The musician who “changed everything” for Nirvana

Even the greatest artists need a kick in the ass sometimes. No one can claim to be operating at the top of their game forever, and whether it’s through management or their floundering career, it’s always a good idea to try something new to keep everything fresh whenever musicians make a record or go out on tour. While most of Nirvana could have gotten by playing the same type of grunge rock that Kurt Cobain knew how to write, they admitted Pat Smear was responsible for kickstarting their career.

Before the word “grunge” had even been coined, Smear had already started his legacy as one of the biggest names in punk rock music. In the age when parents were complaining that punk was nothing but loud noise and screaming, Smear and vocalist Darby Crash thought that their best course of action was to make songs that sounded exactly like that.

Forming the basis of the Germs, the band’s only album (GI) would be one of the most caustic punk projects to come out of the hardcore scene. Although the group quickly disintegrated after the death of Crash in 1980, the beginnings of grunge music were already starting a bit north of California.

While artists like Melvins and Soundgarden were still finding their feet, the sounds of sludgy music started infiltrating the underground. Even though Nirvana would only come onto the label after hearing their potential on the single ‘Love Buzz’, the band would catapult to stardom off the back of their mainstream breakthrough, Nevermind.

Forming the basis of the Germs, the band’s only album (GI) would be one of the most caustic punk projects to come out of the hardcore scene. Although the group quickly disintegrated after the death of Crash in 1980, the beginnings of grunge music were already starting a bit north of California.

While artists like Melvins and Soundgarden were still finding their feet, the sounds of sludgy music started infiltrating the underground. Even though Nirvana would only come onto the label after hearing their potential on the single ‘Love Buzz’, the band would catapult to stardom off the back of their mainstream breakthrough, Nevermind.

Although success became an extremely mixed blessing for Cobain, he thought that they would need more people for their stadium tour for their following album, In Utero. Even though Smear seemed perfect, not all of them realised that he was even walking the Earth anymore with Dave Grohl recalling in the documentary Back and Forth, “When we met him, we’re like, ‘Oh my god, it’s Pat Smear from the Germs! He’s alive?’”.

While Cobain covered all of the guitar playing on In Utero, Smear would be brought in as a rhythm guitarist throughout the tour, which helped the frontman concentrate on his singing. Despite a few foul-ups when performing backing vocals, Grohl remembers that the addition of Smear helped everything come together live.

When discussing his time on the tour, Grohl told The Ringer that Smear helped kickstart Cobain’s morale, saying, “When Pat Smear joined the band, it changed everything. We went from being fucking sulking dirtbags to kids again. It changed our world. He’s the sweetest person in the world. He became really close with Kurt. There was laughter.”

While Smear helped bring levity to the situation, Cobain was already halfway to oblivion, eventually postponing tour dates to go to rehab, after which he was found in his home dead of a self-afflicted gunshot wound. Smear may have had the opportunity to play with Grohl in Foo Fighters later, but his good-time demeanour made those final months of Nirvana’s life feel much less chaotic.