Kurt Cobain was not the same person towards the end of his life, as is well known, due to his heroin addiction and the pressures of being the voice of a generation. The Melvins, who have been his friends for a long time, were the ones who first discovered this.
Many know this well-known story. After making a connection with drummer Dave Grohl while on tour with his former band, Scream, it was the Melvins who gave Nirvana the last missing piece of the puzzle. Nirvana’s debut album with the drummer, 1991’s Nevermind, would go on to be hailed as their masterpiece. And it is the most important album of the decade. Grohl would provide the band with the elemental rhythm section they always needed.
Nirvana became well-known after the release of the album’s smash single, “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. With Cobain, Grohl, and bandmate Krist Novoselic thrust into the spotlight, something they were terribly uncomfortable with, they became the biggest group of the era over night. Cobain would grow more reclusive over the next few years as his heroin addiction and mental health issues worsened, leading to the recording of their third and last studio album, In Utero, in 1993.
After an A&R representative at Atlantic Records, who also oversaw Cobain’s management company, suggested the partnership. The Melvins signed Cobain to produce their album, Houdini. Still, it was a complete failure. Deeply involved in his heroin relationship at the time, Melvins has stated multiple times that they let go of the Nirvana frontman because they were utterly unable to produce the record. Nevertheless, he receives co-production credit for guitar on “Sky Pup” and percussion on “Spread Eagle Beagle” across six tracks.
In 2022, Loudwire questioned Buzz Osborne, the Melvins’ frontman, about whether his band fired Kurt Cobain for being “so out of control”. “100% true,” he answered. Higher-ups, at least at Atlantic, and people who knew Cobain claimed that they wouldn’t have permitted that to occur. You know, that’s bullshit. No one told me anything there; that is complete nonsense. I did as I pleased, and if they wish to act as though they had any input into what we were going to do or weren’t going to do, that’s just drama. They completely made that up. He was too broken up to complete the record, so we let him go. It is the reality.
He went on, reflecting on the claims made by the label’s executives in the media. “They said that, ‘Well no, he left, he couldn’t do it anymore”. They made up all this nonsense about how we asked him to assist us in writing. It sounds as though you’re not understanding me. I’m a songwriting machine,’ as if it were our fault that he felt under duress. It’s like, “Whatever, fu*k you.” You want to hold me accountable for your guy’s dope behaviour? Alright, I completed it. You’re accurate. It was not the drugs that were exerting pressure on him, it was me. Whatever.
