Political organizer, pilot, and the possible reincarnation of a comedy
legend. Krist Novoselic has certainly kept busy since his days playing bass for Nirvana.
Krist Novoselic spent the bulk of 1980 in Croatia, his parents' place of origin. According
to AllMusic, it was there that he discovered bands like the Sex Pistols and the Ramones. Inspired by
the punk rock sound, he saved up money and bought a guitar when he returned to the United States.
Living in Aberdeen, Washington as a teenager in the mid-1980s,
Novoselic's little brother introduced him to a fellow musician named Kurt Cobain. The pair
had a lot of friends in common, but mainly bonded over their shared love for punk rock,
and the local punk band the Melvins in particular.
According to Michael Azerrad's "Come As You Are:
The Story of Nirvana," Cobain persisted in asking Novoselic to form a band with him,
but the latter wasn't interested. He finally acquiesced, but neither member of the band got
serious about the project until they learned that the Melvins could command $80 for a gig.
Big money to them in those days, the duo formed a band called the Sellouts
and performed Creedence Clearwater Revival covers. After going through some changes
in terms of sound, approach, and names, that project would eventually evolve into
one of the most influential rock outfits of all time: Nirvana.
MTV likes to market its annual Video Music Awards as one of the most unpredictable and
dangerous nights of the year, an event where the music industry's current best and brightest
come out to perform, receive trophies, and act up for the live television cameras.
Nirvana happily embraced the event's raucous ethos at the 1992 Video Music Awards,
bringing a tough, gritty, and frenetic punk-inspired style to the proceedings.
Toward the end of Nirvana's rendition of their hit "Lithium," Krist Novoselic
tossed his instrument high into the air, a bit that was a common — if
hazardous — element of his usual stage antics, according to drummer Dave Grohl.
Usually, he caught it, but not that night. In front of a packed theater and a live TV audience,
Novoselic bobbled the catch, and the bass came down on his face. The blow
knocked him to the ground and left him dazed and hobbling around the stage.
"And afterwards everyone's coming up to me 'Where's Krist? Where's Krist? Where's Krist?' I'm
like 'I don't know what's wrong?' 'Dude, he knocked himself out with the bass.'"
Grohl was too busy playing the drums to know what was going on, but when he got backstage,
there was already a frenzied search for Novoselic underway. When Grohl finally found his bandmate,
the bassist was conscious, and seemingly alright. In fact, Grohl found him drinking
champagne with Queen guitarist Brian May, one of the presenters of the evening.
After the death of frontman Kurt Cobain,
Nirvana immediately broke up. As the band's surviving members, Dave Grohl
and Krist Novoselic laid low for a while. The pair opted to focus on their personal lives,
rather than trying to figure out their next steps musically. Grohl told Rolling Stone:
"Krist and I kept in touch, and we would get together and talk,
make sure we were each doing OK."
About a year after the dissolution of Nirvana,
Grohl launched his follow-up band, Foo Fighters. While assembling the group,
he reached out to Nirvana's occasional second guitarist, Pat Smear, to participate.
Grohl also seriously considered adding Novoselic to the first Foo Fighters lineup. He explained:
"We talked about it, and then it just didn't happen. For Krist and I,
it would have felt really natural and really great, but for everyone else,
it would have been weird [...] I really would have been under the microscope."
Novoselic didn't wind up joining Foo Fighters, and Grohl brought in Nate Mendel,
formerly of Sunny Day Real Estate, to handle bass duties instead.
Of the former members of Nirvana, Dave Grohl has remained the most prominent musically.
While Grohl has fronted Foo Fighters through a dozen albums, Novoselic has also released
a slew of music over the decades, mainly with more low-key sounding bands and indie
rock collectives. The first of the five projects Novoselic has been in after Nirvana was Sweet 75.
According to AllMusic, the project formed out of a collaboration between street singer
Yva Las Vegas and Novoselic. The group released one self-titled album in 1997.
By 2001, Novoselic had moved on to Eyes Adrift, a supergroup which included Curt
Kirkwood of the Meat Puppets and former Sublime drummer Bug Gaugh,
according to Rolling Stone. Like Sweet 75, Eyes Adrift only recorded one record.
According to LA Weekly, Novoselic spent part of the mid-2000s as a replacement member in Flipper,
an experimental San Francisco punk band that he'd loved as a teenager.
His next project was another supergroup, Filthy Friends, which included members of the Fastbacks,
Sleater-Kinney, and R.E.M, according to Northwest Music Scene. Most recently, Novoselic has devoted
his energies to Giants in the Trees, a band he formed near his home in rural Washington
state. Novoselic described this latest outfit's music as "forest grunge" to Portland Monthly.
Krist Novoselic is among the most notable and successful bass players in rock history.
In addition to bass, he's also made a name for himself as an accordion player. Seldom
used in contemporary hard rock, grunge, or punk, Novoselic's accordion even made it into Nirvana
performances on occasion. Perhaps most famously, Novoselic jumped on the squeeze box during the
band's "MTV Unplugged" cover of the Vaselines' song, "Jesus Don't Want Me For a Sunbeam."
In 2014 his organization, FairVote, released a video of Novoselic playing
a medley of Beatles songs on the accordion. Even more recently,
he's trotted out the instrument for performances with Giants in the Trees.
While Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic mutually decided against joining up
to play in Foo Fighters, the two musicians have reunited for a number of projects since.
Novoselic contributed to the 2011 Foo Fighters album "Wasting Light," and according to NME,
the duo collaborated with Paul McCartney for a 2012 benefit concert. That same year, Novoselic,
Grohl, and Pat Smear also tracked the single "Cut Me Some Slack" with the former Beatle.
