Nirvana Producer Remembers The Weird Moment He Lived With Kurt Cobain
The American musician/producer Butch Vig, also known as the drummer of the alternative rock band Garbage, spoke to BBC 6 Music and recalled the successful musician Kurt Cobain‘s intense mood swings during the recording process of the band’s “Nevermind” album.
When he was talking about his first impressions of the band members, Butch said he thought they were great.
He said: “Well, the first time I met the band, Dave had not joined the band yet, Chad was on drums and they drove in from Seattle to Smart Studios in Madison to record what was supposed to be an album for Sub Pop.
“I think we had six or seven days scheduled, and I thought they were just amazing. They were really genial and funny and engaging and, you know, it was kind of a rough session because they were tired from doing gigs, and Kurt’s voice was already tired just from playing every night.”
While he talks on the legendary musician Kurt Cobain, he described his weird behaviors as “intense mood swings.”
“The tricky thing was that I had to realize that Kurt had these intense mood swings and that you never knew when he was just going to sort-of disappear into his own head.
“And the first day, I remember we were getting ready to record and then Kurt just put his guitar down, he went and sat in the corner; and I said, ‘Are you OK? Do you need anything?’
“And Krist pulled me aside and said, ‘It’s OK, he just gets in these funky moments here, we just got to leave him alone and he’ll come out of it.’ And sure enough, like, about an hour and a half later, Kurt just got up, picked up his guitar and said, ‘Let’s go’ – and we recorded.”
He touched the Krist‘s sense of humor and said Kurt was not always happy with the drumming of Chad, who is the drummer of the band at that time.
“I had to sort-of learn how to deal with that but, yeah, they were amazing. Krist just had a funny sense of humor and there was some tension in that session because Kurt was not particularly always happy with Chad’s drumming, and I could just see and feel that tension building.
“So six months later, I think, he was out of the band and that’s when they asked Dave Grohl to join.”
Kurt Cobain passed away at the age of 27.
Nirvana‘s second studio album “Nevermind” released on September 24, 1991, and recorded from April 1990 to May 1991.
