Dave Grohl has always been a bit reluctant to play songs from Nirvana, even though he’s essentially reunited with Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear onstage numerous times now in support of his Sound City documentary. However, it turns out that they came pretty close to pulling out a Nirvana tune for The Sound City Players’ gig in London last month. But who did they have in mind to fill in for the late Kurt Cobain on vocals? Apparently it was alt-rock singer PJ Harvey.

In an interview with NME, Grohl revealed that they had asked Harvey to sing Nirvana songs with them in London, but that she wasn’t available to. “For the Sound City gig here in London we were thinking about musicians that we could invite because Stevie Nicks and John Fogerty couldn’t make it,” explained Grohl. “Someone came up with the idea of doing a Nirvana song with PJ Harvey. Kurt loved her and we love her and we thought, ‘Yeah, what would we do?’ I said: ‘God, what if we were to do ‘Milk It’ from In Utero with Polly singing?’ We all looked at each other like, ‘Woah, that would be amazing…’ and then she couldn’t do it!

Though the surviving members of Nirvana came close to performing with Harvey, Grohl still remains hesitant about performing his old songs with his other group, Foo Fighters. “The thing is, it’s sacred ground,” Grohl said. “If we were ever to do something like that it would have to be right because you want to pay tribute. There’s a reason Foo Fighters don’t do Nirvana songs, and it’s a good reason.” Either way, it certainly would’ve been interesting to hear Harvey’s take on a Nirvana song. Grohl’s full interview with NME is on newsstands now.