Why Dave Grohl didn’t expect anything out of Nirvana: “It seemed totally implausible”
Rock and roll is a genre that loves a pivot whenever they can get it. Even though it’s nice to have artists who try their hand at making a better version of what had come before, everyone remembers the moments when artists went against the program and began making songs that were quoting their own hearts rather than cowering to what everyone else wanted. Nirvana may have been that kind of band that comes once every generation, but Dave Grohl said that he had no real faith in Nevermind becoming as big as it did.
If you were looking at where Nirvana had come from, it’s easy to see why their brand of rock and roll was not going to fit with the hair metal bands of the world. For all of the biggest names in music that were making a mockery of what real rock and roll was supposed to be, Nirvana represented the kind of dirty rock and roll that wouldn’t get on the charts for five minutes, let alone one of the darlings of the genre.
As Kurt Cobain put together his first melodies on Bleach, though, songs like ‘About A Girl’ quickly emerged as the building blocks for what they would sound like later down the line, taking the crux of heavy metal sludge and combining it with pop hooks. Everyone in the local scene was happy with it, and the group eventually got a fan in Grohl, still playing drums with Scream.
After the band became unhappy with how drummer Chad Channing was playing, though, Melvins frontman Buzz Osborne introduced Grohl to the outfit, giving them the John Bonham-like shot in the arm they needed. Since their indie label Sub Pop was going to be picked up by a major label, they felt it was only natural to switch to a major themselves, finally signing with David Geffen in the early 1990s.
As Kurt Cobain put together his first melodies on Bleach, though, songs like ‘About A Girl’ quickly emerged as the building blocks for what they would sound like later down the line, taking the crux of heavy metal sludge and combining it with pop hooks. Everyone in the local scene was happy with it, and the group eventually got a fan in Grohl, still playing drums with Scream.
After the band became unhappy with how drummer Chad Channing was playing, though, Melvins frontman Buzz Osborne introduced Grohl to the outfit, giving them the John Bonham-like shot in the arm they needed. Since their indie label Sub Pop was going to be picked up by a major label, they felt it was only natural to switch to a major themselves, finally signing with David Geffen in the early 1990s.
From there, the group set about working on the songs they had been demoing with producer Butch Vig when Channing was still in the band. While the arrangements of works like ‘In Bloom’ and ‘Come As You Are’ were being finalised, they started to notice something strange happening when they heard people talk about the record.
While they thought it may have sold decent numbers, Grohl didn’t think that they had a shot on the charts, telling Uncut, “Everyone had these lofty opinions, and I thought, ‘Well, it’s nice of you to say so, but there is no fucking way that is ever going to happen. You also have to remember what was popular [in music] at the time. It was not bands like us. So it seemed totally implausible that we would ever even get close to that kind of success.”
Nirvana did not fit into that mainstream bubble, but pieces like ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ led to the entire mainstream changing because of them. After becoming sick of the overblown production of the late 1980s, the dry production of Nevermind combined with the passionate performances of every member of the band led to the alternative rock movement beginning, as millions of fans wanted to make songs with the same kind of groove.
The other major labels may have tried to scoop up as many jokers with flannel shirts and guitars as they could, but they missed one crucial point. When you see a band like Nirvana blow up, you know that you’re only going to get to see it once every generation.
