LIVE NIRVANA INTERVIEW ARCHIVE September 11, 1992 - Seattle, WA, US
Personnel
- Interviewer(s)
- Unidentified MTV Correspondent
- Interviewee(s)
- Kurt Cobain
- Krist Novoselic
- Dave Grohl
Sources
| Publisher | Title | Transcript |
|---|---|---|
| MTV.com | Kurt Cobain Feeds Frances Bean During Nirvana Interview | Yes |
Transcript
Krist: Golden shower pits
Kurt: Oh yeah
Interviewer: [inaudible]
Krist: I'm "Mr. Seattle". If there's an event going on I'll be there "Hi! Krist Novoselic! Bass player from Nirvana. What do you do?" "I'm the dishwasher at the Dog House"
Kurt: Come on down and see Krist on grunge night every Wednesday.
Krist: Yeah, that's right. Every Wednesday night's grunge night. Sub Pop's grunge night. You have to say "Sub Pop's grunge night" Interviewer: You think at Dog House, in 20 years, they'll be doing Nirvana songs?
Krist: Oh yeah
Kurt: Probably doing it right now
Dave: Haha, as we speak…
Krist: Over a chili burger.
Kurt: Yeah. Chili dog.
Krist: I had one of those.
Kurt: I had one of those too. Yeah. At 4 in the morning one night.
Interviewer: [inaudible]
Kurt: I don't know. I saw Sammy Hagar here about 10 years ago. No, probably even longer than that. I was in 7th grade. Yes, quite a reception.
Krist: We're gonna walk on stage to Ozzy Osbourne's "Momma, Momma I'm coming home" and there's gonna be people waving their arms. We're gonna come down off, like, clouds and gently land on stage.
Interviewer: [inaudible]
Dave: I don't think so. I don't think we could have a stack of [???]
Krist: Or a Ferrari on stage or something. We'll have Kurt's Plymouth Valiant on stage.
Kurt: You got the brakes fixed on that, right?
Krist: Yeah. Dave got 'em.
Kurt: It's all ready to go and everything?
Dave: I got the brakes fixed, you owe me 400 bucks.
Kurt: Oh yeah, the brakes went out on you.
Krist: The engine needs to be injected though.
Kurt: Okay, so that's all that needs to be done on it?
Krist: [Nodding]
Interviewer: [inaudible]
Kurt: Oh absolutely. I knew it. I was certain of it. I bet all the money that I had - I bet it all and I won.
Krist: You see these faces? These are the faces of a star. This is where the money is.
Kurt: Just like that guy in Odin
Krist: Odin, with the buttless pants.
Dave: "What happens if you don't make it? Well… I'm gonna make it"
Kurt: "I'm going to make it"
Dave: "There's no…,ya know, we haven't thought that…"
Krist: He's in a hot tub with these girls like "I've made it man" - as far as he's concerned, he made it.
Dave: Playing a guitar, he's like "Ladies and gentleman… Odin! Odin! Odin!"
Krist: He has a heart attack
Dave: He's got coke all over his nose.
Kurt: Why was Mr. Bizarrey so into Odin? Do you think he knew his mother or something?
Krist: Pay to play, man. Pay to play.
Kurt: …cuz he was really supportive of him.
Interviewer: [inaudible]
Kurt: Um, I don't know. We were hoping it wouldn't actually. It's gotten a bit out of hand, ya know.
Krist: We were in Portland yesterday. We played with, like, Calamity Jane and Poison Idea. There was some, like, performance art going on down there and it just… Portland's kind of a sister city - northwest city - to Seattle and it just seems so much more unadultered and real. It made me feel good. It made me feel kind of whimsical too of what was once in Seattle - now lost forever.
Interviewer: Was there really a scene here?
Krist: Yeah, totally. I mean… 1987, '88, '89… I mean, 1982, you know.
Interviewer: [inaudible]
Krist: Soundgarden was really cool. Malfunkshun were really funny.
Kurt: One time I saw Malfunkshun in Olympia and there was about 50 people there and they were all standing in the back watching them and I pulled up a chair right in front of the stage and I sat there and I fell asleep. I fell asleep and Andrew Wood was, like, singing to me the whole night and making fun of me and dancing around me. I felt like a heel when I woke up. It was so rude.
