Everybody Loves Our Town_ An Oral History of Grunge - Mark Yarm [124]
NICK TERZO My biggest problem trying to sign Nirvana to Columbia was I didn’t have Sonic Youth. Kurt cared about Sonic Youth and being where Sonic Youth was. I remember getting the call at Christmas that they had signed to somebody else. That was not a good Christmas gift.
DAN PETERS After I played with Nirvana, Jonathan told me that Mark Pickerel was quitting the Screaming Trees. And I was like, “Well, hell, I got some time. I love the Screaming Trees.”
MARK PICKEREL The band dynamics had just become so complicated. My then-girlfriend Jana, who was in Dickless, was equally complicated and demanding of my time and energy, and she wasn’t happy about all the touring. I wasn’t happy about all the touring. I was having a harder time finding my place in the band because it was already hard enough as a drummer to exert much creativity in the group. And when we got signed to Sony, I found that it wasn’t just band members that I was having debates with anymore, it was management, it was people at Sony.
I’m only just starting to admit that now, that I left the band partly because of a relationship. Although the band may have suspected it, at the time I told them that it was for other reasons.
DAN PETERS Then I got a call: “Hey, I hear you might be interested in playing with us.” And I was like, “Yeah.” And he just kind of laughs, and I’m like, “Well, who the fuck is this? Are you fuckin’ with me?” I had to ask him a couple of times. And eventually he’s like, “It’s Lanegan.” Mark’s a funny guy. He was probably flippin’ me shit.
GARY LEE CONNER Then we had the tour with Dan Peters, which started off with the big wreck. We had two vans instead of one, so it was slightly more luxurious. Mark and our two road guys were in the equipment van because Mark wanted to be by himself. We did one or two shows, we’re driving through Wyoming, and it was early spring, but there was black ice on the road. We were ahead of him, and the van flipped over a bunch of times, all the way from one side of the freeway, through the median, to the other side.
We thought they were gone, all dead. Considering how bad it looked, it was a miracle no one got seriously injured. The van was history, but everyone came out fairly unscathed. Mark did not get injured, but he sure was traumatized, apparently.
I think the band kept him sober, because he had something to keep him going, as a distraction or whatever. On the surface, it looked like the crash changed that. We got to Chicago a couple of days later, and apparently Mark started drinking, and that lasted for I don’t know how many years.
DAN PETERS But by the time we hit Chicago, Lanegan started drinking again. I went to the store with Van and Mark, and Mark walks over to the beer cooler and pulls out three Foster’s oilcan beers. I kind of laughed, and he was like, “What?” And I’m like, “What are you doing?”
He goes, “I’m going to drink these.” I’m like, “Really? Well, I’ll get some, as well.” We went back to the hotel and drank some Foster’s.
GARRETT SHAVLIK The Fluid were playing in Chicago at Lounge Ax, and I went to see the Trees, who were playing a matinee show at the Cubby Bear. Mark got notorious for this shit—he’d get onstage and sing like two songs and throw the mic down and walk off.
GARY LEE CONNER Das Damen was opening for us. We played one or two songs, and Mark, I don’t know if he just freaked out, but he said his voice went out. He left the stage, and we ended up playing the rest of the show jamming with the guys from Das Damen. So that was the beginning of a little bit of nastiness.
GARRETT SHAVLIK I followed Lanegan and said, “What the fuck is wrong with you, man? These guys are bleeding without you.”
“My throat’s fucked up, Tidbit.