Kris Novoselic Explains What Really Happened At The ‘92 VMA’s



In honor of the one year anniversary of his first posted column for the Seattle Weekly, former Nirvana and Flipper bassist and the tallest musician to remain relatively unnoticed after his rise to fame, Kris Novoselic is dishing the dirt on what “really” happened at the infamous 1992 MTV Video Music Awards (back then called the Music Video Awards). From “Rape Me” to Axl Rose, it’s all in there. He begins…


Nirvana showed up for the production of the awards show early in the day at UCLA, west of Hollywood. The show was in the sports arena, and there were mobile houses set up for the performers off an athletic field.

We settled into our trailer. In the music world, you show up on time only to wait around a lot. Why not have a beer to take the edge off? Instead of a cold, sudsy treat, I found cans of warm cheap beer. Arg! Might as well let it cool down in the mini-fridge for a while.

I walked around and checked out the stage area. Other bands were showing up. I said hello to the fellows in Pearl Jam and the Black Crowes. Sammy Hagar said hi. There was Howard Stern in a suit made to let his bare buttocks hang out.

I eventually made it to the food service area, where Kurt and Courtney were at a table with their newborn daughter, Frances. They told me that Axl Rose had walked by and Courtney started teasing him. She yelled, “Axl, Axl — you’re the godfather!” Upon hearing this, Axl apparently got very annoyed, walked over to Kurt, and demanded that he keep his woman in line. Kurt turned to Courtney and sarcastically asked his woman to keep in line and left it at that. Axl then split. Of course, Kurt and Courtney were musing over Axl’s response in the context of society’s patriarchal tendencies. My thought was that Rose shouldn’t have gotten bent out of shape. He should have walked over and asked to kiss the baby or something!

At the same time, Kurt wanted to play the tune “Rape Me” and was adamant about it. The MTV people were upset. We were being asked from all corners not to. I thought we should play something off Nevermind, do the gig, and leave. Easy, right? No. Kurt was very stubborn and refused to play another tune. There was quite a swirl around this issue.

Read the rest of Kris’ story here.

Nirvana
Kris Novoselic

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