Krist: Andy Wood was going… Shelli went to that show and Andy Wood was going "Olympia! Olympia!" all night long. He was "Love God L'Andrew"
Kurt: "L'Andrew the Love God"
Krist: "L'Andrew the Love God" he had white face make up.
Kurt: [To Courtney] She's out of fuel honey.
Dave: Fill 'er up!
Kurt: She's out.
Courtney: Hey Jackie…
Kurt: Could you put that down…
Interviewer: Hey Kurt, let's see her face
Kurt: Oh, she threw up.
Krist: You have to do this? Right? Is that what you do?
Kurt: Yeah
Krist: Do you really do that? I'm anemic. Look at my blood.
Kurt: It's time to burp.
Dave: Aw, look at those beautiful blue eyes.
Interviewer: Can you move the mic in, see if you can get a good burp
Dave: Yeah, see if you can burp her.
Kurt: [Burp noises]
Krist: She's gonna watch this in years to come and be like "Thanks, Dad!"
Dave: She's blushing. She's blushing.
Kurt: Look at the little flippers. "Hiii, Frances."
Interviewer: This whole thing has like culminated in like this… this movie's coming out, 'Singles', have you heard about this?
Krist: Oh yeah, we heard of 'Singles'
Kurt: Yeah, we heard about it. They asked us to contribute a song to it about a year ago and we said "No…" and so, you know what they did? Instead they hired some cover band and they did one of our songs.
Dave: No way!
Krist: "Anyway! We're gonna do one of your songs anyway!"
Kurt: "Well, we're gonna do it anyway." So we have no choice but to be part of the 'Singles' family.
Dave: Is it not on the soundtrack?
Interviewer: I haven't seen it
Krist: No, it's not on the soundtrack.
Kurt: It's in the movie.
Dave: It's in the movie?
Kurt: It's in the movie, it's like… they just play a few bars of 'Come As You Are', I think, or… one of our songs. At least that's what I heard through the rumor mill.
Interviewer: [inaudible]
Krist: I don't know, ya know, I've just seen, like, rock 'n' roll movies like Leif Garrett… a few years down the road it's kind of ridiculous
Dave: Well, you know, apparently, everyone that's seen it has pretty much said it's basically just a love story and it really doesn't… it's just a love story that takes place in Seattle and it doesn't really have… it's not…
Kurt: It's a rock 'n' roll movie with heart.
Dave: Right
Krist: Yeah. Heart are in it.
Dave: It's a dick-umentary
Kurt: Heart are in it?
Dave: Really?
Krist: They do Led Zeppelin songs.
Kurt: Come on… burpy… burpy…
Interviewer: What do you guys think of… Weird Al Yankovich. What do you think of all that?
Krist: He's weird… he's no relation to Al Yankovich the famous accordionist from the '40s and '50s - no relation - and he plays accordion too, ya know. I can play a pretty mean accordion when I want to. Uh, I don't know. It's just funny. Haha haha, but you know how a joke is - how many times can you hear a joke, ya know?
Kurt: It was funny. I laughed when I saw it.
Dave: Gotta give him credit for the video though. It was pretty close.
Interviewer: [inaudible]
Krist: Yeah. Right. It's nice to be comfortable and not worry about keeping the lights on. We had some pretty rough times in the past.
Dave: I lived off of AM-PM corndogs for about maybe about 5… maybe a year.
Kurt: Almost a year. I think we lived together about 9 months.
Dave: Because you could get 3 for 99 cents and you have 1 for lunch, 2 for dinner maybe.
Interviewer: Plus you get that second bottle refilled for only 49 cents
Dave: Yeah but we could never afford the bottle in the first place, so…
Krist: Yeah, you just try to be humble because this is not going to last forever, ya know… A few more years. Take what you can get and just kinda be a little frugal and life goes on.
Kurt: Every crumb for himself.
Krist: Yea every crumb for himself, that's right. I don't think I'm gonna be playing a duet with some mediocre heavy metal band, ya know, wearing a wig and…
Interviewer: What about the award show the other night. What was your overall feeling?
