Why did Kurt Cobain want to fire Dave Grohl from Nirvana?
The death of Kurt Cobain will always be one of music’s greatest tragedies, brutally ending the life of a much-loved and widely influential figure. Naturally, it is inextricable from the end of Nirvana, as without their leader and driving force, they simply couldn’t exist. However, what many often overlook is that in a parallel universe where the frontman would have survived, the group would have likely split up anyway.
Protestations about pilfering from the Pixies aside, there can be no doubt that Cobain and Nirvana changed the direction of guitar music. With the release of the Nevermind lead single ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, they signalled the sound of the coming era. Its sonic character was unlike anything anyone had ever heard before, despite the band’s notable grunge and punk influences, and it found a listener base who were well primed for something fresh.
Nirvana were always a spiritually pure group. Although you might argue that everyone becomes a musician with the dream of hitting the big time, the level of success they experienced was so insane that it was more like the frenzy of Beatlemania than anything else. As punks at heart, in it for the love of the craft, who would have been quite happy being a cult band if Nevermind hadn’t hit, the level of superstardom they reached after their second album arrived was nothing but disturbing.
While their coffers were lined beyond all imagination, and each member became an undisputable legend, fame turned their personal lives upside down. As time wore on, fame would change the band’s internal relationships, particularly as drugs, mental health issues, and romantic relationships impacted what was once a free-flowing creative environment and a generally supportive one. Yet, after the release of Nevermind, things changed, and they would never return to the relative harmony of their pre-fame world.
While all band relationships were strained, the connection between Cobain and drummer Dave Grohl had hit the rocks a long time before the former’s tragic end. After the release of Nevermind, a dispute about royalties from ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ erupted, with Cobain ultimately taking more than Grohl and bassist Krist Novoselic. The rhythm section only accepted the status quo to keep the band going.
Later, at the end of 1993, when Cobain’s physical and mental health was on a stark downward spiral, things between him and Grohl got so bad that somehow, the frontman arrived at the position of wanting to fire the drummer. This was strange, as Grohl was so integral to the group that he ballasted all their success following the departure of Chad Channing, bringing real musical nouse to the fore.
Nirvana biographer Michael Azerrad revealed all in a piece he wrote for The New Yorker in 2021. He wrote: “Once, I stopped by Kurt’s hotel room when he started yelling that he wanted to fire Dave, unquestionably one of the great rock drummers, for being an unsubtle and unspontaneous musician. The thing was, Dave was staying in the room right next door. I hissed at Kurt, ‘He can hear!‘ ‘I don’t care!’ Kurt yelled back, more at the adjoining wall than at me. I was sure that Dave heard the whole thing.”
Years later, Grohl would reveal to his own biographer that he was already aware that Cobain wanted to oust him. He explained that he heard the frontman criticising his drumming from two rows behind him on a flight from Seattle to Los Angeles. When they landed, the drummer informed the band’s tour manager, Alex MacLeod, that he was quitting after their last scheduled show. He was eventually talked out of it. The wretched writing was on the wall anyway. Neither Cobain nor Nirvana had long left.
