When Nirvana rose to fame quickly after Nevermind, there was often talk about selling out, that the band had become too mainstream. This, of course, leads into the commentary about how capitalism hijacked grunge and drained it of all its counterculture cred.
At the time, the focus was often narrowed to Nirvana as the sell-outs of the genre. The consensus: once they put your band logo on a t-shirt, it’s basically over for you. But Kurt Cobain was often fighting those sell-out allegations, defending his band when those questions came around.
While speaking with Much Music in 1993, Cobain touched on the fact that he and Nirvana were often slammed in the press. Notably, the fact that they were at the level of needing to take legal action against libel on some occasions. When did Nirvana realize they would need a team “to protect you from the vultures?”
Kurt Cobain On Nirvana Selling Out, Needing Legal Protection, and How He’d Prefer To Deal With Negative Press
Cobain laughed, “Too late!” He then continued, “Y’know, [we realized] much after the fact. After we’d already been damaged to the point where it almost didn’t do any good, y’know? It was just a weird realization one day … And I can see how rock and roll stars will almost compromise their music to make sure they sell the same amount of records next year, because they spent all their money on lawyers and protecting themselves last year.”
The interview with Much Music took place in 1993, around the time In Utero was released. In comparison, Nevermind was a much more commercially successful album for Nirvana, and Kurt Cobain noted this. He then built off of his comment about rock stars having to sell out to recoup legal fees.
“I mean, we obviously haven’t done that,” he said. “I don’t know, maybe you might not have noticed, but the record isn’t as commercial as the last one.”
While Nevermind may have been what catapulted Nirvana to the mainstream, In Utero wasn’t a failed record by any means. As Cobain stated, they simply didn’t compromise their artistic vision just to make money.
“We could never bring ourselves to do that,” he said. “I’d rather just laugh about it … I know that I’m too stubborn to allow myself to ever compromise our music. Or get so wrapped up in it, or involved to where it’s going to turn us into big rock stars. I mean, I just don’t feel like that!”
Cobain continued, “Everyone else accuses us of it, but we’re not as popular as everyone thinks, and we’re not as rich as everyone thinks! We’ve always had a good sense of humor; I don’t think that’s been translated very well. But we’d rather laugh about it.”
The post Nirvana Frontman Kurt Cobain Defended His Band Against the Idea of Selling Out in 1993: ‘I’d Rather Just Laugh About It’ appeared first on VICE.