Dave: Well, here's a little story. When we were asked to play on the award ceremony, they just assumed that we would come on and play 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' - the big hit - open up the show - the first band to play - set the mood for the night. And, uh, we didn't want to play 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'. So we came into the rehearsals and we were gonna play 2 new songs that fit into the 4 minute 20 second slot. So we practiced those and the stage manager, you know, said: "Oh. Okay. As long as it fits." Then we get a call the next day that MTV says we cannot play unless we play 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' and we said 'well, we're not gonna play 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' and they said "Okay, well then you're not going to play on our show" and we say "Okay. Bye." then they told us that we could get on the show if we played "Lithium" later on in the set - they totally re-arranged the whole show.
Krist: We were kicked off the show for about 5 hours.
Kurt: They took away our awards.
Dave: We come back on the show. We agree to play 'Lithium'. Basically what we were going to do was say "Okay, we'll play 'Lithium'". Rehearse 'Lithium' and then do these 2 new songs. Because they're two brand new songs - they haven't been recorded and for some reason MTV or Pepsi or whoever's the big wig corporate butt head at the top just wanted "Teen Spirit" and so we were told if we didn't play 'Lithium' a good friend of ours would be fired from MTV. So basically the whole thing was just…
Krist: And our careers would be severely affected.
Dave: Our careers would be just completely destroyed, you know. And it all came down to industry versus music and the Black Crowes wanted to do another song but they were pressured into doing their big hit and Pearl Jam wanted to do…
Kurt: I think Pearl Jam wanted to do it too.
Dave: …Yeah, they wanted to do a Dead Boys cover but they were pressured into doing their song as well. So basically the whole thing was just a big, corporate…
Kurt: Political mess.
Dave: …mess.
Krist: Yea, we had to consider our management and the people we work with and we really like them a lot and we didn't want to screw them over so we were whores and sold out.
Dave: Yeah, all in all the careerists, ya know, won the deal and M-television should be "Mafia"-television because it's a fucking load of total shit.
Kurt: Yeah!
Interviewer: [????] … What did you think of your performance - How did it go?
Kurt: Meh.
Dave: It was… couple minutes… whatever.
Krist: Pretty good. I left because my bass amp was totally overdriving - like heyyy
Kurt: Someone sabotaged our equipment
Dave: He's still alive. "I'm still aliiive" (Pearl jam song)
Krist: "Hey, whoa, I'm still alive"
Kurt: Hey, I bonded with Eddie from Pearl Jam. We broke our little feud and we kissed and made up and danced during Eric Clapton's…
Dave: We slow danced to 'Tears In Heaven'
Krist: Yeah, 'Tears In Heaven'
Interviewer: What was that about…
Kurt: Oh sure, it was blown out of proportion but I've said a few nasty things about him, I mean I'll admit that, it's in print, it's proof but, um, I just didn't like him and now that I've seen them perform I think Eddie's a pretty passionate guy - still don't really like their music that much but oh well, ya know.
Krist: Why have an enemy like Pearl Jam when you can really have an enemy like Guns 'N Roses. The line's drawn.
Interviewer: Talk about your backstage run-in with Guns 'N Roses
Krist: I don't know, those guys were belligerent and it wasn't talk because they were very aggressive and threatening - there was no talk at all - it was like "Come on, you said something about my band. Come on." Axl told Kurt "I'm gonna put you down" - if he didn't "watch his woman".
Kurt: Yeah, he told me to keep my woman in line. I couldn't believe it, we were sitting there eating food and Axl walked by and Courtney and I just jokingly said "Axl will you be the godfather of our child?" We were just joking around and he turned around and started pointing his finger at us really aggressive and mean like threatening to beat me up and stuff and I couldn't help but laugh because I haven't been in that kind of a situation since I was in 6th grade, you know. I couldn't believe it.
Krist: And Duff McKagan wanted to fight me too for something I said. He had about 3 bodyguards standing around there and I got close to him and the bodyguards warned me up a little bit, you know, to stay away and it's like… we could have talked about anything. I haven't been in a fight since about the 6th grade either and if those guys have a beef with us they shouldn't… first of all, nobody asked them about anything and they shouldn't go spouting their mouths off on stage in front of 50,000 people. I mean, they had no business doing that. So, maybe we gave them a little taste of their own medicine - and they just get aggressive. Ya know, which is really ugly and that's just some primitive human attribute that the world can really do without.
