[Rock music plays]
- How you doing? I’m John Norris, and
this is the Week In Rock.
Last week, Seattle's favorite sons, Nirvana,
returned home for their first concert since last fall
before 15,000 at Seattle's Coliseum.
The band talked at length with MTV News
before the show about their success,
the present-day Seattle music scene,
and Kurt Cobain displayed his talents as a new dad.
Here's a look.
- [Kurt] It's time to burp.
- [Dave] Aw, look at those beautiful blue eyes.
- [Interviewer] Can you move the mic and
see if you can get a good burp out of her?
- [Dave] Yeah, see if you can burp her.
- [Kurt belching]
- [Dave laughing]
- [Krist] She's gonna watch this in years to come.
- Look, she's blushing. - [Krist] Thanks, Dad.
- She's blushing. - Look at the little flippers.
- [Dave laughing]
- [Nirvana playing music]
- [Interviewer] I wanna ask you, first of all, what it feels like to
come home to Seattle after this —
You’re, like, this pseudo-prodigal band.
Like, what's this like?
- I don’t know, I saw Sammy Hagar here about 10 years ago.
No, probably even longer than that,
I was in seventh grade.
Yeah. It's quite a reception.
- We're gonna walk on stage to Sammy Ha—
or to Ozzy Osbourne’s —
[Sings “Mama, I'm Coming Home”]
And there's gonna be people waving their arms, and
we're gonna come down off, like, clouds and
gently land onstage.
- [Crowd cheering]
- [Kurt] Wow.
You know, I saw Sammy Hagar here about 10 years ago.
- [Dave] And Krist was booted outta here about a year ago.
- Oh, yeah! You're banned for life here.
- [Dave] Yeah.
- You got in trouble at the Sonic Youth show, didn’t you?
- [Dave] Krist's face is on a Polaroid picture
in the office, “Banned for life.”
- [Krist] You blew my cover!
- [Interviewer] Are you glad that Nirvana's back in town?
- Yeah, sure! That’s —
Yeah, it's pretty cool.
- It's pretty strange to see them on TV.
- Yeah.
- Since we rode big wheels with them.
- Yeah, we rode big wheel with Kurt.
- [Interviewer] OK, what do you think?
Nirvana's back home.
- It's gonna be great! - We're ready for it.
We've been waiting so long. - Seattle!
- [Interviewer] Alright!
- There's no other music like Seattle music.
- That's right! - Nirvana, Helmet...
- [Interviewer] You're playing with Nirvana tonight.
Tell me how that feels.
- It's definitely the biggest place we've ever played,
and there's lots of plastic seats,
and the drums sound incredibly large,
but I think it's great that —
the exposure these bands have
gotten in Seattle and stuff,
and they’re certainly
flipping the sort of commercial music world upside down.
It couldn't be seen as a bad thing at all.
- [Interviewer] Did you guys ever think the Seattle scene
would ever have [this much success]?
- Um, I don’t know.
We were hoping it wouldn't, actually.
It's gotten a bit outta hand, you know?
- We were in Portland yesterday.
We played with, like, Calamity Jane and Poison Idea.
There was some, like, performance art going on down there,
and it just kind of —
Portland's kind of a sister city,
Northwest city with Seattle,
and it just seems so much more unadultered and real.
Made me feel good.
It made me feel kind of whimsical, too,
of what was once in Seattle, now lost forever.
- We've lived in Washington our whole lives.
We're not just these people that move out here,
“Oh, the Seattle, Washington scene…” - Yeah. And like, we’re not like those
poshy people, like, “Oh my God, there's Nirvana! Let's go!”
That's dumb. - You know, we're not like —
- With their little penny loafers and their little shirts, they’re like —
- These people that move up here
and start wearing flannel and say,
“Oh yes, I'm from Seattle. I’m cool.” - And like, “Nirvana sings like one song.”
“Oh, what is it called? I don't know.” - [Laughs]
- It's really dumb.
