What’s going on my fellow rock n’ rollers. Don’t forget to hit the bell notification
icon to be notified every time I put out a new video on my channel. Whenever band’s
break up or fall apart or members pass away, it seems like after the mourning period, attention
always turns to unreleased material. And probably one of the more recent examples I can think
of include Soundgarden’s battle with Chris Cornell’s ex-wife over unreleased material,
but back in the early 2000 there was a bitter legal battle that ensued over the last song
Nirvana recorded. What happened? Stay tuned to find out.
9 years after the release of Nirvana’s last studio album In Utero, fans were finally rewarded
with a new song titled “You Know You’re Right”. Released on the band’s greatest
hits collection that came out in october of 2002, the road to release the song was a long
ugly one that even involved U2’s Bono
"You Know You're Right" was written in 1993 and years prior to it’s release fans only
knew about the song from a bootlegged live version that was recorded by Nirvana on october
23, 1993 at a show in Chicago. Even Kurt Cobain’s wife Courtney Love performed the song during
her band Hole’s MTV Unplugged performance in february of 1995. Nirvana would record
the song in late January at Robert Lang Studios in Seattle approximately 2 months before Kurt
Cobain would die.
The song would soon enough become the center of a legal dispute between the surviving members
of Nirvana including drummer Dave Grohl, bassist Krist Noaselic and Cobain’s widow Courtney
Love. The dispute arose over how to release the song. There was talk in 2001 of releasing
a massive compilation box set to honor the 10th anniversary of Nevermind and include
the song on the box set. The box set was to be made up of 45-tracks that would have been
compiled by Novoselic, . But in June of that year, Love filed suit and blocked it’s release.
So why did Courtney Love want to stop the song from being released on the box set? Well
Love’s suit alleged that the song was would have been "wasted" on a box set and would
be better-suited to a single-disc collection similar to The Beatles' 1. Her lawsuit called
the song a "potential 'hit' of extraordinary artistic and commercial value," and her manager
claimed that a release with the song could sell upwards of 15 million copies.Novoselic
responded claiming: "I've always considered everything she said. We've considered it and
agreed and said, 'Hey, that's a great idea, Courtney.' I tried to get along with Courtney
as best I could, but there's only so much you can do." he’d say
And Love also sought exclusive ownership to Nirvana’s legacy trying to gain control
over any unreleased material. Grohl and Novaselic would countersue and claimed that the box
set they had been working on was in the works for 5 years already and only recently Love
changed her mind at the last minute.
The legal battle got so ugly that as part of Love’s lawsuit she was trying to dissolve
the Nirvana partnership claiming that Nirvana was a one-man show, Love claimed that the
band "could never be a partnership because it was in the living manifestation of the
creative vision, personal will and life force of a single unique individual.” Love also
insisted that Cobain had decided to break up Nirvana several months before his death
in 1994.
And the papers further allege that more than three years after Cobain's death, Grohl and
Novoselic took advantage of Love's grief and coerced her into signing their current partnership
agreement which gave the three equal control of Nirvana business. Since that time, she
says the pair have interfered with a Kurt Cobain movie, prevented new Nirvana releases,
and even threatened to destroy Nirvana recordings.
As for Love's comments on what Cobain thought of his band mates, and his plans to break
up the band, Novoselic says that they "dishonor Nirvana and dishonor the memory of her husband."
He also accuses her of distorting the facts about Kurt's life and death in interviews.
The bassist would also claim that he and Grohl have refrained from granting interviews on
the subject out of respect for Cobain and his family saying"Courtney offered up many
interviews on the topic of Kurt's life and death," interviews which he claimed contained
"glaring inaccuracies." In addition to that Novaselic and Grohl questioned love’s mental
state and asked for her to see a psychiatrist.
At one point Bono of U2 almost got involved as it was reported that he would testify as
a character witness for love when the case went to superior US court.
And by the following summer cooler heads would finally prevail and Novaselic and Grohl gave
into Courtney Love’s demands prior to the case going to a higher court and agreed to
release the song on a single disc release, which would be the group’s 2002 greatest
hits album.
Fans would hear the first studio recording of the song in November of 2001 when CourtneyLove
was interviewed by access hollywood and bits of the studio version of the song were played
in the background . Earlier in the year Love had also played the full song at a private
event in Hollywood in Los Angeles. Soon enough the Nirvana business partnership would have
to deal with another obstacle prior to the song’s release. In May of 2002, four additional
clips of the song would leaked online, with some claiming the source of the leak was it
appearing on advance CD copies of Grohl's heavy metal side project, Probot. Grohl would
come out and deny the claims, saying, "I have never copied any version of 'You Know You're
Right' for anyone. It has been rumored on the Internet that the song appeared on a CD
that had songs from my side project, Probot. No such CD exists.
On September 21, 2002, an unmastered MP3 full studio version of the song would be leaked
online. Immediately tons of alternative rock stations across America started playing the
song, which led to cease and desist letters being issued by the band’s label Geffen
Records. Some radio stations would comply with the cease and desist letter while others
would just ignore it . Several days after the leak, the popular Seattle radio station
107.7 The End posted a message on their website that announced, "We took your e-mails and
flooded the server at Geffen Records with tons of choice words about their 'You Know
You're Right' cease and desist order. Due to the huge publicity outcry, the label relented
on it’s letter and just simply released the track.
In late September of 2002, Love, Grohl and Novoselic would release a joint statement
announcing the end of the lawsuit and that the single" would arrive as "a one-CD history
of the band" titled Nirvana later that year. The song would be released as a single and
an accompanying music video consisting of live footage of the band would also be released.
The song would also be re-released in 2010 for Nirvana’s second greatest hits album
titled Icon. And the song would prove to be massive hit
becoming the band’s fourth song to enter the billboard hot 100 charts peaking at number
45. And it was the group’s fifth song to top the modern rock charts where it stayed
for one whole month. The song was also the group’s first track to top the billboard
mainstream rock charts with their previous highest position being number 3 with their
singles come as you are which came out in april of 1992 and about a girl which was released
in december of 1994 from the band’s mtv unplugged show That does it for today’s
video guys thanks for watching. Be sure to hit the like button and subscribe. And if
you have suggestions for future topics let me know in the comments section below. Take
care.