Interviewer: [inaudible]
Krist: Yeah, I mean, this isn't a school yard - these are supposed to be adults influencing a lot of people, a lot of kids listen to Guns 'N Roses - listen to Nirvana. You know, and then I think there's a lot of kids that act more mature than they do.
Interviewer: [inaudible]
Dave: That was Michael, man - impersonator nothing. That was Michael Jackson, brother.
Interviewer: [inaudible]
Dave: I don't know
Kurt: I don't know, it was just a joke that didn't go over too well.
Krist: It went over like a lead zeppelin.
Kurt: I sunk in my chair.
Krist: Oof! I think it was consistent though with the jokes on the music awards though. There was some real bombs.
Interviewer: [inaudible]
Krist: No, I mean…
Interviewer: [inaudible]
Kurt: What? No, we didn't even get an award we had to set it down with all the other awards all the other people accepted
Krist: Oh, they'll send it
Dave: It's nice if you get stuff like that, there's people who find it important like people who work for you, who've worked a lot on the industry side of things to, ya know, give them, whatever, a platinum record to show that they've worked a lot for what they've done but I don't think it really means anything to us at all. I mean, my roommate hung two on my wall in my room as a joke and I beat him up just like I would have beat up Axl.
Kurt: Well, we only got 2 so how are we going to divide that, guys?
Krist: We're gonna have it a couple weeks at my house, a couple weeks at your house, a couple weeks at Dave's house. Just like 'going in' on something, ya know, we all put our money together and bought a Cadillac.
Interviewer: [inaudible]
Krist: Right. Right.
Interviewer: [inaudible]
Kurt: Sad? Sad/happy? Never heard of em.
Krist: Never even heard of em.
Krist: I like a Portland band Sprinkler, saw em play at the Crocodile Cafe, they were really good. We like Tad a lot.
Kurt: Tad's great.
Krist: Mudhoney
Kurt: Mudhoney's awesome.
Dave: Well the funny thing is is that the future of grunge music is now evolving from Palm Springs, California. A band named Kyuss. K-Y-U-S-S, which is the album of 1992, it's called 'Blues For the Red Sun' and it cannot be beaten.
Interviewer: Is Kyuss from Palm Springs?
Dave: They're from the desert and I suppose they eat a lot of mushrooms and smoke a lot of pot and they just rule the world.
Kurt: What's so cool about that?
Dave: I'm sayin' it's a desert thing.
Kurt: Oh… the Manson family.
Interviewer: I need to ask you… what's it like being a dad?
Kurt: Well… it's a bit wet
Dave: His nipples are really sore
Krist: Her eyes are really open
Kurt: [German accent] It's wonderful. It's great.
Interviewer: [inaudible]
Kurt: Hmm… No, I haven't had to really change her diapers yet, we have a nanny to do that. I'm just teaching her how to cuss and how to flip people off.
Dave: Haha. She's almost got it - she's just got to put all of the other fingers down.
Kurt: Almost sucking her thumb too. Come on, suck your thumb, suck your thumb. Kissing babies is always a good political move, isn't it? Here you go…
Dave: Haha, now we can re-negotiate our contract.
Krist: Oh yeah. Nah, you hold on.. You might give my wife some ideas. You have, in a way…
Kurt: Really?
Interviewer: [inaudible]
Krist: I've been married for almost 3 years. Yeah. Oh, right.
Kurt: Really? Shelli wants to have a baby now?
Krist: Well, she's pretty blown away by the whole thing, ya know.
Kurt: It's a trend.
Krist: It's a trend, that's right.
Dave: Look at me. I don't even have a girlfriend.
Krist: I know… You should give out your number on television, Dave.
Kurt: Haha
Krist: Area code 206…
Kurt: There's plenty of sex letters for you. There's plenty of sex letters for you…
Krist: …441-8441
Dave: Yeah
Kurt: 441-8441, area code 206
Dave: 441-8441, please I need a girlfriend bad, just ask for Bruce or Jon.
Interviewer: Okay, what's up? You guys are back in Seattle, did you do any recording?
