The classic album Slash said was the “only one of its kind”
While Guns N’ Roses and Nirvana were billed as rivals, Slash never held animosity towards the Seattle grunge group. Even though their two singers were embroiled in a heated feud that escalated into violence, Slash always respected Nirvana from a musical perspective.
Former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl performed with Guns N’ Roses during their headline set at Glastonbury 2023. However, when Grohl’s old band were asked to support the 1980s rockers on tour, they declined in no uncertain terms. At the time, Guns N’ Roses were the biggest band on the planet, and Nirvana were still on their ascent to superstardom, but the offer wasn’t entertained.
Cobain once distilled his opinion of Guns N’ Roses into one sentence and explained why Nirvana couldn’t be compared with them, stating: “We’re not your typical Guns N’ Roses type of band that has absolutely nothing to say”.
His comments angered Axl Rose, who responded: “I only like you guys, Nirvana, Jane’s Addiction, and two other bands, and all of you hate me. Why do you hate me? It’s like I went away and came back home to find you guys fucked my wife.”
On the other hand, Slash stayed away from the public war of words and appreciated Nirvana from afar, especially their second album, Nevermind. However, during a later interview with Kerrang, he explained why he found it frustrating that his band was constantly associated with Nirvana, and they couldn’t co-exist independently.
He said: “It was kinda lame that music writers at the start of the ’90s could only create an identity for the Seattle bands by setting them up as anti-Guns N’ Roses. I know writers like to consider the whole ‘birth of grunge’ as the death knell for Guns.”
The media frenzy doesn’t detract from his opinion on Nirvana and the Butch Vig-produced Nevermind. Following Cobain’s tragic death, Slash participated in an MTV documentary mourning the loss of the singer, praising his impact, and discussing the album he considered Nirvana’s finest body of work.
“I thought the guy was brilliant, it’s a loss but at the same time was probably inevitable that he did what he did but he wrote some great stuff,” he said during the broadcast. Slash added: “Nevermind was just a great record. It was the only one of its kind, they were a very unique band with a great sound. It doesn’t need to be overanalysed.”
Despite their differences and Cobain’s disdain for his group, Slash didn’t let that cloud his perspective of Nirvana, who he considered to be unlike any other band in history. Similar to Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite For Destruction a few years prior, Nevermind was an underground sound that caught the attention of the masses and became bigger than they ever anticipated.
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