the ear from the jump. Smear’s more aggressive guitar tone and attacks, along with Grohl’s more varied interpretation of the original drum part, elevate the track’s energy throughout, culminating in Grohl and Momsen’s call-and-response build-up before the final chorus.
Momsen, who graced the cover of Maxim‘s November 2013 issue, is currently between North American and European legs of the Pretty Reckless’s Dear God Tour. She’s also fronted Soundgarden multiple times since the 2017 death of lead singer Chris Cornell, whom Momsen counted as a close friend and mentor.
As Louder points out, Momsen sang “Rusty Cage,” “Drawing Flies,” and “Loud Love” in 2019 at the star-studded I Am the Highway memorial concert in Los Angeles. In 2022, she joined members of Soundgarden, Foo Fighters, and Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic to sing “The Day I Tried to Live” and “Black Hole Sun” at a tribute concert for late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins.
She also sang with the band at their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2025, and most recently, she joined the three surviving Soundgarden members and Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready for a halftime performance at the Seattle Seahawks’ season-opening game against the New England Patriots.
“Every time we’ve done this, it’s been pressure,” Momsen recently said of the Soundgarden gigs in an interview with record producer Rick Beato on his namesake YouTube channel. “I was coming from a perspective and a place of just, like, pure and utter joy for them,” she said. “Every time they ask me to sing with them it’s an honor. Individually they’re all the greatest musicians in the world and then you put them together and it creates this unparalleled sound.”
Whether she’ll become a permanent fixture of the Seattle grunge legends remains to be seen, but joining the band in that limited capacity has offered her a new perspective on one of her favorite artists.
“Every time I listen to a Soundgarden record, I discover something new inside of it,” she told Beato. “There’s certain music where it feels like the artist is speaking for you, or to you, in a way that you maybe don’t know how to communicate yourself, and Soundgarden has always done that for me.”
The Pretty Reckless Dear God Tour
- November 9: Madrid, Spain (La Riviera)
- November 10: Barcelona, Spain (Razzmatazz)
- November 14: Milan, Italy (Fabrique)
- November 16: Prague, Czech Republic (Forum Karlín)
- November 18: Berlin, Germany (Huxleys Neue Welt)
- November 21: Cologne, Germany (Carlswerk Victoria)
- November 23: Amsterdam, Netherlands (AFAS Live)
- November 24: Paris, France (Zénith Paris La Villette)
- November 26: Bristol, England (The Prospect Building)
- November 27: Wolverhampton, England (Civic Hall at The Halls)
- November 29: Manchester, England (O2 Victoria Warehouse)
- December 1: London, England (O2 Academy Brixton)
- December 3: Glasgow, Scotland (Barrowland Ballroom
