In a recent interview with New Noise Magazine, Melvins frontman Buzz Osborne reflected on the band’s 1993 album “Houdini,” recalling how he fired Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain as the record’s producer and instead brought in Garth Richardson (known for his work with Rage Against the Machine and Red Hot Chili Peppers) to finish the album.
“Garth had worked with us a little bit on the ‘Houdini’ record and kind of finished it up after I fired Cobain from that session,” Osborne remembered.
“That’s a funny story in and of itself, because Danny Goldberg [Atlantic Records president] now insists that I didn’t fire him, that he quit. I don’t know why, but okay, whatever.”
Osborne continued, adding that he doesn’t just disagree with how Goldberg recalls this particular story, but also doesn’t trust the author and former Atlantic Records president’s recollection of events in general.
“I wouldn’t read his f*cking book ever,” Osborne said when the interviewer brought up Goldberg’s book about Cobain. “He said a lot of weird sh*t about me that makes no f*cking sense, and I don’t know why he’s done it.”
According to Osborne, Goldberg’s book claims that the Melvins needed the Nirvana frontman to write music for them – something which Osborne insists is not true.
“He said that we wanted Cobain to write songs for us, and that’s why Kurt didn’t want to work for us. I was like, ‘I don’t need anybody to write songs for me.’ I’ve written, recorded literally hundreds and hundreds of songs. I don’t have any problem writing songs.”
“When we worked with Kurt, I thought, ‘What does a producer do?’ I thought we would work together on the songs. ‘What do you think of this? What do you think of that?’ You know, ‘What do you think of the arrangement?’ I didn’t want him to write songs for us,” he added.
“So Danny Goldberg saying that — that’s just a f*cking lie. And I don’t know why he needs to do that. Why do you need to make me look bad? Why? I have never done anything to you?”
“It’s totally absurd,” Osborne stated. “And I would say I demand an apology from him, a public apology. Otherwise, f*ck you. I don’t give a f*cking sh*t about you and your bullsh*t book.”
Goldberg’s book isn’t the only one that Osborne takes issue with, however.
“But I’ve had that happen a lot of times,” he said. “I’ve had Nirvana biographers tell me what the truth was, then how I was wrong about stuff. I was like, ‘Okay, whatever.'”
“It’s strange. I never really had a problem with any of those guys. I always had a problem with the people that were around them.”
