Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged performance is one of the most celebrated in music history, featuring stripped-down renditions of their own songs and haunting covers. Among them, their take on David Bowie’s The Man Who Sold the World became an instant classic—though not everyone was impressed.
While Cobain played the song’s signature riff effortlessly, his solo didn’t go as smoothly. Slipping on a few notes during the outro, his playing was unusually sloppy, considering the three-note solo was simpler than the riff he had nailed throughout the performance.
Joe Elliott of Def Leppard, who later performed The Man Who Sold the World with his Bowie tribute band Cybernauts, wasn’t shy about pointing it out. “I didn’t take much from Kurt’s version because, God bless him, he’s not very good at lead guitar – he misses a few notes,” Elliott told NME in 2011. Confident that his bandmate Phil Collen wouldn’t make the same mistake, he added, “Phil was never going to let that happen.”
David Bowie himself didn’t seem to mind Cobain’s imperfections, but he did take issue with younger fans who thought Nirvana had written the song. “Kids come up afterwards and say, ‘It’s cool you’re doing a Nirvana song.’ And I think, ‘F*** you, you little tosser!’” Bowie recalled.
Despite Cobain’s misstep, Nirvana’s version remains an iconic moment in rock history—whether or not guitar purists approve.
