Kurt Cobain is honored in Danny Goldberg’s new book Serving The Servant, and a new AV Club review describes Cobain being jealous of Pearl Jam being played so much on MTV.
Goldberg’s version, though it lacks much in the way of new information, at least approaches its subject from a more earth-bound place. Sure, he praises Cobain’s genius in some breathless passages, but mostly he’s interested in telling the story of the person he knew: The hero worship is present, but it’s tempered by insight into Cobain’s personality that few people were privy to.
Cobain, according to Goldberg, wasn’t nearly as opposed to corporate entities as he wanted his more strident, punk-leaning fans to believe. Instead, Cobain cultivated a strong relationship with MTV—particularly a young employee named Erin Finnerty—in order to get maximum exposure. He complained to Goldberg at one point that MTV was playing Pearl Jam videos three times for every one time they spun his. “Kurt kept telling everybody that he had only wanted Nirvana to be as big as the Pixies,” writes Goldberg. “I’m almost certain that he was being disingenuous and that he had been thinking about how to react to success with the same intensity that he had brought to musical rehearsals.”
This is partly a function of Goldberg wanting to see in Cobain what he saw in himself: business savvy.
Kurt Cobain and Eddie Vedder were professional rivals, but they shared a touching moment backstage at the 1992 MTV VMA’s when they danced together backstage. Eddie Vedder honored Kurt Cobain on Saturday Night Live in April 1994 following his death with a ‘K’ as well.