Kurt: No
Dave: We'll get some recording done sometime…
Krist: Yeah, we're gonna try to record by the end of this month, really, or maybe early part of October. We have the material ready. We were sound checking with a lot of it. We kind of got to pick up a few loose ends on a few songs but pretty much the songs are done, you know. We're excited about it. We want to make a new record and really absolve ourselves from the whole 'Nevermind' thing and, you know…
Kurt: Where are we going to record at?
Krist: We've gotta figure that out…
Interviewer: [inaudible]
Krist: Maybe/Maybe not.
Kurt: I hope so. I think we might be recording it in L.A. if we find a studio I'd like to do it down there but we'll have to vote.
Krist: Well I want to record in L.A. so I can ride my motorcycle down there. Haha.
Kurt: Haha.
Interviewer: [inaudible]
Krist: We're gonna play in Buenos Aires, Argentina on October 30th and gonna go play a benefit for nazis… The 'Nazi On the Run' Old Folks Home. They're getting old and frail. All the gold they looted has kind of been spent away.
Interviewer: Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
Krist: What's that?
Kurt: Coeur d'Alene, Idaho?
Krist: Coeur d'Alene, Idaho… Yeah but there's no nazis on the run there, see?
Krist: We have some old home movies. Super 8 stuff… I gotta show you that stuff it's pretty funny.
Kurt: I've seen almost all of it, haven't I?
Krist: 3 or 4 years ago
Kurt: Yeah
Krist: It's fun to see. I haven't seen it for a long time.
Kurt: You have it all on 1 reel, don't you?
Krist: Video tape
Kurt: Oh really? Wow. Yeah, maybe we should put some of that in our home movie, I mean our home video.
Krist: Yeah
Kurt: We're gonna put out a home video pretty soon.
Interviewer: Of Frances activities?
Kurt: Yeah, just 2 hours of Frances sitting there.
Dave: "Isn't she cute? Look at that, aw she blinked!"
Krist: "Awww"
Interviewer: [???] Did you rip off Killing Joke's song 'Eighties' with 'Come As You Are'?
Dave: Is it true?
Kurt: It is. Absolutely.
Krist: It is a rip-off but we didn't know
Dave: It was so un-intentional, man
Kurt: Yeah, see, you know, I remember I had that little guitar part and I went to at least 15 of my friends and said "Where the fuck have I heard that?" "Where the HECK have I heard that before?" and no one could come up with it and I couldn't figure it out so we just kept writing the song and then obviously after the song was recorded and everything we figured it out, someone pointed it out to us. It sounds a lot like it.
Interviewer: [inaudible]
Krist: 'My Sweet Lord'
Kurt: Yeah. Yeah, it's just a coincidence but it's pretty damn similar.
Krist: There's only so many riffs you can come up with…
Interviewer: [inaudible]
Kurt: Well I only heard the first Killing Joke album and it doesn't have that song on it and that's the only Killing Joke that I was familiar with but now that I look back on it I remember seeing that "Eighties" video on MTV a long time ago I think it was on the Cutting Edge or something like a few years ago and so that's where I got it stored in my subconscious, I guess, but I didn't do it intentionally, I swear. I swear.
Interviewer: [inaudible]
Kurt: Oh, we'd better not say, it may hurt our careers
Krist: 12 years… republicans… I know there are republi-crats (democrats/republicans), lines get hazy sometimes but I think there's enough of a line between George Bush and Bill Clinton. Definitely vote for Bill Clinton and take it from there. You just always attack from the left then and when somebody's in the left up there you attack them from the left and hopefully you can put somebody up there… It's a slow process. Slow mentality in this nation. So we keep our fingers crossed.
Interviewer: Did you see Bill Clinton on MTV?
Krist: I saw parts of that
Kurt: I didn't see it
Krist: But he was good, he's a sharp guy. He's got a lot of ideas too.
Dave: He promised to come back too, didn't he? Did he promise to come back on MTV? I think he did but this time I think he should bring Tipper Gore with him.
Krist: Yeah but I don't let that Tipper thing phase me at all, you know. She's a vice president's wife.