- There are a lot of really good bands around here that
don't get as much attention as Nirvana does,
and some that get a decent amount of attention,
like Soundgarden and Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains.
But there's like a ton of bands who are really, you know —
really aren't getting noticed at all,
like Seaweed and the Supersuckers and Gruntruck.
And, you know, it'd be kind of nice
if those guys got a little bit
of the attention Nirvana's getting,
'cause they are good.
- I like a Portland band, Sprinkler.
Saw them play at the Crocodile Cafe.
They were really good.
I like Tad a lot, Mudhoney. - Tad's great. Mudhoney, awesome.
- Well, the funny thing is that
the future of grunge music is now evolving
from Palm Springs, California. A band named Kyuss,
K-Y-U-S-S,
which is the album of 1992.
It's called ‘Blues for the Red Sun,’
and it cannot be beaten.
[Clapping]
[Electric guitar wailing]
[Crowd cheering]
[Guitar fiddling]
- Homecoming is kind of weird,
the Coliseum show.
- [Interviewer] Why's that?
- 'Cause it's so big, so many people. - [Laughs]
- [Interviewer] Would you rather see Nirvana in a small venue?
- Yeah! - [Interviewer] Tell me about it.
- Why? Well…
- Cause it's small. - It's small.
There's not as many people.
You can see them closer.
You can jump around.
Don't have to sit down.
- Like a year ago,
they were playing at the OK Hotel, which was small and a lot better,
but hey, they're making money. So, good luck to them.
- It's nice to be comfortable and not
worry about keeping the lights on, or —
I mean, that's — we had some pretty rough times
in the past, you know, and —
- I lived off of AMPM corn dogs,
for about, maybe about five or — - Almost a year?
- Or maybe a year. - I think we lived together
about nine months.
- Cause you can get three for 99 cents,
and you have one for lunch,
two for dinner, maybe.
- You know, just try to be humble
because this is not gonna last forever, you know,
a few more years, and just take what you can get,
and just kind of be a little frugal, and life goes on.
- It's good if they keep playing and don't change.
- Yeah. - But if they're gonna change their
music for the masses, then that's just stupid.
They might as well just quit.
- Yeah. - If they're gonna keep their own style,
then they should go for it.
Keep making the music.
- Rumor has it, they're gonna stop playing
and kind of break up, because they're getting too big.
And I don't know if that's such a good idea or not.
Why'd they even start playing if they didn't want to be big, you know?
But we'll see.
- You know, we chose not to promote [‘Nevermind’] anymore,
not to go on tour for the rest of the year.
I mean, we don't need any more press, you know?
And what press we've had has been pretty damaging.
That's why I've always chosen to, you know,
select what I do an interview with,
and that's why I don't do interviews very often.
It’s because I expect to be misquoted, you know?
Happens too often.
It's just, um —
it's been really damaging to us,
to tell you the truth.
It's really affected my personal life a lot.
- [Interviewer] And now, who else do we got here?
- This is my sister-in-law, my brother,
it’s his wife, Joan.
- This is our son, Eric.
- [Interviewer] Let me ask mom first.
You got son who's successful,
what do you think about it?
- Um, I have mixed emotions about it.
- [Interviewer] Why do you have mixed emotions?
- Because I'm glad that he made, you know,
enough of a success to make a living,
but some of it is too much for him, I think.
For all of us, really, it's a little overwhelming.
But I'm very proud of him [laughs].
- [Interviewer] What's it like to have him come home like this?
- Wonderful. I don't get enough hugs [laughs].
And his baby is beautiful.
- I'm just teaching her how to cuss and flip people off.
- [Laughs]
She's almost got it.
She's just gotta put all the other fingers down.
- Almost sucking her thumb, too.
Come on. Suck your thumb.
Suck your thumb.
- [Kurt] Come on, come on.
- [Interviewer] What's it like being a dad?
- Well, it's a bit wet.
- His nipples are really sore.
- [Laughs] - [Krist] Her eyes are really open.
- It's wonderful. It's great!