DAVE GROHL Believed NIRVANA Would Quit After Second Album!
Drummer Dave Grohl said that he did not believe Nirvana would make another record after Nevermind, and was “surprised and relieved” when Kurt Cobain approached him with ideas for a follow-up album!
The Smells Like Teen Spirit band had a huge worldwide hit with their second album in 1991, but drummer Grohl wasn’t sure they would follow it up. Recalling his discussions with fellow bandmates Cobain and Krist Novoselic in 1992, he Grohl said:
“A lot of weird s**t went down after ‘Nevermind’, so I wasn’t sure there’d be another record.
“Even though all of a sudden the world was at our feet and we had bands like U2 and Guns N’ Roses asking us to do a stadium tour, Kurt started doing a lot of drugs and there was a lot of tension because of business stuff and money.
“Krist and Kurt came to my house to record a split single with The Jesus Lizard and I remember Kurt started to play the song ‘Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle’.
“And it was at that point I thought, ‘We’re going to make another Nirvana record’. I was surprised and relieved when Kurt said he had a new song because when Nevermind happened, we stopped everything and went into hiding – it kinda fractured the band.”
Soon after, the band went on to make In Utero, a much darker album, but Grohl says it was in keeping with Cobain‘s vision (who took his own life in 1994), and much like the music he made before Nirvana‘s debut, Bleach.
He adds:
“‘In Utero’ isn’t too far off what Kurt was doing before ‘Bleach’. It wasn’t a contrived change of direction from ‘Nevermind’ but the world around the band had changed and Kurt had a hard time processing a lot and we were focussing on the instrumentation.”
Bassist Novoselic also added:
“Everyone thought we’d make a mainstream record, that we’d sell out, but we put out a record after Nevermind and it’s a different record. It’s darker and has an edge.”
In Urtero will be re-released in a 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition package on the 23rd September, 2013.
