I remember some years ago hearing Dave Grohl, Kurt Cobain’s former drummer and bandmate with Nirvana, leveling a criticism of the former frontman of the legendary band. It was specifically about Cobain’s impressions of Pearl Jam, which were, as you may recall, largely negative. Just to recap, Cobain criticized Pearl Jam more and more as they grew more popular, and dismissed their music, stating that there was nothing alternative about Pearl Jam. According to bassist Jeff Ament, Cobain took an outright hostile attitude when Ament once sat with Cobain and his wife, Courtney Love, and so he just decided to wish them well and leave. To their credit, no members of Pearl Jam, to my knowledge, have ever responded in any manner, petty or otherwise, to Cobain’s prodding.
In any case, back to Grohl. He said that it was unfortunate that our society can give so much credence to one man’s opinion (in this case Cobain’s opinion on Pearl Jam), that it actually helps to define how that band is perceived popularly by many afterward. If there is one thing that Pearl Jam seemed to lack, according to many people, it was legitimacy as an original musical act. Cobain made that suggestion about how Pearl Jam’s music was not alternative. Billy Corgan, the frontman of the Smashing Pumpkins, and himself quite prone to level petty criticisms towards other musicians, suggested that Pearl Jam was “derivative.” Other musicians from PJ Harvey to the members of Creed and Jet (and some others, surely, who I am not remembering, specifically) also took their shots at Pearl Jam, almost always without provocation. Not that the members of Pearl Jam never criticize other bands. I remember hearing Eddie Vedder suggesting that the music of Good Charlotte sounded kind of like the way a popsicle would taste if it was stuck up someone’s ass first.
In any case, I digress. Courtney Love seemed intent on continuing the high profile feud after her famous husband killed himself. She stated at one point shortly after Cobain's siucide that it should have been Eddie Vedder, Classy, eh?
Back to Cobain, however. He had some well-known rock feuds. Obviously, I already mentioned the one with Pearl Jam, but there was also a feud that he and Nirvana had with Guns 'N Roses, particularly with their frontman, Axl Rose.
However, Cobain did have a lot of respect for Chris Cornell and Soundgarden. In fact, Ben Shepherd, the bassist for Soundgarden, had played with Nirvana briefly, and might have stayed with Nirvana instead of going to Soundgarden if things had gone a little bit differently.
The history between Cobain and Soundgarden - perhaps particularly frontman Chris Cornell - were a bit more complicated than his problems with Pearl Jam or GNR.
Below is a a summary of this strange history, according to Corbin Reiff, the author of the book "Total F*cking Godhead: The Biography of Chris Cornell," and as published by jomatomi in a recent article (see link below):
"Yeah, I think there's an element of Kurt Cobain when he was in the media, he kind of knew what he was doing when he was talking to journalists.
"They were looking for juicy quotes and he was more than up to play the game. Fights with Guns N' Roses and all that crazy stuff...
"But I know he had a lot of admiration for Chris [Cornell] and admiration for Soundgarden. Ben Shepherd, Soundgarden's bassist, toured with Nirvana.
"He was supposed to be the second guitarist, but he just ended up working the merch table for a while, and he was really close friends with them.
"And when Kurt died [in 1994], it really impacted the band [Soundgarden] in a tremendous way. They all had tremendous respect to him.
"Soundgarden was around a lot longer than Nirvana, they were out since '84-'85, and Nirvana kind of came around '89 or so. They were kind of the big brothers in the scene in the first place, so there was definitely an element of looking up, in some respect, to what Soundgarden was, by Nirvana."
"Yeah, they really did. It's so funny that Soundgarden ended up being the band that broke last. 'Superunknown' hit in '94, and [Nirvana's] 'Nevermind' came in '91, Pearl Jam came out in '92, I believe...
"'Superunknown' is the best, 'Badmotofinger' is my favorite, but it took them quite a bit of time to break out.
"It was a long, long haul going from independent record labels, to Subpop, to another record label, SST.
"They wanted to make a record for the same label that made the Black Flag album, it was kind of important to them, and then they went to A&M and did a major-label thing around '89, so they had a lot of roads ahead of them before they kind of hit the major national consciousness."
The whole Temple of Dog period. It's amazing to me that that album got released and recorded when none of these people were heavy-hitters in the industry at that time.
"Yeah, it was a passion project that Chris and the Pearl Jam members said, 'For their friend.' It wasn't intended to be an era-defining super-album that it ended up becoming.
"What basically happened is - 'Badmotofinger' drops, 'Ten' drops, Nirvana blows up, and all of a sudden the record label remember, 'Hey, they did a record together, didn't they?' "So they actually filmed the music video before, but they re-cut more footage of Eddie involved and put it into the MTV rotation, and then the rest is history."
Below is the link to the article which I used in writing this particular blog entry, and from which I obtained all of the quotes used above about Cobain and the way he felt about Soundgarden, and of course, vice-versa. Please click on the link and take a look at this fascinating article for yourself:
Author Explains What Kurt Cobain Thought of Soundgarden & Chris Cornell, Recalls How Band Reacted to Nirvana Frontman's Death by jomatami, Posted Jan 29, 2021:
"I kind of equate Soundgarden to Led Zeppelin of Seattle rock bands."
https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/author_explains_what_kurt_cobain_thought_of_soundgarden__chris_cornell_recalls_how_band_reacted_to_nirvana_frontmans_death.html
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