Dave Grohl on why Krist Novoselic embodied Nirvana: “Something weird”
When Nirvana first broke onto the scene, no one could have predicted they would become one of the biggest names in music. Kurt Cobain may have been able to write some catchy tunes, but the minute that ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ took over the airwaves, kids were reacting to it like they would a social movement, willing to stomp out any hair band that came up afterwards. While Cobain was the key to all of Nirvana’s greatest moments, Dave Grohl felt that the true soul of the band lay in Krist Novoselic.
Then again, it’s hard to really discount anything that Cobain did during their time together. He was both the heart and the brains of the band rolled into one person, and as much as he experienced internal pain, his way of channelling that angst and aggression into his music is why people related to him a lot better than they did to Axl Rose.
But if Cobain had continued down that road, Nirvana would have just been a glorified solo act with a bunch of nameless musicians behind him. And when listening to Novoselic’s basslines, he was anything but a hired hand from the minute that they debuted on the scene with 1989’s Bleach.
Outside of helping Cobain out when he was homeless, Novoselic always had a quirky side to his bass playing that jumped out before anything else. Right from the opening notes of ‘Love Buzz’, he was already putting himself out front, and listening to everything from ‘Lounge Act’ to ‘Heart Shaped Box’, he was never afraid to throw something strange into the mix as long as it served the song.
More than anything, Novoselic brought some much-needed levity to every interview they gave. Cobain was known to wear his heart on his sleeve most of the time, so when people got used to Novoselic’s lovable stoner persona, it was impossible to argue with them being one of the most personable acts of the modern age.
Even years after Nirvana ended, Grohl still felt that Novoselic stood for everything the band wanted to be, saying, “Krist embodies what Nirvana was about. He hasn’t changed a lick. If you’ve met Krist and you’ve had a dose of his wickedly offbeat humour and his ‘eccentric’ lifestyle, you have a better understanding of what Nirvana was all about. It was never a conventional rock band. It was something…weird.”
But even after Cobain’s death, not even Novoselic could hold back his feelings anymore. Just look at the way that the surviving members picked up their MTV Award for ‘Heart Shaped Box’ following Cobain’s death. Grohl, always the quiet member, is doing the talking for everyone, and the happy-go-lucky look in Novoselic’s eyes is just gone.
That didn’t mean that he lost his touch behind the bass, though, with ‘I Should Have Known’ by Foo Fighters featuring the heaviest performance that he ever gave. Yes, Cobain gave every Nirvana song its skeleton, but Novoselic was the one fleshing everything out and putting the soul into it.
