Nirvana’s full surprise headlining set from the Cal Jam 2018 festival has been uploaded on YouTube, featuring special guests Joan Jett, John McCauley, and Brody Dalle. You can watch below.
Nirvana 2018 Reunion Setlist:
Serve The Servants (with John McCauley)
Scentless Apprentice (with John McCauley)
In Bloom (with John McCauley)
Breed (with Joan Jett)
Smells Like Teen Spirit (with Joan Jett)
All Apologies (with Joan Jett and Brody Dalle)
McCauley discussed the 2014 performance in a Rolling Stone interview.
Congratulations on playing with Nirvana. So far today, I’ve been refusing to believe it happened because I wasn’t there.
I’m having a hard time believing it happened too. You know how you wake up from a dream and can only remember certain images of it you don’t really know what happened or how to explain it?
Is this the peak of your career so far?
Whether it was playing Nirvana songs or not, I’ve always fantasized about playing with Dave Grohl behind the drum set. He’s definitely one of my favorites. I’m just so thrilled about it.
How old were you when you became obsessed with Nirvana?
They had their big breakthrough when I was young, like five or six, but it was something my mother listened to and turned me on to. And once I became a teenager and a weird kid, labeled a “faggot” or whatever, that’s when it really all connected with me. It was perfect angry music that at one time really took over the world –it was an inspirational soundtrack for my teenage years.
Who called you to do this?
I got an email from Dave personally. But it was the day before April Fool’s Day, so I didn’t really get my hopes up. It could have been anybody with a fake email account that says, “Hi I’m Dave Grohl.” That would have been a pretty good prank to pull on me. I don’t know if I would have fallen for it because I was skeptical for a couple days. But then I got an email from their manager. And then it got real legit. And then I was like, “Holy shit! This is weird, man. But let’s do it.”
