Nirvana’s surviving members have discussed reuniting without late frontman Kurt Cobain in the wake of performing several of the band’s song at a recent music festival in San Bernardino, California.
Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic performed a set of Nirvana songs together publicly this month for the third time since Cobain’s passing decades earlier, and an interview published Wednesday by British music magazine Kerrang suggested further collaboration could be in the cards.
“After we played the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, I considered the idea that, if there was an opportunity, we could do it again. But it’s delicate territory, and you can’t treat it like just another show. It’s very complicated, and very special. In those moments, when it just happens naturally, I think is the best way,” said Mr. Grohl, Nirvana’s drummer and the frontman for fellow Grammy Award-winning rock band Foo Fighters.
“Personally, it was great to play with those guys again, and to play those songs,” said Mr. Novoselic, Nirvana’s bassist.
Mr. Novoselic ,53, indicated he was opposed to Nirvana reunion concerts becoming a “regular thing,” according to excerpts from the interview, adding that it “won’t become a whole circus.”
He was more optimistic about writing new music with Mr. Grohl, 49, however, and cited “Cut Me Some Slack,” a song the pair recorded in 2012 by the pair along with Beatles co-founder Paul McCartney and Pat Smear, a rock guitarist and touring member of Nirvana at the time of Cobain’s death.
“I don’t see why not,” he told Kerrang. “Maybe if the right circumstances present themselves we’d do it, because we’ve done it before with Pat and with Paul McCartney on Cut Me Some Slack, so why not?”
All three of Nirvana’s surviving members performed the band’s music publicly together for the first time in decades when the group was entered into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014, both during the induction ceremony and at an intimate concert held afterwards at a bar in Brooklyn, New York, with Cobain’s parts being handled at either event by singers including Joan Jett and Deer Tick frontman John McCauley, among others. They subsequently recruited both vocalists to play a six-song set of Nirvana songs at the Oct. 6 “Cal Jam” in San Bernardino, prompting talks of possible future performances.
“When Pat, Krist and I sat down to go through those songs in a small rehearsal room with concrete walls, it [expletive] sounded like Nirvana,” Mr. Grohl told Kerrang. “It was like being shot into outer space. Being able to play that drum fill and break into the chorus… it’s spiritual, physical, emotional.”
“It was odd, but it felt like a real treat,” added Mr. Novoselic. “I caught myself beaming away during …Teen Spirit. I couldn’t quite believe I was playing it again, and I will cherish that moment for a long time because it was pretty special.”
Nirvana’s surviving members previously performed live together during a 2016 Grammy Awards party and a festival held this past summer in Seattle, but both occasions involved playing songs written by other artists and later popularized by the grunge band, including David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold The World” and “Molly’s Lips” by The Vaselines, Alternative Nation reported.
Formed in 1987 by Cobain and Mr. Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington, Nirvana released three studio albums prior to the singer’s death by suicide in 1994, including 1991’s “Nevermind,” the best-selling record that pivotal role in introducing both the alternative and grunge rocks genres to mainstream audiences in the U.S. and abroad through singles including “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Come As You Are.”
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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