Krist Novoselic discussed Nirvana’s 2012 collaboration with Paul McCartney in a new Dropbox interview, as transcribed by Alternative Nation.
“Dave Grohl invited me to come to Los Angeles. He calls me on the phone and says, ‘Hey, you want to come play with Paul McCartney?’ I’m in Washington state, and I’m like, ‘I’ll walk to California to do it.’ So we got there, and I was praying that Paul didn’t play the bass, ‘Oh, my gosh, please don’t have him play the bass God. He’s been such a mentor and influence, but I’ve got to play bass.’ He played this cigar box guitar.
It was fun to play with Dave [Grohl] and Pat [Smear], I hadn’t played with them like that in 20 years. That’s when Paul said he realized he was in the middle of a Nirvana reunion, because the old band was back! We had a great left handed guitar player, and it came together. I guess it’s when you catch a tiger by the tail and you have a song and you’re inspired by it. That’s when you just let yourself go, just let the magic happen.”
He also discussed Kurt Cobain, “Kurt Cobain was so talented, and had that energy and that fire. I think our sensibility of having that alternative worldview, and not being dogmatic about any kind of sound. We just liked heavy guitars, loud bass, loud drums. Kurt and I discovered punk rock music, there were other kids who also discovered punk rock, and they threw all of their Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath records away, ‘It’s the old music, we’re into the new God, punk rock!’ We’re like well, we love punk rock, but we kept all those old records, so we kind of brought that along and tried to be open minded.”
