Imagine, for a moment that you are a miner trapped under the weight of your entire gold mine for two weeks. You don't know if you'll survive, let alone see your family again, so what would your primary thought be?

Well, if your name is Brant Webb, and you really were trapped in a collapsed Tasmanian gold mine a kilometre underground for a fortnight, then your first thought would be "Gee, I wish we had an mp3 player with some Foo Fighters songs on it." After hearing this, Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters was so touched that he responded in the only way he could – by promising to go to Australia and get Brant Webb and fellow trapped miner Todd Russell wankered on loads of booze.

Probably the worst thing about being trapped in a collapsed Tasmanian gold mine a kilometre underground for two weeks is all that sodding drilling by the rescue team trying to dig you out. Talk about inconsiderate! When Brant Webb and Todd Russell were trapped in their collapsed mine back in May, the incessant sound of digging prompted them to ask for an iPod to be sent down full of songs by the Foo Fighters.

Word of this request got back to Dave Grohl, who – perhaps still trying to shake off that tag of being 'the biggest jerk in rock' – sent this message to Webb and Russell:

"Two tickets to any Foos show, anywhere and two cold beers." 

And then nothing. Brant Webb and Todd Russell were rescued from their mine after 15 and no word from Dave Grohl. For a while it looked like this shun would demote Dave Grohl to Brant and Todd's third favourite member of Nirvana after the dead one and the one who looks like an elongated Shrek, but Dave Grohl has finally pulled through by arranging to meet them after a forthcoming show in Sydney. And whaddaya know, he got to advertise his forthcoming acoustic tour of Australia while he was at it. Speaking to Australian ABC Radio about his tour, Dave Grohl said:

"I was willing to foot the bill to have them come half way around the world just to hang out and have a beer, and then it turned out they couldn't come. I'm not just having one beer with those dudes. We're going for it. This is going to be a big night."

hecklerspray would like to take this time to point out that if we ever find ourselves in a similar situation to Brant Webb and Todd Russell – say we become trapped under our laptop or something – we want someone to hand us an iPod with loads of Shakira songs on it in the off-chance that she'll go down the pub with us.

Read more:

Grohl makes good on promise to trapped miners – Contactmusic

[story by Stuart Heritage]