The argument that almost ended Nirvana: “I don’t want to be in a band with someone like that”
There are usually any number of reasons why groups fall out. While it’s easy to just break it down to artistic differences, rock history has run the gamut of everything someone could possibly do to make their bandmates hate each other, from sleeping with their significant others to taking their music in a different direction to playing someone else’s part for them. In the long run, it does come down to money, and Dave Grohl remembered Nirvana almost ending when going through royalties in a post-Nevermind world.
Because when you think about it, every one of the group’s songs could justifiably be credited to Kurt Cobain. He was the heart and soul of the group throughout most of their tenure, and the number of classics that he could have had by just playing a guitar and singing was just as captivating if he didn’t have a group behind him.
At the same time, would that version of the group have been as successful as they were? Both Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl weren’t strumming away on a guitar trying to come up with new material like Cobain was, but they were still a key part of every single song, with Novoselic usually being responsible for incredible basslines like on ‘Lounge Fly’ or ‘Blew’.
And while drummers can come and go in rock music, there’s no replacing Dave Grohl whenever he steps behind a drumkit. Despite many songs being credited to Cobain these days, there’s a reason why ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ is considered a shared writing credit among the grunge icons today since Grohl’s heavy drum fill pretty much ties the entire track together.
The initial plan was for the group to split the money evenly, but as soon as Nevermind became one of the biggest albums in the world, Cobain started to renegotiate his contract to see if he could get more money. That’s when the lawyers started to come in, and Grohl remembered feeling jaded after the song royalties were taken away from him.
Recalling in Come As You Are, Grohl remembered having to swallow his pride when learning about the business, saying, “Krist and I were just like, if this is any indication of how much of a dick Kurt is going to be, then I don’t want to be in a band with someone like that. Everybody was saying, ‘Let him have this one because the band will break up. Just let him have this one.’”
While this looks like a case of Cobain’s ego getting way too big for his own head, you must remember the kind of struggles he was up against as the frontman. Since Grohl could have walked the street virtually unrecognisable, Cobain probably not got more than two minutes of privacy in his life thanks to him being the biggest member of the group.
That’s not to say that the members didn’t eventually get credit on some Nirvana songs. Grohl and Novoselic did contribute to writing ‘Scentless Apprentice’ off of In Utero, and judging by how much Cobain liked what Grohl was doing towards the end of their tenure, who knows if some early Foo Fighters songs might have ended up on that long-awaited fourth album that never came to fruition.
Anyone in Grohl’s position would have been upset to see any songwriting royalties becoming an issue, but the Foo Fighters frontman has been diplomatic about letting bygones be bygones. After all, when you can claim to be in two of the biggest acts that are still impacting culture to this day, it’s hard to look at the pessimistic side all that often.