Kurt: Compare Tipper to George Bush's wife…
Krist: Or Marilyn Quayle, you know what I mean…
Dave: She's prettier
Krist: You know, Tipper has really toned down in the last 3 or 4 years. The PMRC's just like not as aggressive as they were. They're keeping her really quiet too, they know it could be damaging and Washington Music Industry Coalition wrote a couple letters to the Clinton campaign about Tipper and they haven't responded
Interviewer: [inaudible]
Krist: Oh yeah, WMIC's working in correlation with the ACLU. All these uh… like with the uh… anyway… and the bill was supposed to have been implemented by now but through some legal manoeuvre they've blocked it and postponed the implementation of it and the WMIC's taking a real aggressive stance and attacks right away like on the day the bill was signed the WMIC held a press conference and announced a lawsuit against the attorney general's office of Washington. And I'm a plaintiff in the lawsuit, a lot of local bands, Soundgarden, Sir Mix-A-Lot… Alice In Chains are also plaintiffs and some national people too. Interviewer: So Tipper Gore being on the ticket doesn't affect you?
Krist: You know, abortion… We're 1 supreme court justice away from abortion being illegal and that's really serious, I mean, all the civil rights that we've lost in the last 12 years, I mean, you know… Tipper… that whole thing, censorship means a lot to me but I mean… you can hold it in both hands and I think things are really like this, you know, so.
Interviewer: Let me ask you… Kurt, what about all the bad publicity and that whole experience, did it affect you?
Kurt: What's new…
Krist: What's new… Yeah.
Kurt: I don't know, I haven't read anything for a long time that I've actually believed in interviews because we've had so much experience with… so much crap written about us… it doesn't make any sense. That's why I've always chosen to select what I do an interview with, that's why I don't do interviews very often because I expect to be mis-quoted… it happens too often. It's been really damaging for us, to tell you the truth. It's really affected my personal life a lot. I mean, the woman in Vanity Fair came into our house with an agenda. She knew exactly what kind of article she was going to write before she even met us, before… She knew that she hated Courtney because of the rumors she had heard and she believed them and decided to write a crucifixion piece. It's as simple as that. I mean, we've challenged her with coming up with the tapes to prove those quotes and she can't do it and all the quotes were by "inside sources" and no names were made, ya know. It was obviously just a crucifixion piece but I understand that a lot of people have been really affected by that, you know. They believe it. I'm really surprised. I'm really surprised that so many people would believe that shit.
Interviewer: The thing with doing heroin, it's just like…
Krist: There's a real stigma.
Kurt: It all started with one guy's interpretation of what I was like one night. It started with 1 interview in BAM magazine and then after that it just spread like wildfire… Just because I chose not to… We chose not to promote this record anymore, not to go on tour for the rest of the year. I mean, we don't need anymore press and what press we've had has been pretty damaging, so we decided to lay low and obviously that was, you know, someone would say that "Oh that's because Kurt's on heroin the whole time"… I've done drugs in my time and I don't think anyone should do drugs. I'm not going to promote it and that's why I've never admitted that I did drugs because I didn't want anyone to be influenced by it, I think it's stupid and I think that articles that are written focusing on heroin use in the rock world - they're ridiculous because heroin use is no more worse than it was 10 years ago, I swear. I know it isn't, I've seen it for a long time. I think that when articles like that are written that they influence kids whether or not it's negative it doesn't really matter, you know. It's still makes kids think "Oh, my rock star hero does heroin, you know. Maybe I will some day." I think it's crap…
Interviewer: [inaudible]
Kurt: What?
Interviewer: [inaudible]
Kurt: Yeah, and the drug use in Seattle is nothing compared to how they've written about it, I mean, there's 1 drug dealer in this whole town. You know?
Krist: Yeah, I read something in Rolling Stone how there's 'invite only' heroin parties and people… affluent, successful musicians attend them. I have parties all the time at my house and anybody can come over, have a few beers and I go to a lot of parties… I don't know who's throwing these 'invite only' drug parties, I mean, it's just some kind of hysteria, it's like some speakeasy where, you know, you open the window "what band are YOU in?" Uh, whatever, The Grunge Rocker Heroes, got any smack? Yeah. Well come on in. Everyone's all green, there's goo dripping from the ceilings and shit all over the floor. "It's a sick scene"
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