Blink-182 Reveal Last Time They Saw Kurt Cobain

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Blink-182’s Mark Hoppus saw Nirvana live before Kurt Cobain died. On this week’s episode of After School Radio on Apple Music, Mark Hoppus talks with Dinosaur Jr. frontman J Mascis as he looks back at the 30th anniversary of Green Mind, reminisces about when Nirvana opened for Dinosaur Jr. at the Hollywood Palladium and looks ahead to the band’s new album Sweep It Into Space.

Mark Hoppus:
Okay, cool. Before we start talking about your new album, I want to go back 30 years and say congratulations and thank you very much for the Green Mind album. How does it feel to have that record in your rear view mirror, 30 years now?

J Mascis:
Yeah, I’ve been thinking about it a little bit. Yeah, I always thought it was kind of a weird sounding record and it was kind of weird the whole thing. It was just me and Murph were left at that point, and then Murph couldn’t really take the pressure of, I don’t know, whatever it was. So I ended up playing most of the drums on the album. We’d go to practice in my basement and be, “Murph, the studio’s coming up.” But he somehow couldn’t deal with it. And so by the time the studio was there, he only knew about three songs. So then I ended up playing the other songs on the drums. But it was fun. Yeah, just being in the big studio for the first time and stuff.

Mark Hoppus:
That was your first major label album. Did you get a lot of pushback from that? From being on a major label?

J Mascis:
Not that much, because I was on indie labels and they were pretty shady. I never got paid from the ones I was on, so I didn’t miss them, I guess. When I went to the major label, it seemed a lot more straightforward, the whole interaction with them. It’s like, “Okay, here’s the money, you make the record.” And it wasn’t like trying to scramble to try to get paid from these people who would never want to pay you.

Mark Hoppus:
That album absolutely changed my whole world, that is one of my top five albums of all time. One of my favorite concert experiences that I’ve ever had in my life was going to the Hollywood Palladium and watching you guys play that record. I couldn’t hear for three days afterwards, it was so loud. I was in the front row, I was at your feet. I actually picked up one of your guitar picks, strangely enough. So I was really stoked on that. And there’s a signed flyer that you and Murph signed from that show, the Hollywood Palladium show. It sold at Bonhams for a $1000. Just a paper flyer from the show.

J Mascis:
Oh, that’s weird. That was with Nirvana and Hole opening, I guess.

Mark Hoppus:
It was. It was also one of the coolest things that you guys sold little packets with earplugs in them, which no bands were doing back in the ’90s at that point. And I thought that was really cool and I wish I would have used them during the show, because I had tinnitus for three days afterwards, like I said. How is your hearing after standing in front of full stacks for decades?

J Mascis:
Well, I definitely have a constant ringing. I haven’t really checked my hearing lately. I feel like I can hear over the ringing pretty good.

Mark Hoppus:
That’s dope. Is it true that in The Wagon, that there’s two drum kits going?

J Mascis:
Yeah, on the Sub Pop single it’s two drum kits. And on the album, some parts have two drums, but it’s mostly just Murph.