"We wanted to do a new song. So we wrote
and recorded a new song in a day. And it's heavy as BLEEP!"
When Nirvana was Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014,
Grohl and Novoselic performed Nirvana songs with guests like Kim Gordon, Annie Clark,
and Joan Jett stepping in for the late Kurt Cobain.
Beyond those historic reunions, the members of Nirvana still get together privately to
play music together nearly 30 years after the official dissolution of the group.
"Every once in a while, me and Krist and Dave get together and we do play as if we're Nirvana."
Not long after the end of Nirvana in the mid-1990s,
Krist Novoselic dove headlong into his other passion: politics and community
organization. In 1995, he founded and served as president of JAMPAC,
or the Joint Artists and Musicians Political Action Committee. Novoselic told MTV News:
"It's a political advocacy group for musicians, fans, people who work within the music industry."
JAMPAC had numerous supporters who helped raise funds and awareness for economic and social issues
facing musicians — particularly music labeling and censorship — in the U.S. and Europe. Some notable
contributors to the foundation include Pearl Jam, Sky Cries Mary, Bjork, and Foo Fighters.
In 2005, Novoselic joined the board of directors of FairVote, an electoral reform organization.
FairVote seeks to make democratic voting in the U.S. more open, more accessible,
and more reflective of the population's beliefs by way of widespread adoption of
the ranked-choice election style. Novoselic became the organization's chair in 2008.
"Isn't it better to have a bunch of people to choose from, and decide who you like best?"
"We're Americans and we like to have choice."
In 2004, Krist Novoselic published his first book. "Of Grunge and Government: Let's Fix
This Broken Democracy!" is a reflective piece about what Novoselic learned about governance
and politics after focusing on those subjects in the decade after his run as Nirvana's bassist.
The book is partially a memoir of Novoselic's musical and non-musical adult life, but also
hones in on what reforms and changes need to happen in the United States to ensure fair,
legitimate, and sensible election results.
He's especially into the idea of instant runoff elections,
finding like-minded cohorts at organizations like the Grange or the Elks, and harnessing the
energy generated by protests into crafting legislation and governmental policies.
Novoselic continued to write about political matters as a columnist and
blogger for Seattle Weekly, an alternative newspaper, from 2007 to 2012. He also
contributes think-pieces to contemporary outlets online, such as Democracy SOS.
Krist Novoselic has actively involved himself in politics, both at a national level with his
advocacy and electoral reform organizations, and locally in his home community in Washington state.
After decades of political engagement, he supports a wide array of political
ideologies. Since his days growing up on the west coast in the 1980s,
Novoselic's political views have largely evolved. Krist told Rolling Stone:
"I was politicized in high school. I had an open mind and didn't really care for
Reagan. I cut my teeth on radical punk rock [...] Those were the few anti-Reagan voices
at the time, especially if you were in Aberdeen and were 18 years old."
"Wow." "Oh, my God, lobotomy patients for Reagan!"
Long associated with liberal causes and viewpoints, it was confusing to some fans when,
in 2020, Novoselic expressed support for President Donald Trump and his outspoken behavior during the
Black Lives Matter and anti-police brutality protests following the death of George Floyd.
In response to the then-president's proclamation that he was considering
the use of the U.S. Armed Forces to quell protests, Krist wrote on Facebook,
"Trump knocked it out of the park with this speech. Most Americans
want peace in their communities and President Trump spoke to this desire."
Two days later, Novoselic clarified his remarks, identifying himself as a, quote,
"avowed independent" who doesn't support any particular candidate or party. He added:
"And it feels insane to have to say this, but I don't support fascism,
and I don't support an authoritarian state."
At his core, it would seem that Krist Novoselic is as much a family man as he is a musician and
political scientist. According to The Olympian, in the early days of Nirvana,
Novoselic married rock photographer Shelli Dilley, who he'd been dating since high school.
The couple divorced in 1999, and a few years later, Novoselic married
an artist with whom he's had several children. According to the Seattle Times,
he and his wife settled into a compound in Deep River in southwest Washington state. The
location allows the musician to pursue one of his major interests: flying a small airplane.
He converted an abandoned creamery near his working farm into a recording studio,
not far from his stable of animals, which includes a horse, an alpaca, and a goat. Novoselic is a
leader in the local farm-based economy and community, and was elected the master of the
Grays River Grange fraternal organization, where he leads meetings and organizes service projects.
According to the New York Times, performance artist and experimental comedian Andy Kaufman
privately told friends, family, and colleagues that he planned to
one day fake his own death and re-emerge later, having staged the ultimate put-on.
By all accounts, Kaufman died of cancer in 1984, according to The Hollywood Reporter,
leaving behind decades of rumor and speculation that the comedian staged
his demise and will one day publicly emerge. Even his brother, Michael Kaufman, believed it,
claiming that the "Taxi" star was alive and well – as of 2013 – and wished to escape fame.
Others think that Kaufman still walks among the world,
more or less in full view, under a different identity. Could Kaufman,
for example, have changed his name to "Krist Novoselic" and played bass in Nirvana?
As one Twitter user points out, the two men bear a striking resemblance. Years earlier,
a Nirvana-era concert review in Circus pointed made the same observation,
suggesting that Novoselic looked, quote, "like Andy Kaufman reincarnated."
It's a theory that even Novoselic himself entertained, and at least
jokingly perpetuated. During an interview,
Novoselic admitted he once attempted to gain entry to a New York nightclub by claiming:
"I'm Andy Kaufman! I was in 'Taxi'!"