Dave Grohl & Krist Novoselic Reflect On Kurt Cobain's Lyrics & Legacy | Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend

to be fair I got to point out the. reviews when the album came out. universally almost without exception. were glowing I mean people really the. the critics whatever that means to you. guys at the time thought it was fabulous. work bad review. sting I wouldn't. know never a bump in the road I hear an. echo um uh yes they do those fabled. electrical audio Acoustics is what. you're hearing.

yeah no but it's uh it. was it was appreciated uh when it came. out and of course one of the. difficulties is that once Kurt. died everybody had to go back and parse. through in utero and read lyrics like. their tea leaves leading you somewhere. and that feels like a recipe for. incredible and misunderstanding you.

can do it with sound garden lyrics. too but you. know yeah it's strange when we were. making the record we did all of the. instrumental tracks first I don't know. if Kurt sang any of the songs live it. was all just the three of us doing the. instrumental tracks first live in room. without really having ever. heard uh what Kurt was was going to sing.

or even how he was going to sing it like. his his Melodies and patterns that most. of these things I just listen to them as. instrumental so it was always exciting. like a mystery knowing like oh he's in. there singing this track today and. wondering what it was going to sound. like when he was finished and one of you. know one of. Kurt's U amazing abilities was not just. that he was a great Lyricist but he had. a really specific.

um kind of signature melodic turn of. phrase so he could he he always braided. really two simple lines together I think. in a way that um was almost. unpredictable and he would go from like. maybe a gentle voice to a scream or. maybe a minor key to a major but he. would do it in this way that was like. really beautifully patterned which I. always thought was really cool and.

really simple ultimately most everything. that he did I thought was simple but. really smart you know anyway so you. would hear these things as they came. back and you would hear um for the first. time his melodic idea but also the the. lyric and. um every time you would hear every time. I would hear it for the first time I'd. think that's just that's just odd that's. unusual ual it's a it's a.

weird uh what a strange thing to say. what does that mean but as the drummer. of course I'm like did I slow down. in the chorus no my kick drums too. you know it's I still to this day if I. listen to that record I'll find things. or I'll feel things that I didn't. necessarily feel 25 years ago um not. just in light of everything that had. happened but um but of course that you. know everything that did happen can.

you know kind of screw the lens a little. bit or distort maybe what it felt like. before and what it feels like now. um yeah I mean. I I think it's a slippery slope it's. easy to to look back at that stuff and. yep there's there's a thing that people. don't give Kurt credit for enough which. is. that like a lot of people think of his.

lyrical sensibility as just being a. journal of his feelings right he was an. artist and he was incorporating stuff. from you know other things other. influences bands and records that he. admired stuff that he'd read like. literature there's a line in one of the. songs I think it's um most babies smell. like butter is that you know what I'm. talking about yeah and I was like what a. weird observation did you like smell a.

baby and like he just had a kid right. and and and I found out that that was a. a near direct quote from a book that he'. read about a guy who had this sort of. sensory experience of the world that was. abnormal andless Apprentice yeah sess. Apprentice a track on the on in utero. yeah and uh you know and then like he's. he's from Seattle and Francis Farmer is. a tragic figure a local person to the to.

Seattle area like a lot of lore involved. and there like there had been recently. come to light a lot of the sort of. manipulative stuff that had been done to. her uh during her career to try to. manage her career like you can see that. there are parallels there where there. you know like he may have been feeling. pressures from outside people trying to. manage his artistic expression for their. benefit and seeing a parallel between. his life and Francis Farmer's Life and. then using her as a figure like uh and.

it's such a great title for a song yeah. and that image of leaving a blanket of. Ash burn all the and leave a. blanket of Ash on the ground but uh and. also it felt like a little bit of a. reaction to read somewhere once I think. that there was so many just one name. songs uh and that Kurt was really. interested in like going the other way. so it's Francis Farmer will have her. revenge.

the ghost of Francis well we'll have her. revenge on Seattle just as this or at. the radio friendly you know shipping. unit what that these were attempts to. say I'm reacting to this cute moment. we're in where everything is just one. word and he was aware of that as a Trope. and he was playing and he played with it. he had there was the one song he wanted. to call gallons of rubbing alcohol roll. through the strip we had that jam yeah. we did that. and is there much he was he also wanted. to be.

he he didn't want to be like like be. dated or be put in like some kind of box. or something so he also was just. cryptic and and that allowed people to. just invite people in to make their own. interpretation of it then if you look at. his other forms of expression like Steve. said like Kurt was an artist and he was. he was a great painter he was a sculptor. he would do um comic books and he's more. than happy to walk you through every. panel of like a comic he did like and um.

and they were always just tragic figures. the people and they were or just weird. like writhing Spirit Apparition kind of. everything was just kind of strange and. dark and weird but then still but very. well done you know be beautiful very you. know done done very well so that was. when he was expressing himself. musically is that you know in in ueros. that's it's all over in utero you know I.

can go anywhere in the. world walk anywhere in the. world anywhere and see someone walking. down the street in a Nirvana T-shirt and. I was I mean we're here in Chicago we. were walking last night to go get a bite. to eat saw someone in a Nirvana T-shirt. but I mean I could be. in you know I could be on Guam and just. see someone randomly walk by in a. Nirvana T-shirt and what what always. strikes me about these moments is that. but there's this massive projection that.

happens which is um Nirvana Legend Kurt. it all gets prismed out it gets so huge. and then I talk to you guys and he's. your. friend that you knew intimately you guys. were very. close. and it's all become so much bigger there. are people out there that have opinions. strong opinions about he was and what he.

meant and what you guys. meant and it must just seem surreal to. you at times like no no no that was our. that was our friend there was three of. us we were in this we were in a van. together and it has now. become. um this IMX projection on the world when. my kids sometime will ask me let's say. uh my daughter Harper and I were driving. in the car not long long ago 6 months.

ago and a Nirvana song came on and we. don't listen to Nirvana at home. um this Nirvana song comes on she's. singing along to the words and I'm. thinking wow that's weird I've never. heard her listen to a Nirvana song how. does she know a Nirvana song and she. says. um she said Dad how old were you when. you made this. song so God I think I was like. 22 maybe she goes oh uh how old was Kurt.

I said I think his year is maybe like 23. 24 she goes what was he. like and I say well he was he really. nice was kind of. shy um sometimes quiet but he was. cool get super pissed off yeah but she. says well um he was shy was he shy. around people that he knew or people. that he didn't know and I said well the. kind of a little bit of of both and she.

said God that's so strange that someone. who feels shy like that that could write. these songs and sing them for everyone. to hear and then stand on stage in front. of a 100,000 people and play them I. thought that was so cool because I think. she wasn't looking so much at that other. thing y she was looking at the person. right and you know after Nirvana was. over. that that curtain got sort of like sort.

of pulled away so it changed the way I. thought about every other mythological. rock star that I'd ever followed in my. entire life and it really made me. realize oh. they were an actual human being we. talked like they're playing cards or. something like that but they're just. people.