When “Weird Al” Yankovic started working on his seventh album, Off the Deep End, in 1990, his career wasn’t in the best place. Neither his 1989 film, UHF, nor its soundtrack did well financially, and the songwriter was in desperate need of a hit. Having parodied Michael Jackson successfully in the past with “Eat It” and “Fat,” he recorded a parody of Jackson’s “Black or White” entitled “Snack All Night.” Due to the serious nature of the original song, Jackson wasn’t comfortable with it, and Yankovic’s version was scrapped.
Enter Nirvana. “I was such a fan of the band,” Yankovic said during a 2012 retrospective with SPIN. “I heard Nevermind and I thought, ‘Oh this is really great. I wish it were popular enough for me to do a parody…but that’s never going to happen!’” Before long, Yankovic’s wish came true, and he got right to work on “Smells Like Nirvana,” a parody of the band’s breakthrough hit, “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” The song would be his most successful song since “Eat It” was released in 1984. There was just one hurdle to overcome: getting in touch with the band’s singer and songwriter, Kurt Cobain, to receive his permission.
When Yankovic reached Cobain by phone, the Nirvana singer had one question about his use of the song. “He thought the song was going to be about food because at that time, my songs were about eating,” Yankovic told VICE in 2014. “He was just trying to figure out what I was going to do with his music. I told him that it was going to be a song about how nobody can understand your lyrics. And he was like, ‘Yeah, that’s funny.’”
While answering questions for a Reddit AMA a few years back, Yankovic revealed that he had another interaction with Cobain after the release of his “Smells Like Teen Spirit” parody. “I met Kurt Cobain in person a few months after my parody came out,” he wrote. “We were both eating in the same restaurant in L.A., and I noticed him at a nearby table with some friends. I timidly went over and thanked him profusely for letting me do ‘Smells Like Nirvana,’ and told him I was now obligated to do any favor that he wished. He turned his head and extended his hand, and said, ‘Polish my nails.’ I loved that guy.”
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