Founding Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic discussed Kurt Cobain wanting to be the biggest band in the world in a new Kerrang interview.
WHEN WE MET IN ’89 YOU BOTH SAID YOU WANTED TO BE IN THE BIGGEST BAND IN THE WORLD. IS THAT HOW YOU ACTUALLY FELT?
I think Kurt felt that more than I did. He got there and then he hated it. But he was always like that. He would spin things around a lot. That happened all the time.
THERE SEEMS TO BE AN IDEOLOGY FROM THAT TIME THAT YOU STILL CARRY, AND THAT STILL RESONATES WITH NEW AUDIENCES.
I hope so. It’s anarchism. We came out of this punk rock scene, then we signed to a major label and that was really nice too! To get plugged into that centralised system, we got into the beast, on to MTV and FM radio. We justified it by saying we put the ‘anarchy’ A on cheerleaders’ shirts in the [Smells Like] Teen Spirit video! That was our way of washing our hands of what we did. We were trying to say, ‘We hope that if we get this exposure then we can espouse these values and we can change the world.’
WHEN NIRVANA ENDED YOU FORMED SWEET 75. HOW DO YOU VIEW THAT BAND NOW?
It was way different from Nirvana. In the end it didn’t turn out very well. To be honest, it was totally derided. Some of the moments on that record were self-indulgent, but there are some good moments, too.
